Page 55 - Packaging News Magazine Nov-Dec2020

DECADES IN REVIEW | PKN 60 YEARS SPECIAL
55
IN A TWIST OVER TWITTER
Social media is a force that can no longer be ignored, many
brand owners are embracing this
new channel to
connect with
consumers. PKN’s
Insider columnist
writes of the dangers
of Twitter for shooting
down new ideas without
giving them a chance – such as
the PLA bag from Frito-Lay’s Sun
Chips brand which has set Twitter alight with complaints about the noise it makes. Frito-Lay’s response: “Yes, the bag is loud. That’s what change sounds like.”
◆ In what is believed to have created the largest central robotic palletising operation in the southern hemisphere, Smiths Snackfoods equips its Tingalpa, Queensland, manufacturing site with a state-of-the-art palletising system from JMP Engineering. ◆ Amcor purchases flexible packaging spe- cialist Aperio in a deal worth $238 million, despite market concerns that the merger would give Amcor control of more than 60 per cent of the local flexible packaging market. ◆ Coca-Cola Amatil opens its second blow- fill technology bottling plant in New Zealand, a key milestone in a five-year pro- gram by the company to convert all its Oceania plants to blowfill technology.
◆ Woolworths opens a $31 million meat processing centre in Bunbury, WA, with top- line equipment including a modified atmo- sphere packaging (MAP) system.
◆ Bioplastics packaging manufacturer Plantic celebrates two major milestones, the opening of a new expanded production plant in Altona, Melbourne, and a deal with Coles to use Plantic eco-Plastic trays and wraps on its fresh food.
2013
◆ Amcor officially opens what it describes as “the jewel in the crown of Australia’s paper industry” – its B9 paper mill
in Botany, Sydney.
◆ Fast food giant McDonald’s rolls out a worldwide revamp of its packaging, introducing QR codes on its products to enable diners to access infor- mation on food items via smartphones.
◆ Australian Paper breaks first ground on the site of its new $90 million paper recy- cling plant in Maryvale, Victoria
◆ ConsumergroupChoicelaunchesa“Pack Attack” campaign, asking consumers to report details of particularly hard-to-open packaging.
◆ Visy opens a new $86 million beverage can manufacturing facility in Queensland to produce lightweight aluminium cans.
◆ Product tracking specialist GS1 launches GoScan, enabling consumers to use mobile devices to scan product barcodes for health and nutritional information. Nestlé Australia, Woolworths and Metcash are among the first food and retail companies to sup-
port the service.
◆ New Zealand dairy giant
Fonterra launches a new
packaging format for its
Anchor brand milk, featur-
ing three layers of HDPE
plastic to prevent milk
spoilage from UV light.
◆ Lion and Visy move to
capitalise on the home
draught beer trend with
the announcement of Tap
King, a mini keg beer dis-
penser designed to work
with 3.2-litre recyclable bottles.
◆ National politicians and food industry representatives approve a new formula for front-of-pack food labelling data, the Health Star rating system, to convey nutritional value of products. The AFGC later expresses misgivings about the proposal.
◆ In one of the biggest corporate shake-ups in the history of the Australian packaging sector, Amcor announces it will spin off its Australasian operations, together with its North American packaging distribution business, to form a new company, Amcor Australasia and Packaging Distribution (AAPD), which later takes the name Orora. Amcor Australasia MD Nigel Garrard is to lead the new company. Garrard remains at the helm until he retires in 2019. He is suc- ceeded by current MD and CEO, Brian Lowe.
2014
◆ Amcor buys Detmold Flexibles, making it the dominant player in
flexible packaging.
◆ Melbourne-based flexible
packaging printer and con- verter RollsPack cuts the rib- bon on its new multimillion dollar nine-colour gravure
line. The investment will allow the business to deliver high-end flexible packaging solutions to the food and
FMCG packaging sector.
◆ Coca-Cola Amatil’s Powerade sports drink bottle wins Best of Show at the Australian Packaging Design Awards and a WorldStar Award. Weighing in at 24g, it’s
claimed to be world’s lightest warmfill bottle with 38mm neck. The redesign also removed the foil induction seal on the closure, improving accessibility and reducing potential litter.
◆ NCI Australia introduces nGlimmer in-mould labelling technology, claimed to be a world-first creating a metallic finish using a silver metallic sub- strate enabling the printing of any metallic colour on to an injection- moulded container.
◆ The uptake of digital printing for packag- ing gets a boost. Asia Pacific’s first HP Indigo 30000 digital sheetfed press for the folding carton industry, supplied by Currie Group, is installed at Melbourne-based packaging and labelling company Pemara, housed in a new purpose-built facility described as “one of the finest printing envi- ronments in the world”.
◆ Yoghurt maker Chobani takes delivery of its seventh filling line at its Melbourne facility incorporating multi-layer filling technology for yoghurt cups.
◆ Amcor teams up with Sidel to bring its form-fill breakthrough, LiquiForm, to mar- ket. It’s a blowfill process for liquid pack- aging in which the consumable liquid is used instead of compressed air to hydrau- lically form and fill the container on one machine, simultaneously. [LiquiForm goes on to be commercialised for the first time for a hand soap product in 2018.]
www.packagingnews.com.au | November–December 2020