Ardagh Metal Packaging invests in Nomoq

Majority share | At the end of February 2023, Ardagh Metal Packaging (AMP) announced it has acquired a majority share in innovative digital can printers Nomoq. This further extends AMP’s industry-leading support of newcomers to the beverage market. The Switzerland-based start-up Nomoq, founded in 2021, promises printed cans with short lead times and “No Minimum Order Quantity” – hence the name.

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Limiting the packaging

Protection guidance | Europe’s brewers support minimising packaging’s impact on the environment and will now work together with the European Parliament and Member States to ensure a final Regulation that is proportionate, well-targeted, non-discriminatory and coherent.

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drinktec 2022 opening with the VDMA press conference

Innovations and personal interaction | The beverage industry has been meeting again this week in Munich at drinktec, the leading international fair for the beverage and liquid food industry, from 12–16 September 2022. 65,000 visitors from 170 countries met 1000 exhibitors from more than 55 countries.

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Thielmann joins Steel Keg Association as founding member

Joint project | In April 2022, container company Thielmann has joined together with other leading keg supply chain players to form the Steel Keg Association, a marketing-focused non-profit organization that aims to increase the volume of beer and other beverages served from stainless steel kegs. These partners include Blefa, Hillebrand Gori, Micro Matic, MicroStar Logistics, and Schaefer Container Systems.

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upakovka 2022 about to be relaunched

Russian trade fair | upakovka – Processing and Packaging will once again offer a presence platform for personal exchange within the industry from January 25 to 28, 2022, at the AO Expocentre Krasnaya Presnya exhibition center in Moscow. As in the past, it will be held in parallel with interplastica – International Trade Fair for Plastics and Rubber. A total of about 600 companies from 26 countries have announced their participation in both trade fairs. In 2021 the trade fair duo had to be cancelled due to the pandemic.

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Ball’s customer reduction programme (alert: it is as bad as it sounds)

USA | The current shortage of aluminum has allowed the Ball Corporation, a leading supplier of beverage cans, to weed out its customer base. Ball reportedly plans to increase the minimum purchase of printed cans from one truckload to five, as of 1 January 2022.

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Ball Corp. planning to build new plants in the UK and Russia

Increasing capacity | Aluminium drinks cans are the world’s most widely recycled beverage packaging with an 82 % recycling rate in the UK and 76 % across Europe. Now Ball Corporation, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of recyclable aluminium beverage packaging, is planning to significantly increase its manufacturing capacity, with new facilities in the UK and Russia.

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Strategic alliance for combined packaging line and intralogistics solutions

Smart Facotry | Sidel, Parma, Italy, and Elettric80, Viano, Italy, have started a strategic alliance to provide comprehensive services ranging from production to warehouse, distribution centre and logistics management for beverage and food, home and personal care (FHPC) producers. Both companies will act as a one-stop source, allowing producers to become more flexible, safe and sustainable with Smart Factory tailored solutions.

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Palletiser retrofit for a superior performance and product quality

Sidel | Producing a great diversity of bottles from 0,5 L to 1,5 L on a single packaging line for PET, Pearlwater Mineralquellen AG, Termen, Switzerland, was determined to enhance the efficiency of its production line as well as bottle quality by upgrading its PalKombi Gripping palletiser’s performance, installed by Sidel in 2011. Trusting in its OEM, Pearlwater were able to increase the palletiser’s reliability and flexibility for the handling of various pack sizes and improved overall line efficiency by 5% with better pack and pallet stability. 

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German Packaging Award 2020: designed with an eye to recycling

Krones | On 25th August, the German Packaging Institute announced Krones AG and its subsidiary, Dekron, as winners of the German Packaging Award 2020 in the category “sustainability”. The prize-winning entry involves a beverage bottle, the design and lifecycle of which were comprehensively created in accordance with sustainability criteria.

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Ardagh signs commitment letter to Science-Based Targets initiative

Ardagh | The global supplier of metal and glass packaging has committed to set science-based targets through the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi), a project that aims to encourage corporate climate action for a low-carbon economy.

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Paper not film: ecofriendly can packaging system

New Development | The KHS Group, Dortmund, Germany, has added a further environmentally-friendly system to its portfolio. With its tried-and-tested Innopack Kisters tray packers the systems supplier now enables cans to be wrapped in paper.

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End‐of‐Line Packaging Experts invest in BMS Maschinenfabrik

EOL | Pursuing its Buy & Build strategy, EOL Packaging Experts GmbH, Kirchlengern, Germany has made a second add‐on acquisition by investing in BMS Maschinenfabrik GmbH in Pfatter, Germany.

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Performative excellence for aseptics

Krones | The Contipure AseptBloc DN at the Austrian food and beverage producer Spitz uses gaseous hydrogen peroxide for sterilisation, and can handle 24,000 containers per hour.

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Jupiler ‘colder for longer’ can wins award

Ardagh | A unique ‘ribbed’ can which keeps Jupiler beer cool in the hand has won ‘Best Can/Alubottle’ at the 2019 World Beverage Innovation Awards.

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AB-InBev might sell stake in US packaging unit

USA | AB-InBev is weighing the sale of its packaging business, which could be valued at between USD 5 billion and USD 6 billion, Reuters reported on 28 November 2019.

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Majority shareholding in CO.MAC S.R.L. aquired

CO.MAC is an active company in the design, manufacturing, repair, maintenance and technical support for beverage filling and packaging machines, especially beer in returnable and non-returnable kegs.

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BCME appoint Ellen Wauters as General Manager

Beverage Can Makers Europe (BCME), the trade body representing Europe’s leading drinks can manufacturers, have appointed Ellen Wauters as General Manager, effective from April 1st 2015.