British Polythene Industries (BPI) has said it has seen an “easing in polymer prices” and expected a stronger result for the first half of the year compared with the same period last year.

BPI expects to officially announce its interim results for the six months to 30 June 2011 on 30 August.

In its pre-close trading update announced this morning [04 July], the packaging giant said that it anticipates that the first half of the year would produce a better result than the same period last year, as it first announced in its interim management statement in May.

The firm stated: “We can now confirm that this outcome will be comfortably ahead of the first half of 2010. We also indicated [in May] that our order book was looking leaner than the levels we experienced earlier in the year and this trend has continued.”

Polymer prices

It also announced, that in recent weeks, it had seen an easing in polymer prices, “and the current downward trend in feedstock costs for polymer producers may herald some relief from the very high polymer costs which have impacted severely on margins, particularly in the retail sector”.

BPI also said that it currently anticipated that its first half volume growth will be under 2%, “and that all of this will have to come from the agricultural sector”.

It explained: “Recent damper weather, both in the UK and mainland Europe, should ensure that the silage season continues well into July.

“Overall demand for our products from the retail, service, construction and industrial sectors has been flat, with few signs of any upward trends in the near future.”

Private label software firm Trace One is urging retailers and manufactures to review their validation process for product information ahead of EU food labelling legislation being published next month.

The retail expert suggests that many organisations risk falling official inspections or worse, putting consumer health at risk, if they are unable to prove that their product information is accurate and true.

The European Parliament has proposed that food labels on packaging should include mandatory nutritional information.

‘Safety of consumers’

Brussels aims to ensure that labels do not mislead. It also aims to change existing rules on information that is compulsory on all labels, such as name, list of ingredients, ‘best before’ our ‘use by’ dates.

Trace One northern Europe vice president Amina West said: “Following major food scares like the BSE crisis, knowing the geographic location of where products, and their raw materials, have come from is essential to ensure the safety of consumers.

“While Country of Origin Labelling (COOL) will go some way to resolve this, it’s not just about labelling.

“Retailers and manufacturers need to be able to prove that all the information on their products is accurate, particularly when subject to labeling authority inspections.”

Validation

West warned industry should be looking at collaborative solutions, where information on products can be kept and validated online.

West said: “Ten years ago the market was very different. Retailers and manufacturers were free to make changes to products, without the need to track these.

“Now, we are in a very different situation, as consumer demand and stricter legislation means that any alterations need to be validated and accurately communicated.

“To avoid any mistakes from human error, the retail industry should be looking at using automated systems during the product development and packaging stages to make changes to product specifications in real-time.”

Curated from:

http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/bpi-forecasts-strong-results-as-polymer-prices-ease/

New rules to ensure that food labels accurated describes where ingredients are from will not take effect until 2014, according to reports.

According to the Yorkshire Post, The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has said that changes to food packaging to include more accurate and understandable information will not become legal for at least another two years.

It was also revealed that retailers can label foods as being English, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish, rather than just having a uniform British label.

The delay is necessary, the FSA said, to allow industry time to bring the changes into effect.

An FSA spokeswoman told The Yorkshire Post that 2014 was the target date for bringing in the new labels but said that the new labelling guidelines to do with nutritional information would not be available until 2016.

The changes will effectively end a long-standing loophole in the law which has allowed retailers to legally label food as being British if it was processed or packaged, but not grown, in the UK.

The FSA confirmed to the newspaper, which has been campaigning on the provenance labelling issue, that country of origin labelling will apply to “most fresh and frozen meat”.

It said: “For example, it will be possible for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland to be used on food labels without mentioning UK under new provenance rules. Also, the origin of main ingredients will have to be given if different from where the final product is made.”

Other changes to labelling will require simplified and accurate nutritional information to be displayed and for all information to be printed a minimum size so as to be easily legible.

Types of vegetable oil used in food, such as the controversial palm oil, must be also stated.

Dr Andrea Graham, chief science and regulatory affairs adviser for the NFU, told the Yorkshire Post: “The NFU supports the provision of clear, accurate and relevant information for the consumer and we believe that the new country of origin labelling requirements will give a big boost to consumers offering them clear and honest information on the origin of their food and where it was reared.”

Curated from:

http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/warning-of-info-blind-spot-in-advance-of-new-eu-labelling-rules/

Recycling minister Lord Taylor of Holbeach has said he is confident in government’s and industry’s ability to improve recycling rates, as he looked to reassure the sector that Defra supports packaging.

Speaking at the Foodservice Packaging Association’s annual Environment Seminar yesterday, Lord Taylor – who himself owns a seed packing business – said that the packaging industry would play a key role in helping reach the ambitious recycling targets laid out in the Waste Review that was published before Christmas.

He also reassured the audience that the consultation on the targets – which include a proposed target for plastics recycling of 57% by 2017 compared to 32% in 2012, as well as higher rates for metals – was a “genuine” consultation.

The minister, who took on the waste and recycling brief last September, acknowledged that on plastic packaging recycling targets there were “challenges to be overcome, especially on non-bottle plastic”.

Responsibility deal

But he said that work had begun on a responsibility deal on plastic packaging. “I’m confident that the industry, working together with Wrap, are in the best place to meet the challenge,” he said.

He added that he expected a similar move for metals. Under the Waste Review’s proposals, aluminium recycling rates would rise to 55% in 2017 from 40% in 2012, while rates for steel would rise to 76% in 2017 from 71% in 2012.

He said: “The Waste Review has set out our ambitions… I can’t deny that this is a difficult and complex part of my brief to master, but the Waste Review has given us a roadmap and I’m confident that together we can meet the challenge.”

Delegates at the event were less confident that a 57% target for plastic recycling was realistic; a show of hands during a panel discussion later in the day, that was chaired by PN editor Josh Brooks, suggested that not one thought the target could be reached.

‘Really important’

Elsewhere in his speech to an audience made up primarily of foodservice packaging suppliers, Lord Taylor underlined to delegates that Defra supported the packaging industry.

“Food manufacturing is the single biggest industry in the country. You are a really important part of that industry,” he said. “We really understand why packaging has to be used.”

Lord Taylor was also challenged on a statement made on packaging before Christmas by local government minister Grant Shapps, in which he called on every supermarket to “commit to culling packaging by this time last year” and spoke of the need to dispose of 10m packs containing “trussed-up turkeys” after Christmas.

The statement was seen by some in the packaging sector as evidence of a lack of understanding of packaging’s role in the supply chain. Lord Taylor, however, said he was speaking to Shapps regularly on the issue of recycling.

“We are working together to increase recycling rates and to remove people’s anxiety about collections and food waste,” he said.

Panel debate

Lord Taylor’s speech was followed by presentations from Richard Swannell of Wrap, John Williams of the NNFCC and Dick Searle of the Packaging Federation.

A panel discussion closed the event, covering wide-ranging issues such as how and whether to communicate packaging’s environmental benefits to consumers, the voluntary agreement on reducing food and packaging waste in the hospitality sector that Wrap is currently working on, and the challenge to the foodservice sector from lower-cost competitors in international markets.

Curated from:

http://www.packagingnews.co.uk/news/food-provenance-labelling-rule-change-set-for-2014-reports/

The demand for sustainability in packaging has affected every aspect of packaging.

We all know that sustainable packaging practices benefit the environment by reducing waste, recycling materials into new packaging and controlling the energy costs of production. Many of us also recognize that sustainability benefits us with smaller package sizes, lighter-gauge flexible films and other measures that reduce material costs. Finding new ways to package goods with these new materials can be costly, but the long-term benefits are there. We also need to recognize that those new costs are an investment that will have future returns.The demand for sustainability in packaging has affected every aspect of packaging, from inspiring the development of new primary package materials, inks and adhesives to inspiring studies of our energy use and the creation of forums where we can discuss new ideas and techniques. We see our customers actively seeking out sustainable packaging, often as a way to market themselves better to environmentally conscious consumers. We can learn a lesson from them.

Sometimes we tend to think of this new emphasis as a burden imposed on us by outsiders, forcing us to change how we work and creating additional (and perhaps unnecessary) costs. It is easy to see those requirements for change as intrusive, but not see the advantages of sustainable packaging to us as packagers as well as to the environment and our customers.

Ennio Morricone (born November 10, 1928) is an Italian composer and conductor.

He is considered one of the most prolific and influential film composers of his era. Morricone has composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and TV productions.

He is well-known for his long-term collaborations with international acclaimed directors such as Sergio Leone, Brian De Palma, Barry Levinson, and Giuseppe Tornatore.

He wrote the characteristic film scores of Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) as well as the scores for John Carpenter’s horror movie The Thing (1982), Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987) and more recently Tornatore’s Baaria – La porta del vento (2009).

Morricone has won two Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, five Anthony Asquith Awards for Film Music by BAFTA in 1979–1992 and the Polar Music Prize in 2010. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score during 1979–2001.

He received the Academy Honorary Award in 2007 “for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music”. Morricone and Alex North are the only composers to receive the honorary Oscar since the award’s introduction in 1928.

J R Boone Limited successfully installed one of their new state of the art Delta Bladed Shear Mixers increasing much needed blending and mixing capacity.

Adam Byrne, Technical Operations Manager says “The new Boone Mixer was developed and tested at J R Boones testing facility and is providing excellent product performance”.

Seen here is Gary McMahon, Mixing & Process Team Leader, battening down the hatches.

Traditionally Pot Hats were seen as a promotional indulgence, providing the consumer greater variety at key times of the year. The large food manufacturers are now seeing this as an all year round opportunity.

From breakfast cereals and yogurts to savory products, Kapak have been supporting the larger B2B companies with technology and production support. Kapak have recently invested in another Pot Line supplied by Packaging Automation, with a further system due in early 2012.

Slawomir Ziaja, Planning Manager said “predicting the increase in the variety of SKU’s has become more of an art than a science in scheduling to meet customers peak demands. However, with Kapak’s vision to invest in new machinery they have the ability to provide their customers with greater flexibility”.

Pictured here is Agata Sobolewska, Team leader. Measuring the process parameters and machine efficiency, Agata is a specialist in Top Hat and Pot Production.

Rob Taggart, Manufacturing Operations Manager comments “The Sandiacre Baggers were purchased for new systems, confectionery, dry powder products and pulses and will increase our capacity to fifteen bagging lines”.

Kapak Foods have been specialists in bagging for over ten years providing Pillow, Block-Bottom , Doy, Delta and Quad packs.

Seen here is Villy Cervsikaite, QA technologist carrying out quality assurance process checks.

This new site is situated just a few miles down the road from Wigan in another North West town Haydock. In addition, further extensive investments are planned for 2010 and beyond. There are a number of challenges facing food manufacturers in the market today, many of these are driven by consumers and the demands of the current economy.

Being a specialist provider of much needed innovative packing solutions is enabling Kapak to stand out from the crowd. Conscious yet busy consumers are demanding more, with retailers being aware how their profitability drops if they don’t meet the changing demands of their customers. Eco friendly packaging linked to a desire to reduce landfill waste is a key environmental issue for consumers. Couple this with health concerns such as an increasing prevalence of allergy issues and a national obesity campaign with a focus on portion control and you start to become aware of how important new creative solutions to these and other problems are within the co packing landscape.

Kapak, through the foresight of their CEO Keith Brewood have their own team of technologists and engineers whose sole responsibility is specialist packing and design. This can be packaging that maximises shelf facings, through to innovative sachets, flowrapping, cartoning and shrink wrapping. When companies have such a wide ranging set of needs, strong strategic partnerships are required. Specialist co packing experts like Kapak are ideally placed to provide this much needed expertise and skill. As a result this innovative and friendly North West Company is going from strength to strength.