KM Packaging has set up a business entity in Australia, its second biggest export market, with Tammy Spencer appointed as the business unit manager for ANZ.

Nestlé Professional’s multi-million dollar investment in its Smithtown, NSW factory will bolster local manufacturing and support collaborative product developments – starting with a new recyclable cup for Hot Chockee, developed in partnership with Wellman Packaging and 7-Eleven.

Close the Loop has bolstered its US operations by acquiring Ohio-based plastics recycler In-Plas for $4m, with the acquisition further strengthening its position in the lucrative recycling market.

Ball & Doggett has signed a partnership agreement with Sappi to distribute its sustainable barrier papers, tipped to provide the sought-after barrier functionality in paper-based food packaging

The ANZ region showed its strength in innovation once again at WorldStar 2023, receiving the second highest number of wins in the world, just behind Japan. Caps & Closures won four awards for three products.

In a global first for KitKat, Australia's number one chocolate bar will trial a paper packaging wrapper on the KitKat four-finger 45g variant. An on-pack QR code allows consumers to voice their views on the pack.

Amcor is investing in one of Australia’s first plastic advanced recycling facilities, with the recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Licella Holdings.

Licella, via Advanced Recycling Victoria, has had its development licence approved, giving it the green light to construct its advanced commercial recycling plant in Altona, Victoria.

Duni Group has sold 25 per cent of the BioPak Group to Australian private equity fund Five V Capital, for $65.8m, in a move which it says will accelerate the BioPak growth trajectory.

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners has pressed go on the most advanced canning line in its network in the Australasian region, a project that was two years in the making and delivered in partnership with key technology suppliers including KHS, GPI and Matthews Australasia.

Amcor and ExxonMobil have signed a five-year deal to secure thousands of tons of high-performance, certified-circular material from ExxonMobil’s advanced recycling plant.

PKN’s final issue for 2022 reviews the year that was in packaging in our Headline Makers feature, covers local and global industry events, and highlights the latest on innovation, investment and advancement in the realms of Food Packaging and the Circular Economy.

QLM Label Makers is creating a new division, qlmflexibles, with innovative print businesses Luminar and Read Labels & Packaging, and will target both the digital and FMCG flexible packaging markets under the new brand.

A new process for decontaminating post-consumer polyolefin films has gained global recognition and the US$3m Alliance Prize for Circular Solutions in Flexibles, boosting its ability to upscale.

Mars Wrigley's move to paper-based packaging for its chocolate bars marks a world-first for the manufacturer and is on trend with the shift away from single-use plastics to kerbside-recyclable materials.

Soft plastics collection program REDcycle has welcomed the ACCC’s conditional authorisation for the major supermarkets to collaborate in a Soft Plastics Taskforce.