Customers and business partners gathered at Avery Dennison’s new distribution centre in Moorabbin to mark the official opening of its purpose-built facility, which showcases sustainable building design and the company’s graphic arts expertise.
The ceremony, held in the spacious and well-lit warehouse, began with Bunurong Elder Uncle Mik Edwards giving the welcome to country, accompanied by his son Eric Edwards, who delivered a moving yidiki.
Amy Simpson, marketing manager at Avery Dennison hosted the proceedings, with keynote speech delivered by Cath Cornaggia, commercial director Labels and Packaging Materials ANZ.
The Moorabbin facility comprises 5000 square metres of warehouse space, 1200 square metres of office space, and is the workplace of some 70 Avery Dennison employees. It houses key operational and business functions including Sales, Customer Service, Technical Support, Laboratory, and Warehousing.
A key consideration of the building's design (by Goodman Group) was its sustainability credentials, which Cath Cornaggia outlined.
"Sustainability is one of Avery Dennison’s core values, and we continually review our products and operations to see how we can reduce our environmental impact; while we begin to expand our focus to include emissions generated throughout our value chain," she said.
Cornaggia told guests the facility has a 152Kw solar-power system that is capable of fulfilling 50 per cent of the energy requirements for the operation of both the offices and the warehouse, saving an estimated 20 tons of CO2 emissions every month.
The building also features rainwater harvesting tanks for water reuse in toilets and landscaping, a catch and reuse smart irrigation system, and energy-efficient LED lighting throughout.
"Becoming a more efficient and less wasteful business has helped us offset the rising costs of manufacturing," Cornaggia said. "By creating a positive workspace for our team we hope to cultivate meaningful and valued interactions with our customers."
The new building will help Avery Dennison meet its 2030 sustainability goals of conserving water and reducing carbon emissions by 70 per cent, with the ambition of being carbon neutral by 2050.
"This is a building that all of us at Avery Dennison, and, indeed, all of us in the community can feel good about," Cornaggia said. "As we look toward 2030 we understand that the natural next step is to move beyond sustainability and into regeneration. We need to invest in new products, new technologies, alternative supply chains, and business models that actively replenish rather than extract from our planet. We’re preparing for a world where regeneration is seamlessly integrated into a products’ lifecycle."
Cornaggia cited recycling as an example. "Digital evolution will ultimately eliminate the need for sorting and recycling household waste because we firmly believe in a future where every product will have a unique digital identity that reads, tracks and traces waste, allowing an effortless separation and repurposing of materials," she said. "With the digital solutions Avery Dennison offers, this is a future not far away."
Pointing to the launch last week of the next generation of atma.io, the company's connected product cloud, Cornaggia said the while Avery Dennison's physical labels will always have a place, the future is hybrid, with both physical and digital solutions that connect brands and consumers. "In order to really drive this change, we need to empower the entire industry. We all need to be better aware of what it means to be a part of a regenerative economy," she said.
She spoke of several other initiatives the company is driving, like AD Stretch (an accelerator program), AD Circular (a label liner recycling program) and AD Foundation (a community program) and closed by reiterating the company's commitment to "strengthening the places where we do business, and the hometowns where our employees live and work."
Representing the graphics side of the business, Jordan Leach picked up from Cornaggia, bidding guests a warm welcome and highlighting how the office walls provide a stunning showcase of the company's graphics solutions expertise. He spoke too of the newest premium wrap for car protection and advances being made on PVC-free film development
At a media briefing earlier in the day Leach told PKN that globally there's a race to bring non-PVC solutions to market -- but they have to be at the right price and have to perform the right way.
"We are making some unbelievable headway. We've launched one product already in Europe, shown at FESPA, and we actually showcased it at PacPrint recently," he said.
One of the show pieces on the warehouse floor was a car wrapped in the new material, and guests were treated to a demonstration of the wrapping process.
Avery Dennison is a global materials manufacturer of branding and information labelling solutions and functional materials for consumer goods, apparel, food, logistics, industrial and healthcare industries. The company's turnover in 2021 was US $8.4bn, it operates in 50 countries, with around 32,000 employees worldwide.
