Elopak, Allies Form Single-Source System for Plasma-Coated Plastic Bottles

International packaging company Elopak Inc. (Oslo, Norway and New Hudson, MI) has formed a new plastic packaging business and launched barrier-coated plastic bottles. The company also has established alliances with other packaging suppliers to create a single-source system for users of barrier bottles.

The strategy, says Elopak president and CEO Bjorn Flatgard, is to be a leading global player in the total liquid food packaging market, serving a wider audience with a broader product portfolio.

"We have been successfully defending and growing our core Pure-Pak business internationally, and now we are further expanding our share of the total liquid packaging market with a fast-track entry into plastic bottle packaging," remarked Flatgard.

Overcoming Fragmented Supply Chain
Managing director of Elopak Plastic Systems, Jorg Thiels, noted the significant growth of plastic bottle packaging for juices, waters and non-carbonated beverages. He added, however, that the current plastic packaging supply chain is highly fragmented, with liquid food producers having to source bottles, filling machines, closures, labels and sleeves from a number of different suppliers. This multiple sourcing can create inefficiencies and higher supply and production costs.

Said Thiels, "By creating formal alliances with similar organizations at the cutting edge of packaging technology, Elopak is able to speed up the pace at which products are brought to market, giving our customers immediate access to technology know-how and core competencies. By the same token, our approach enables us to offer best-of-breed products at lowest cost. And our customers only have to deal with one, ultimately responsible supplier: Elopak."

Key Alliances
The first of Elopak's key alliances are with Allfill Engineering, a German manufacturer of linear and rotary filling equipment, and Alplas, a German developer and supplier of plasma technology for barrier coatings.

The Alplas-Elopak joint venture will complete the commercialization of a barrier technology featuring the CYRANNUS plasma source module, which no longer requires use of a high-pressure vacuum system. The technology is said to provide excellent distribution characteristics for continuous, homogeneous, consistent coating of a wide range of plastic bottles at high speeds.

"This means that the growth of PET in the ambient, non-carbonated liquid foods sector, restricted until now by the lack of suitable and cost-effective barriers, is now set to take off," said Thiels. "Elopak will be launching aseptic bottle systems for non-carbonated beverages in the near future, using the aseptic filling technology to be supplied by Elopak-Allfill and the required barrier application systems from Alplas-Elopak."

For more information:
Nils-Erik Aaby, senior vp, Elopak America, Tel: 248-486-4600, Email: naaby@elopakus.com.
Hans Anderssen, director of corporate information, Elopak Inc., Tel: +47-31-27-10-00, Email: hans.anderssen@elopak.no.
Website: www.elopak.com.

Edited by Judy Rice