BOBST

A Message from Lord Pickles and Lord Blunkett, followed by BOBST's best practice article

The ability to listen and learn from one another has always been vital in parliament, in business and in most aspects of daily life. But at this particular moment in time, as national and global events continue to reiterate, it is uncommonly crucial that we forge new channels of communication and reinforce existing ones. The following article from BOBST is an attempt to do just that. We would welcome your thoughts on this or any other Parliamentary Review article.

Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett

Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles

www.bobst.com

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

18 | BOBST

Steve Carey, managing director

Competence Centre at

BOBST Manchester

The packaging industry is responding en masse to the

sustainability and recycling challenge set by brand owners.

PepsiCo, Unilever, Nestlé, Mars and The Coca-Cola Company,

to name a few, are challenging their supply base to achieve the

target of 100 per cent reusable, recyclable or compostable packaging

by 2025; this is undoubtedly causing the biggest technological shift

in the industry in recent times. BOBST is a leading solutions provider

for the packaging industry, operating in 50 countries, headquartered

in Switzerland with 5,400 employees and a turnover of 1,529 million

Swiss francs in 2017. Their British arm, BOBST Manchester, is based

in Heywood, Lancashire, and focuses on the manufacture of a

diverse range of converting machinery including printing, laminating,

coating and vacuum coating equipment. The company is in a unique

position to look at fully convertible barrier solutions, utilising their

BOBST Competence Centres based around the world; managing

director Steve Carey here discusses how they have achieved this.

We are perfectly positioned to work with other leading suppliers to develop

solutions to the challenge that brand owners have laid down. We have been a

significant driving force in responding to, in particular, the sustainability element of

this challenge and find it plays well to our strengths.

Centre of Excellence for High Barrier

In Manchester, we have established a Centre of Excellence for High Barrier; this will

enable research and development for barrier solutions which are essential to the

FACTS ABOUT

BOBST

»Managing director: Steve Carey

»Established in 1986

»Based in Heywood, Lancashire

»Services: Manufacture of a

range of machinery, including

vacuum metallising machinery

which is used in a variety of

food applications, an example

being the inside of a crisp

packet

»No. of employees: 120

»90 per cent of machines

manufactured in the UK are

exported

»www.bobst.com

BOBST

19BOBST |

BEST PRACTICE REPRESENTATIVE 2018

food packaging industry. It is essential

that all food packaging has the

appropriate protection – or “barrier”

– to prevent oxygen and moisture

getting inside the packaging and

thus spoiling the food. A high barrier

extends the shelf life of the product,

therefore reducing food waste.

Research and development work is

carried out in our BOBST Competence

Centres on the most commonly used

flexible substrates for food packaging.

These include polypropylene

(PP), polyester (PET), nylon, cast

polypropylene (CPP) and polyethylene

(PE), all of which help to develop

the latest state-of-the-art vacuum

metallisation equipment and wet

coating equipment for the application

of top coats.

We are able to rapidly optimise and

prototype packaging solutions for the

industry, by using novel combinations

of vacuum and wet coatings and

exploiting various working synergies

across the BOBST Group. This focuses

on the amalgamation and appropriate

use of two different methods of

vacuum coating and wet coating,

which provide improved barrier and

therefore improved shelf life for brand

owners’ products.

Innovative solutions for

recycling

One of the key advantages of vacuum

metallisation is the ability to achieve

an excellent barrier to oxygen and

moisture at extremely thin coating

weights, often of a thickness around

ten nanometres. When this is

compared to conventional wet coating

layers, which may be one or two

microns thick, the amount of vacuum-

deposited material is insignificant.

This makes it much easier to recycle,

an important consideration for brand

owners going forward.

For good environmental sustainability,

the target is to move to mono-material

substrates; historically, in our industry,

food packaging solutions have been

designed to optimise appearance,

packing line speed and barrier

properties with little or no regard

for ease of recycling. Consequently,

the majority of flexible packages are

made up of different materials, most

of which are not compatible to be

recycled together. So, for recycling

to take place, the materials need to

be separated – a huge obstacle for

theprocess.

The technology shift required to

move to mono-material substrates

and thus easily recycled material will

necessitate significant investment.

This means that co-operation along

the value chain is necessary to work

on end-to-end solutions. In keeping

with this, we have recently forged new

partnerships across industry where we

have focused our resources and have

thus been participating in a number

ofinitiatives.

One such example was the search

for unified sustainability and

recycling solutions for mono-

material substrates, co-ordinated by

leading packaging experts. We knew

that achieving this would require

collaboration along the value chain,

Fully recyclable PE barrier

solution

Research and

development

work is carried

out in our

BOBST

Competence

Centres

“

THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW

Highlighting best practice

20 | BOBST

as highlighted earlier: all companies

involved, including with the raw

material supplier, the film producer

and finally the film packaging

manufacturer – in this case, the

manufacturer of a stand-uppouch.

Partners we are working with on

this initiative include Borealis and

Borouge, based in Spain, for resin

production in terms of raw material

supply; Hosokawa Alpine, based in

Austria, for converting of the raw

material into film; and GEA, based in

the Netherlands, for the production of

the stand-up pouch. This project is a

true example of collaboration across

theboard.

Our role in this partnership was the

use of our Competence Centres in

Manchester and Italy; across the two,

we were able to provide a full solution

which could prepare the newly created

polyethylene film for conversion into

the final pouch, without damaging the

barrier. As a result of this project, we

have assisted in the creation of a fully

recyclable mono-material suitable for

foodpackaging.

Challenges and the future

In each section of the packaging value

chain, there is the need to innovate.

For us, the challenge really is to

improve shelf life by using coatings

on lower-quality films to recover and

improve the barrier properties.

This challenge is not only existent in

mature markets, such as Europe and

North America, but is also being driven

strongly in emerging markets – India,

for example. Legislation was passed

in August 2018 in these markets to

outlaw the use of multi-film laminate.

The restricted time frame this will

undoubtedly entail is something we

anticipate as being far too aggressive;

it takes time to develop and innovate,

especially with new, recyclable

solutions for an entire industry.

The current climate is very challenging

for producers of plastic films. As a

solutions provider to this industry, we

need to continue to innovate in the

areas of environmental sustainability

and recycling capability and

sustainability. This means, alongside

being at the forefront of developing

innovative barrier solutions, we are

also looking to reduce the amount of

material used in the packaging film, a

process known as delayering. Finally,

going forwards, we additionally wish

to consider alternative solutions which

are more environmentally friendly

and have a massively diminished

carbonfootprint.

The current

climate is very

challenging for

producers of

plastic films.

Asa solutions

provider, we

need to

continue to

innovate

“

K5 EXPERT metalliser

coating drum

www.bobst.com

This article was sponsored by BOBST. The Parliamentary Review is wholly funded by the representatives who write for it. The publication in which this article originally appeared contained the following foreword from The Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP's Foreword For The Parliamentary Review

By The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

This foreword from the then Prime Minister appeared in the 2018/19 Parliamentary Review.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review. For Her Majesty’s Government, our task in the year ahead is clear: to achieve the best Brexit deal for Britain and to carry on our work to build a more prosperous and united country – one that truly works for everyone.

The right Brexit deal will not be sufficient on its own to secure a more prosperous future for Britain. We also need to ensure that our economy is ready for what tomorrow will bring. Our Modern Industrial Strategy is our plan to do that. It means Government stepping up to secure the foundations of our productivity: providing an education system that delivers the skills our economy needs, improving school standards and transforming technical education; delivering infrastructure for growth; ensuring people have the homes they need in the places they want to live. It is all about taking action for the long-term that will pay dividends in the future.

But it also goes beyond that. Government, the private sector and academia working together as strategic partners achieve far more than we could separately. That is why we have set an ambitious goal of lifting UK public and private research and development investment to 2.4 per cent of GDP by 2027. It is why we are developing four Grand Challenges, the big drivers of social and economic change in the world today: harnessing artificial intelligence and the data revolution; leading in changes to the future of mobility; meeting the challenges of our ageing society; and driving ahead the revolution in clean growth. By focusing our efforts on making the most of these areas of enormous potential, we can develop new exports, grow new industries and create more good jobs in every part of our country.

Years of hard work and sacrifice from the British people have got our deficit down by over three quarters. We are building on this success by taking a balanced approach to public spending. We are continuing to deal with our debts, so that our economy can remain strong and we can protect people’s jobs, and at the same time we are investing in vital public services, like our NHS. We have set out plans to increase NHS funding annually by an average by 3.4 percent in real terms: that is £394 million a week more. In return, the NHS will produce a ten-year plan, led by doctors and nurses, to eliminate waste and improve patient care.

I believe that Britain can look to the future with confidence. We are leaving the EU and setting a new course for prosperity as a global trading nation. We have a Modern Industrial Strategy that is strengthening the foundations of our economy and helping us to seize the opportunities of the future. We are investing in the public services we all rely on and helping them to grow and improve. Building on our country’s great strengths – our world-class universities and researchers, our excellent services sector, our cutting edge manufacturers, our vibrant creative industries, our dedicated public servants – we can look towards a new decade that is ripe with possibility. The government I lead is doing all it can to make that brighter future a reality for everyone in our country.

British politics provides ample material for analysis in the pages of The Parliamentary Review

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP
Prime Minister