AMCOR ANNOUNCES SALE OF AUSTRALASIAN FOOD CAN AND AEROSOL BUSINESS

Transcription

1 brought to you by Issue 19 5 September 2007 AMCOR ANNOUNCES SALE OF AUSTRALASIAN FOOD CAN AND AEROSOL BUSINESS Amcor announced on Friday 31 August that it has sold its Australasian food can and aerosol business to leading global metal packaging company Impress Group B.V. Continued over page... INNOVATION AEROSOL AWARDS SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED HOMEGROWN ALL DAY I DREAD ANY SWEATING

2 Amcor has determined that, despite holding significant positions in specific segments of the food cans and aerosol market, the business is small relative to other packaging businesses within the Australasia portfolio and, as such, is considered non-core to the group s future activities in the region. The food can and aerosol business has been sold as a going concern and, following the signing of a Heads of Agreement between the two companies, the sale is expected to be completed by the end of October. Amcor believes the business will be betterpositioned as part of a large global metal can producer such as Impress. This is a very positive development for the business in Australia and New Zealand and will provide a parent company with a strong focus on metal packaging and innovation, group general manager Amcor Food and Aerosol Cans, Andrew Gall, said of the sale. We took very diligent and measured steps to ensure the food can and aerosol business was going to be sold to the right group. A key criterion of the sale was that whatever group acquired the business would put considerable effort into ensuring it continued the high standards that it currently delivers to the market and its customers. Simply, the buyer had to be a good fit and we have found that in Impress. They are a global industry leader with substantial resources and we believe they are best placed to provide continuity of supply. The sale involves the transfer of ownership of all the assets, including buildings, plant and equipment, at each of the manufacturing sites in Australia and New Zealand. The only asset that is not part of the sale is the Food Cans Decoration plant in Brooklyn, Victoria. The Brooklyn plant is being retained because a large proportion of its production goes to Amcor Closures in Thomastown, Victoria. All Food Cans and Aerosol Australasia employees will be offered roles with the new owner. Impress Group B.V. is a global market leader in the consumer metal packaging industry. It is the second-largest European supplier of heat processed food cans and is a worldwide leader in the seafood can market and European leader in cans for paints, coatings, dry foods and aerosols. Impress is based in Deventer, the Netherlands, and had worldwide sales of approximately $2.24 billion in It employs approximately 8000 people in 52 facilities across 19 countries in Europe, North America, Japan, North Africa and the Seychelles. Impress Group B.V was formed in 1997 by the merger of the metal packaging interests of Pechiney and Schmalbach-Lubeca. Since 1997 Impress has accompanied the rejuvenation of the metal packaging industry. During the last ten years the business has expanded, consolidated and transformed through acquisition and innovation. In parallel to acquisitions, Impress has launched dozens of new products like the Easy-Peel lid, the three-finger can, the Tripod can, the shaped aluminium bowl and the world s thinnest Easy- Open end. Under an agreement between the Chinese government and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), China will provide further technical assistance to rural communities in developing countries to improve food security. Under the agreement, China will provide the services of about 3000 agricultural experts and technical persons to the developing countries to help small-scale farmers and fishers. In spite of ongoing food safety concerns, China s canned fish exports are booming according to a report in Foodnews. Last year exports totalled more than 47,000 tonnes a 30 per cent increase in value and more than 10 per cent in tonnage. HOMEGROWN ALL DAY I DREAD ANY SWEATING Sports footwear and apparel manufacturer Adidas has launched Action 3, its first range of absorbent anti-perspirant deodorant. Action 3 is packaged in 125g aerosol-powered aluminium cans and comes in three styles for both men and women Fresh, Sensitive and Intensive. The men s product is packaged in a black can, while the women s range is packaged in pearlwhite cans. ORGANIC TEA CAN Sydney-based wholefoods market Macro has released a range of organic teas packaged in cans. Available in two flavours Chamomile Fields and Mint Madness Macro s teas are just one of a number of items available in the company s range of house brand organic products. Chamomile Fields contains chamomile and rose petals, while Mint Madness consists of peppermint, spearmint and cornflower blossom. Macro has taken the concept of organic and Fair Trade products into a mainstream setting, using traditional supermarket visual merchandising techniques to display its products lines. The company s first store opened more than 20 years ago at Bondi Junction in Sydney, and in recent years Macro has expanded to nine stores located in New South Wales and Victoria. Source: Food Magazine News Alert, 29 August 2007 Innovation NEW WIKI FOR FOOD INDUSTRY TRAINING The New South Wales Food Industry Training Council (NSWFITC) board of directors has launched FoodHub.com.au, a new online workforce development resource for the Australian food industry. The new website is designed in a similar way to online encyclopedia Wikipedia and can be updated by members of the food industry who are encouraged to create articles in FoodHub to

3 support people who conduct, or need training in food handling, HACCP, OHS or other nationally accredited competencies for the Food Industry as recognised under Australia s National Training Framework. NSWFITC s vision is that collective wisdom will enable FoodHub to become a fantastic training tool for all workplace supervisors, trainers and assessors in the food industry. Visit for more information. Environmental CANZBAC TAKES OUT TOP EDUCATIONAL GONG New Zealand steel can recycling campaign CANZBAC has taken out the top educational award at the Packaging Council of New Zealand s awards night held on 31 August. AEROSOL AWARDS SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED The shortlist of finalists for the 2007 European Aerosol Federation Awards has been named ahead of the gala presentation in Manchester, UK, on 19 September. The awards are designed to celebrate genius, creativity and technical excellence in the aerosol industry. Staged by the British Aerosol Manufacturers Association, awards will be handed out in three categories: Innovation in Aerosol Package Design, Most Innovative Aerosol Product, and Most Creative Marketing Strategy. The shortlist for Innovation in Aerosol Package Design includes products from Unilever, Valois and Crown. Shortlisted for the Most Innovative Aerosol Product are three products from L Oreal and one from Walk Easy. In the Most Creative Marketing Strategy category Unilever is the only nominee, and has been listed twice for two separate marketing strategies for its Axe range of deodorants. Initial nominations came from manufacturers, fillers, marketers and retailers that launched products onto the market between May 2005 and May The shortlist was created by a five-member international judging panel consisting of leading industry figures from the fields of manufacturing, advertising, media and science. Visit for more information. Pop star and actor Beyonce Knowles is adding an incentive for her Los Angelesbased fans to donate to her food drive project, with the first 1000 fans to drop off a minimum of three cans of food to receive a signed photo of the Dream Girls star. Knowles food drive has so far travelled to Houston, Atlanta, Chicago and Washington DC and has collected 4610 kilograms of food as well as enough cash donations to buy 16,000 meals. The campaign, run by the Steel Can Association of New Zealand, was the outright winner of the Educational/Promotional Program Encouraging Materials Recovery category and also received a Highly Commended in the Improved Consumer Information & Involvement category. CANZBAC came about following the association s appointment in 2005 of Donovan Boyd Communications to raise the profile of steel can recycling. The strategy was to launch a new identity to represent the public face of steel can recycling in New Zealand. In recent times the campaign has received global praise from within the packaging and recycling industries, a point not lost on the award s judges. They said: A strong entry with an excellent public promotion campaign and professional website, clearly engaging and improving the understanding of the consumer as to the opportunities of recycling. A very clever initiative with smart use of a character to get the message through to children. There is no doubt that this initiative will in the future demonstrate its impact and report improved returns. The entrant is also commended for securing a slot on primetime TV with Watties Food in a Minute. CANZBAC s Highly Commended in the Improved Consumer Information & Involvement category was for: Contribution towards environmental excellence in encouraging the consumer to consider issues of disposal of packaging prior to purchase through key messages on product or through promotion or media coverage. Visit for more information on the campaign.

4 Environmental STEEL LEADS THE WAY AS KIWIS SET RECYCLING RECORD The New Zealand Packaging Council has released figures showing that New Zealanders recycled nearly 20 per cent more packaging in the year ending March 2007 than in the previous year. Steel proved to be the best-performing material against the country s Packaging Accord target, with the recovery of 13 per cent more steel than the figure the country hopes to achieve in Executive director of the New Zealand Packaging Council, Paul Curtis, also announced a record high for the amount of packaging recovered as a percentage of consumption. Overall 57 per cent of our packaging was collected in the past year, which is a massive 67,500 tonnes more than the year before, Mr Curtis said. To put this in perspective, this increase equates to an annual saving of around 33,000 tonnes of CO² or taking around 8000 cars off the road. We have already surpassed the Accord recycling targets for paper and steel and we are at least 95 per cent of the way to achieving our recycling targets for aluminium, glass and plastic. The mass balance data is compiled annually to track recovery levels and trends of packaging waste to landfill. The collation of the data is a key part of the Packaging Council s commitment to the Packaging Accord (2004) which sets out targets for packaging recovery by The figures were released just one day before the country s recycling educational program CANZBAC (see previous story) received the top award for recycling education during the Packaging Council s awards. A popular New York-based confectionary company that packages fudge in cans is doing its bit for breast cancer research by donating money from every special-edition pink can of fudge it sells to breast cancer charities. The fudge has also proven a hit with celebrities, finding its way into Oscar and Emmy nominee gift bags as well as high-profile Super Bowl parties. WORLD NEWS MORE CRACKS APPEARING IN CHINA Leading industry magazine The Filling Business has shed more light on the current crisis in the Chinese food industry, reporting that 180 food production plants have been closed in a countrywide crackdown on food safety. The August edition details how inspectors from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (the body responsible for food safety) have found industrial chemicals being used in food production. The story adds to the ongoing coverage in CAN, which first reported food quality issues with Chinese products in May (CAN #11) and included a short feature on the crisis in the last edition (CAN #18) entitled Chinese Food Contaminations Fuel World Fears. The Filling Business reported that formaldehyde, illegal dyes and industrial wax had been found in the manufacture of confectionary, pickles, crackers and seafood. Such findings are supported by president and CEO of embattled pet food manufacturer Menu Foods, Paul Henderson, who told the company s annual general meeting that the melamine that had contaminated its products and forced the recall of 60 million cans of pet food early this year had been added intentionally. The substance is completely foreign to the process and quite simply should not have been present in the wheat gluten, Mr Henderson told the company s shareholders. We believe, it was (added) to artificially increase the level of the apparent protein. Mr Henderson said he believed that there was unlikely to be any remedy or restitution from China and felt the Menu Foods issue was potentially the first of many similar problems. The Washington Post visited the factories where the melamine was probably added to the wheat gluten. The newspaper reported that those factories were empty, the equipment dismantled and the workers gone. This incident within the pet food industry should be placed in context of a significant and growing problem concerning the safety of both the global human and animal food supply systems. brought to you by

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