RETAL’s Head of R&D Anton Sugoniaev will be participating in the Plastic Closures Innovations event in Barcelona.
From 13th – 15th June, this respected industry event, hosted by AMI, will take place, with many industry partners and decision makers present.
Sugoniaev will be delivering his presentation, entitled ‘Insight into Creating Successful Tethered Closures’, explaining how small technical and design elements can offer big benefits for tethered closure production.
He says, “I am looking forward to sharing how our journey to creating a range of tethered closures for our customers has evolved, showing the twists and turns of legislation, implementation and production to an audience of fellow packaging experts. It will also be a good opportunity to meet with people we know and who share our commitment to the role of progressive packaging in the circular economy.”
Back after six years, Interpack 2023, the ‘world’s leading packaging trade exhibition’, held in Dussedorf from 4th – 10th May, was worth waiting for.
The RETAL stand featured a wide range of product samples from across the complete range of flexible and rigid solutions from RETAL Baltic Films, with members of the sales team on hand to answer any questions.
Visitors to the stand enjoyed talking to the RETAL packaging experts, with wide-reaching conversations including questions on sustainability, recyclability, and chemical recycling.
Senior Marketing Manager Maria Jarrar says, “There was a friendly atmosphere at Interpack – everyone seemed happy to be back after such a long break. We were pleased to take the opportunity to answer questions, share samples of our rigid and flexible packaging solutions, and meet customers and potential customers. It was interesting to discuss topics including mono high barrier solution for FFS packaging and our 100% rPET rigid film and chemical recycling project. It was clear that sustainability is still the hot topic, with everyone keen to ask about how we’re making our portfolio as responsible as possible.”
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The ISO50001:2018 energy certificate has recently been awarded to RETAL Iberia following an external audit.
Quality manager Xavi Mora says, “This international standard is a tool to support us improve on energy consumption by developing and implementing an energy management system. The aim of this certification is to for continual improvement when it comes to energy consumption and efficiency.”
The process of gaining the certificate involved the whole of the Girona-based facility, with the production zone, offices, storehouses and all processes assessed. During the audit, different simulations were done to see what consumptions are the most important in the plant’s processes, giving an opportunity to identify improvement measures to increase efficiency.
Successful audit
This analysis was followed by an evaluation, with a strict process of documentation, checks and improvements implemented on the actual plant system. Only once this was complete, could the audit from the certification body be granted.
Mora adds, “Everybody is involved in this process; we all use energy, so everybody must know that they can contribute to reducing the energy consumption, from switching off the lights, changing the climatization of the different areas, reaching more efficient production procedures or implementing new controls or even changing some equipment for new ones. To reach new goals, we all have to participate!”
For further information contact Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com
If the plastics packaging industry has learned anything since the turn of the decade, it is just how interconnected global supply chains are, and just how susceptible they are to external forces.
Read the article in Eco-Plastics in Packaging (page 28- 29)
The vast array of careers in the packaging industry can be hard to quantify as the technical opportunities sit alongside sales, administrative and financial, as well as business development, communications and R&D. Here is an insight into the career development of product quality expert Oleksandr Grynko, whose background in chemistry has seen his work life evolve into a senior management role with a multinational plastic packaging manufacturer.
Highly experienced and dedicated to integrating his extensive chemistry knowledge into his work, Oleksandr is thoughtful, considered and approachable.
Growing up in a small city in the centre of Ukraine, Oleksandr starts by sharing his education, and how his early inspiration led to his career in the packaging industry. He says, “After going to school in my home city, I moved to Dnipro, although it wasn’t called Dnipro then. Here, I studied at college for four years. I have loved chemistry since high school; I love to watch the process of one substance magically turning into another. There are countless chemistries – inorganic, organic, physical, quantum, analytical – and I chose analytical chemistry at college. But it wasn’t enough! So, I continued on to university and studied ‘trendy’ polymer chemistry and completed graduate school.”
Even though Oleksandr has always loved chemistry, he also dreamed of becoming a seaman as a child and travelling the world across the seas. But the ocean’s loss is the packaging industry’s gain, and he continued studying chemistry instead of taking to the waves.
Further studies in chemistry
After Oleksandr’s post graduate studies that saw him gain a PhD in Chemistry, adding analytical chemistry and chemistry of polymers to his ever-expanding knowledge, he took his first professional job in a large agricultural chemical company, where he was in charge of the chemical
laboratory.
Oleksandr continues, “This was only a two-month job, as I then joined the company that became RETAL in October 2000. The company was very different to what it is today, it was all just beginning. There have been so many big changes and I am pleased to be a part of it. There were only seven machines at the start! It’s great for me to always be involved in the process; building new factories, new opportunities, new developments...new, new, new!”
Initially the only engineer in the chemical laboratory and then progressing to chief of the lab with a responsibility for a team of experts, Oleksandr has enjoyed that his career development has run in parallel to the development of RETAL. He says, “I like to make the most of the opportunities I am given, but without making fast changes that are not carefully planned and assessed. That way, we can be sure that our progress is sustainable. I like to be involved with the progress of the laboratory and our capabilities - raw materials, closures development – to make the most of our equipment and the skills of the team.”
Having moved with his family to Klaipeda from Dnipro around eight years ago, Oleksandr is happy to continue with his outdoor hobbies of biking and fishing all together, no doubt looking out to sea and planning where their next travelling adventures will take them.
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The Klaipeda, Lithuania production site for RETAL Baltic Films has had its BRC Food Standard Safety certificate renewed for the fifth year in a row.
Granted the highest available AA grade, the global standard for food safety is for its rigid films, flexible films and print processes.
RETAL Baltic Films Head of Sales Violeta Rusecka explains, “It is crucial for us to maintain the very highest standard of food safety for our products and processes, so this certification is continued proof of that. We are continuing to expand our production and laboratory capabilities, in addition to our full FFS testing line and complete top and bottom lidding film offer, which also includes printing.”
Active across Europe, RETAL Baltic Films brings its wide range of rigid bottom films and top lidding films, including a mono high barrier, PE-free APET film in the final stages of development, which can be easily recyclable in standard collections.
The RETAL Baltic Films team will be presenting their complete portfolio at Interpack, at Stand C10, Hall 12.
For further information contact Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com
The team of rigid and flexible film experts at RETAL Baltic Films has created a range of sustainable solutions for mono-packaging to support the recyclability goals of its customers in the food and film conversion markets. The APET and top-lidding films can be individually designed according to customers’ needs. The in-house packaging equipment installed at RETAL Baltic Films helps to cut downtime on customers’ production lines.
Particularly well suited to food safe packaging applications, the mono solution offers excellent resealability, helping to reduce food waste and cut food bills by keeping the product fresh after opening.
Vikorija Griziene, General Manager at RETAL Baltic Films, explained how the company has successfully created resealable packaging that is ideal for sliced cheeses and deli meats: “Developing resealable packaging is a huge technical challenge because it is important that the packaging offers the necessary barrier properties. Sliced cheese needs the right environment inside the packaging; no moisture but not too dry either, so the product has a good shelf life, even after it’s been opened and closed many times. We’ve conducted a wide range of technical trials to be sure that we can offer a range of top lidding and bottom film solutions that are both resealable and recyclable.”
These in-house technical trials highlight how sourcing both rigid-bottom and top-lidding films from one supplier means that the all-important reliability relationship between the two can be tested and guaranteed to deliver.
“Our customers in the dairy industry want to commit to sustainable packaging as much as we do,” Ms Griziene said, “so by working together to understand the performance requirements of resealable packaging for sliced cheese and harnessing our long-standing technical abilities in creating recyclable film, we’ve been able to make a full mono solution with high barrier properties, and a resealable top lidding solution using mono APET.”
Mono APET has a high potential for growth compared to other thermoformed polymers like PS and PP thanks to its toughness, dimensional stability and clarity. It can be moulded into practically any shape, and, because of its durability, it is ideal for sensitive applications such as food containers, beverage bottles and medical devices. Mono APET offers excellent barrier properties, food safety and is 100% recyclable.
“This innovation in food safe packaging gives our customers a choice,” concluded Ms Griziene. “As the bottom tray uses the most raw material, packaging producers have traditionally focused on making it recyclable. But to have a complete mono APET top and bottom solution for sliced cheeses and meats is really exciting. We understand the whole relationship; the sealing, the resealing. It’s a complete solution.”
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It is the fifth year in succession that the company has improved its score, boosting this from 60% last year to 63% this year and establishing it as a business making significant advances in its sustainability ambitions.
Retal has retained its coveted Silver level position and continues to rank in the top tier of the manufacturing category while working towards further improvement.
“We’ve further boosted our action in the Ethics & Labour category too, which is illustrated by our anti-discrimination policy and company-wide, multi-language video training, as well as the external anti-corruption gap analysis according to ISO 37001,” he said.
This year’s 63% score puts Retal well on track towards reaching its 65% goal to qualify for Gold status by 2025.
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RETAL Baltic Films will be adding to its extensive flexible packaging portfolio with mono solutions for APET and top lidding films at this year’s Interpack in Dusseldorf from 4-10 May 2023.
The team will be available at stand C10 in Hall 12, answering questions, offering samples and sharing the advantages of its agile range of films for the food and film conversion markets.
RETAL Baltic Film’s team of rigid and flexible film experts will present how its latest sustainable solutions for mono packaging can support recyclability goals of its customers. When sourcing both rigid bottom and top lidding films from one supplier, RETAL partners can be sure their packaging needs will be solved with the highest attention and customization. In-house packaging equipment installed at RETAL Baltic Films helps to cut downtime on customers’ lines as analysis is made before reaching the production line.
General manager Viktorija Griziene says, “I am looking forward to highlighting our flexibility, product quality and personalized customer approach at Interpack; 2023 is set to be another strong year for us as we continue to invest and expand, so we shall be talking to our customers and seeing how our latest innovations can support their sustainable packaging goals. As a rather small but experienced team with the benefit of being part of a multinational group with its own resin production, we are agile but with a stable supply of raw materials and stay close to the latest developments in the market.”
RETAL Baltic Films at Interpack: Hall 12, Booth C10
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RETAL’s latest Sustainability Report (for the period 2021) has recently been published and is available for download. The 80-page, informative document explains the company’s holistic CSR approach and presents its results. This is the first year that RETAL has also produced an Executive Summary; a concise version containing only the key facts and figures which can be easily shared, understood and translated, with each local plant able to offer it to their customers.
Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut says, “The most important thing is that everyone who wants to know what we’re doing in terms of sustainability can find out quickly and easily. The Executive Summary follows the same structure and explains the full report in just six pages. It’s a great addition to the Sustainability Report for the convenience of our stakeholders and customers.
The increasing demand for ever more thorough sustainability reporting is great for boosting an organizations’ transparency and quantifiable CSR actions but can make it harder for stakeholders across the value chain to understand, especially if English is not their native language.”
The RETAL Sustainability Report 2021 Executive Summary is available for download here.
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