Global Packaging Alliance Addressing Need for Sustainability, Innovation

At its recent annual meeting in Hong Kong, the Global Packaging Alliance discussed packaging trends in several markets, with members sharing the latest news on their own packaging operations. Key topics included "packaging innovation and sustainability" as well as "ways to further support international brands in growth markets," GPA reports. Alliance members reported recent equipment investments, technical advancements, process improvements, new materials, and operating data for benchmarking.

The agenda also included a review of market developments in the Middle East and India with the possibility of adding a company to the GPA’s current network in these regions. With this in mind, the next GPA annual conference is scheduled to take place in India in early 2012.

“Our customers – mostly international brand manufacturers – have already indicated a need for support, especially in the Middle East and India,” said Hans-Christian Bestehorn, GPA president and CEO of the rlc | packaging group, a charter member of the GPA. “As a result, the GPA is looking at ways to increase its presence in these regions.

"Global presence is an increasingly important success factor,” Bestehorn continued. “Products need to reach the market more quickly and be made available on a global scale. A single, medium-sized packaging company is hardly in a position to meet the demands of global brand manufacturers. The GPA fills this gap by coordinating production processes and methods, implementing identical quality standards, and assuming global packaging management responsibility across the entire value chain. Production in each case can take place locally. This makes it possible to ensure a consistent brand presence and shorten the time to market.”

U.S.-based GPA member Diamond Packaging and the rlc | packaging group are collaborating on Green Chic sustainable finishing techniques. In addition, the rlc | packaging group’s brandpack concept, an in-house center for packaging design integrating material, graphic, design, and finishing effects, is being adapted by others members, including South Africa-based Masterpack.

The rlc | packaging group also reported that it will join the Consumer Goods Forum as a GPA representative to bring global developments and trends in the consumer goods market into the network.

GPA members include:

Members include:

Diamond Packaging                  Rochester, NY      USA

rlc | packaging group                  Hannover      Germany

Colorpak Limited                  Melbourne      Australia

Gonçalves SA Indústria Gráfica            Sao Paolo      Brazil

Polygrafoformlenie - Flexo             St. Petersburg      Russia

Yau Bon Offset Printing            Shenzhen      China

Cartmont Packaging                  Tlalnepantla      Mexico

Kumar Printers                  Gurgaon            India

Masterpack                        Johannesburg      South Africa

For more information about the Global Packaging Alliance, contact Dennis Bacchetta at (585) 334-8030 x229 or visit
www.global-packaging-alliance.com.