Linpac’s 16 plants throughout the world are about to get an Australian sibling. The UK packaging company is investing $22 million in its first Australian manufacturing headquarters, at Truganina, in Melbourne’s west.
That’s good news for Australia’s declining manufacturing industry. More than seventy full time manufacturing jobs will be created.
The Linpac Group will raise the bar for food packaging in Australia. One of the new products to be made here is the first fully recyclable rPET meat tray, Rfresh Elite, that won the PackTheFuture 2014 Award in Ecodesign in May. This award considers recyclability, source reduction and weight reduction.
The Rfresh Elite tray is made from super lightweight, mono-material, with a sealant on the tray flange to create a secure seal with the lidding film. This removes the need for the industry standard laminated PE base film and creates a crystal clear tray which is 100% recyclable at the end of its service life.
The special sealant may be removed in the hot wash process used by many PET recycling companies, meaning a recycled Rfresh Elite tray will yield 100% crystal clear PET after recycling, in the same way as a clear bottle, and allows trays to enter and benefit the entire closed loop rPET supply chain.
The sealant on the tray flange is opaque, turning clear only after the lidding film has been heat-sealed onto the tray. For the first time packer processors will be able to visually witness the seal integrity of the pack. The tray has the strongest seal strength in its class. There is a 60% improvement in burst test strength and a 24% improvement in vacuum chamber testing compared to standard PET/PE packs.
The trays are manufactured from up to 95% rPET, which has passed through Linpac Packaging’s food grade super cleaning system to ensure it is entirely food safe, and have been developed in conjunction with the company’s Project LIFE (LIghtweighting For Excellence) initiative, implemented to significantly reduce the overall weight and carbon footprint of Linpac trays, without compromising performance and integrity.
Rfresh Elite trays also require significantly lower levels of heat for sealing. This reduces the packers’ machine energy consumption by around 15%, lowering their overall carbon footprint and in addition, the packaging is not adversely affected by the heat during the sealing cycle. This removes the risk of rolled flanges, hour glass shape trays or poor lid film visuals which sometimes affect other lightweight PET/PE trays.
In addition, seal dwell times are reduced by up to 50% compared to standard rPET and PP trays; some machines have achieved seal time savings in the region of 0.5 seconds. This means packers can increase their throughput by around 10% which translates to production of an extra 10 packs per minute or 12,000 packs per day.
Over time the company will bring other categories of rigid and flexible food packaging for products such as meat, fish & poultry, bakery, delicatessen and fruit & produce.
"The new Linpac product range will help Australian food producers and processors to improve their products' presentation, freshness, shelf life and sustainability credentials and vitally supports improved access to fast growing export markets in Asia. This investment builds on Victoria's Food to Asia Plan, which aims to convert our outstanding capabilities in food production, manufacturing and logistics into ongoing economic growth," Deputy Premier and minister for state development, Peter Ryan, stated.
"The Victorian Coalition Government is proud to have lured this $22 million investment which will create 72 new jobs in Melbourne's western suburbs. The Coalition's Office of State Development worked with Linpac to examine the advantages of a Victorian single site for servicing the Australian market. The decision assessed site options, market opportunities and trends and infrastructure availability.”
Graeme Robinson, managing director, Linpac Packaging Australia, added, "With four million people living in Melbourne and forecasts of huge consumer growth, Melbourne seemed the perfect location for us. It was also an easy decision for Linpac to seek out a site in Melbourne with the city's multicultural, welcoming environment and the government's $27 billion commitment to Melbourne's road, rail and social infrastructure."
