Mondi’s TankerBox Revolutionises Sustainable Shipping for Aromsa’s Flavourful Products

Huhtamaki introduces Smilepack, a 100% plastic free molded fiber egg carton, in the United States and Brazil. Smilepack cartons are Huhtamaki’s first product designed especially for the U.S. egg industry, providing a sustainable and functional alternative to traditional polystyrene foam or plastic packaging for eggs. In the United States, the egg packaging market is expected to reach $405 MN at a CAGR of 4.38% by 2025*. The Smilepack egg cartons are made with fiber recovered from recycled paper, which can be reused up to seven times. The cartons can be recycled in regular paper stream and they are home and industrially compostable. Smilepack is already in use in the U.S. by a prominent producer and distributor of free-range eggs, whose products are sold in retail stores across the country. It is estimated that by switching to fiber packaging, this company will eliminate around 4.6 million plastic egg cartons, or around 200 metric tons of plastic annually.

Viipurilainen Kotileipomo is a nearly 100-year-old company that produces pastries and artisan breads from local ingredients using traditional methods. When the bakery was looking for a new solution for its cake packaging, its key criteria were to reduce the environmental footprint of the packaging, and to make assembly quick and easy. Viipurilainen Kotileipomo and Metsä Board's packaging design team based at Metsä Board's Excellence Centre jointly developed a resource-efficient and 100% recyclable bakery packaging. The new eye-catching packaging reduces material requirements by 25%, and carbon dioxide emissions by 34% compared to the previous packaging. At the same time, the bakery was able to reduce its use of plastic by moving away from a PE-coated board. In addition to the environmental benefits, the design of the new bakery box makes it quicker and easier to assemble. "Packaging sustainability is important to us and our customers, and it's great to be able to spread the word about reducing plastic and promoting recycling. The whole product development process was carried out in a structured way at the Excellence Centre and the new stylish packaging was quickly brought to market," says Teppo Ylä-Hemmilä, Bread Artist and Innovation Director, Viipurilainen Kotileipomo.

Net sales for the second quarter of 2017 were $1,021.8 million, an increase of $147.2 million, or 16.8 percent, as compared to $874.6 million in 2016. This increase was the result of the acquisition of Dispensing Systems in April 2017 and higher net sales across all of the businesses. Income from operations for the second quarter of 2017 was $75.2 million, an increase of $7.5 million, or 11.1 percent, as compared to $67.7 million for the second quarter of 2016, while operating margin decreased to 7.4 percent from 7.7 percent for the same periods. The increase in income from operations was the result of the net benefit from the acquisition of Dispensing Systems and higher income from operations in each of the businesses. The decrease in operating margin was due primarily to the negative impact from the purchase accounting write-up of inventory of Dispensing Systems and acquisition related costs in the quarter. Rationalization charges were $3.0 million and $5.0 million in the second quarters of 2017 and 2016, respectively. Click Read More below for additional details.