The consolidation continues
The acquisition trail continues within the metal packaging industry, as the news this week has been the fact that Belvac Production Machinery has announced the acquisition of Rosario Can Technology.
According to the president of Belvac, Richard Steigerwald: “The addition of Rosario uniquely positions Belvac to offer can manufacturers worldwide a well-capitalised decorator and basecoater choice. The result is technical, market and operational leadership in decorating systems.”
In an ever-changing landscape, it remains to be seen what the implications are for the industry, particularly within the decorating sector. We’re hoping to gain an exclusive interview with the guys at Belvac soon, where we’ll give you the inside track.
This month’s resident Can Man offers a rallying call to the industry regarding plastic packaging. You can read about it in our February issue. To whet the appetite, here is an extract:
And where has our own metal packaging industry been in all of this activity? I haven’t seen or read anything about how cans could step in and grab all the opportunities being thrown at them by the anti-plastic brigade. Are we missing a big trick here? A quick bit of Googling doesn’t fill me with confidence either. Most of the sustainability and carbon footprint comparisons are between glass, plastic (PET) and aluminium packaging – there’s no sign of the carton here. If you throw Google the question ‘Is a metal can or carton easier to recycle?’, after a handful of old studies, the sixth result takes you to tetrapakrecycling.co.uk – a website dedicated to the benefits of the Tetra Pak carton.
It’s a very valid point – plastic packaging is taking a real hammering at the minute. But are we offering that viable alternative? We may be, but we’re losing the PR battle as usual.
A small observation, but if every one of us can reach out and market the merits of the metal can outside of the industry, just once this month, we’ll be in a better place. Let’s stop preaching to the converted…
