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By Jason Holway Zenith International
*More than 250 suppliers and brand owners met in Atlanta, Georgia, at the end of September for the Aseptipak conference organised by Schotland Business Research – the programme investigating the theme 'Aseptic as an Enabler of Sustainability'. *
Currently, the majority of ‘aseptic’ products in the US market are produced using hot-fill technology, but there were signs that beverage producers in particular may well be ready to embrace cold-fill technology, with the impression given that future CAPEX will favour the latter format.
Nowhere was this trend better illustrated than in an Audience Response session after lunch on the first day. All 250 or so delegates contributed to a real-time market research exercise in which 43 questions were posed under a variety of headings: investment, sterilisation, sustainability, flexible packaging, closures, performance and consumer attitudes. With a significant number of the delegates also key decision makers within their organisations, some weight can be given to the responses even if statisticians might challenge the science!
Schotland has pioneered the ARS technique in packaging and food and beverage related conferences, being the first to use it when it was launched at Nova-Pack 2008 last February.
The system has the virtue of capturing real yet anonymous feedback from a large number of respondents, encouraging an openness that might not always be a natural response when sharing the forum with direct competitors.
Around three quarters of delegates revealed that they were planning aseptic packaging investments within the next three years, approaching half in 2009, with the current financial turmoil apparently having little impact – almost three quarters would continue to pursue those plans. However, half of the delegates hoped they wouldn't be paying any extra for dry aseptic against hot-fill costs.
For around half the delegates, 600bpm line speed was sufficient, 80% would blow the bottles on-site, while nearly 60% would mitigate the investment (and learn more about a challenging technology) by using co-packing to begin with.
Similar proportions – around two thirds in each case – recognised that consumers valued the recyclability and/or compostibility of packaging, and felt that aseptic packaging had a sufficiently well-established link to sustainability for such an emphasis to represent a marketing opportunity for brands. However, it was also acknowledged that ‘sustainability’ remained an imprecisely defined term that had a feel-good factor and a broad appeal.
Interestingly, when asked about those influences on the consumer purchasing decision, sustainability was given as most important by only 1% of the audience. Cost and quality shared 85% out of a quartet of choices completed by healthiness, but led by cost (though nearly half of the delegates communicated in a follow-up question that ‘better product taste’ was the single biggest advantage conferred by aseptic packaging).
Still beverages When it came to determining through which beverage sectors cold-fill aseptic would gather in importance, the emphasis was on added value still beverages – juices, RTD teas, sports and energy drinks.
Recognising that such sectors might favour more innovative closure technology – and also the challenge of running sports caps down a cold aseptic line – delegates were asked whether they wanted to see LAAB (low acid aseptic beverages) with a sports cap and no foil seal. 70% said they did, with around two thirds expecting such offerings to represent between 5% and 10% of consumption across these still beverage sectors in the next half decade.
Across these same categories, more than three quarters of respondents felt that aseptically filled product would represent between 10% and 25% of volume against hot-fill over the same time frame.
Such developments would likely take place off the same finish sizes: 38mm and 28mm for multi-serve and single-serve respectively.
Addressing the issues What issues will cold-fill aseptic technology suppliers have to address to turn this potential into reality? Unsurprisingly the chief obstacle identified was high capital investment (64%), another 15% highlighting the fact that installed capacity is expected to carry on operating for some time to come.
Around 20% recognised that technical support and operator training represented a real challenge and, from speaking to those producers that have hard-learnt experience, the learning curve is steep. Sharing that experience is something these pioneers are more than willing to do, but it can be condensed only so much. Self-learning is both unavoidable and invaluable.
A number of those companies currently offering cold-fill aseptic solutions – Krones, Sidel, KHS, GEA Procomac, Scholle and Advanced Electron Beams – both presented and sponsored the event, while Nestlé, Gehl Foods, Sara Lee and Corvaglia were well represented on the platform and in the audience.
Interest now switches to Fort Lauderdale in Florida for the 2009 Nova-Pack event in early February 2009, which will look at latest developments in PET containers for food and beverages.