*Glenn A Wright, commercial vice president, North American Basic Plastics at The Dow Chemical Company, will help brand owners navigate through the packaging “hype” to discover packaging that can truly be helpful in achieving sustainability goals. * The keynote address will take place at a Conference at this year's Pack Expo, 12 November in Chicago, US. Both events are sponsored and produced by PMMI. Wright and the Conference’s two other keynote speakers, Betsy Cohen, vice president of sustainability for Nestlé, and Trevor Cusworth, director, Deloitte Consulting LLP, will each explore the conference theme, 'Change, Innovation & Sustainability'. Mr Wright’s speech, 'Packaging – Elemental to a Sustainable Future', will cover positive environmental, social and economic impacts of packaging and highlight real benefits that often go unnoticed. Consumer and industry data featured in this session will illustrate how packaging contributes to sustainability, and that when accompanied by education and industry collaboration, may not only benefit the environment, but strengthen brand capability as well. The Dow Chemical Company will also sponsor The Showcase of Packaging Innovations at Pack Expo – a gallery of hundreds of award-winning packaging designs from internationally recognised packaging associations.

Cadbury Schweppes is relaunching its Cool Ridge still spring water brand, with a brand refresh that will hit Australian shelves this month (June 08), incorporating a new pack design and a new product positioning. The new packaging has been developed to maintain the ‘natural’ heritage of the brand which consumers previously associated with the image of a blue waterfall. On the new pack, this has been translated to a pebble surrounded by flowing water, providing Cool Ridge with a cleaner, fresher look and increased stand-out on-shelf. The new brand positioning has been developed to emphasise the fact that Cool Ridge is and always has been locally sourced Australian water, and aims to differentiate the brand from competitors by reinforcing that Cool Ridge is simple, quality Australian still spring water with no gimmicks or pretentions. The brand refresh will be supported by a PR campaign that focuses on ‘honesty’ and aims to respond to some of the unusual claims made about water in a number of areas. The relaunch will also be supported by extensive investment in point of sale solutions and sampling. Sponsorship opportunities focusing on initiatives that make a difference to Australians and Australian water resources will also be explored. Darryn Wallace, Director of Beverage Marketing for Cadbury Schweppes said that a brand refresh for Cool Ridge was a very positive step: “Cool Ridge has always been a strong performer within our stable of beverages. It has very broad distribution in a category which continues to grow year on year. And with the improved shelf presence of the new pack design, we expect to see solid growth.” Sales figures reveal that bottled water is growing in popularity in Australia, with an increase in consumption of 10% per year for the past six years .

The Australian Federal Court has ruled that Nudie Foods Australia Pty Ltd, makers of nudie fruit juice drinks, has been misleading the public as to the fruit content of two of its products: Rosie Ruby and Rosie Blue. nudie claimed that Rosie Ruby juice consisted of 100% cranberry cloudy juice and Rosie Blue was solely cranberry and blueberry juice. But the drinks in fact contained only about 20% of those juices with the rest predominantly made up of reconstituted apple juice, the court found, following legal action brought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The misrepresentations were made on nudie products in shops around Australia and on advertising between July 2007 and January 2008. The Federal Court ordered nudie to publish corrective advertisements, establish an education, training and trade practices compliance programme and pay legal costs to the ACCC. ACCC Chairman Graeme Samuel said it was “another warning” to companies to consider carefully what claims were made about a product on its labelling and in marketing. The orders require nudie to ensure that the fruit listed on the label corresponds with what is in the bottle. Could this mean an end to the quirky names that have become the brand’s hallmark?

*Waterlogic France was a recent partner of the 32nd edition of the music festival, 'Le Printemps de Bourges'. * Each year more than 230,000 music lovers attend the series of concerts, set in various venues across the city of Bourges. Artists include dance, theater, pop, classical, hip hop and rock stars. This year’s festival had a special focus on sustainable development. A Waterlogic WL 3000 cold, ambient and sparkling water dispenser was positioned at the festival entrance to quench the thirst festival goers. Another unit was strategically installed in the auditorium of the Natural History museum which hosted a sustainable development event. The partnership presented not only the opportunity of positioning Waterlogic machines at selected festival events, but also placed Waterlogic France in contact with the over 2,000 journalists who attended the event via the festival press circuit and communications. Charles Guillot, Sales Manager of Waterlogic France stated: “We felt that the opportunity to partner with the festival this year was well timed. The event has high visibility and we are confident that our presence there, trailing the recent start of our TV campaign, has raised our awareness with a desirable demographic throughout France.”

*A unique partnership between One ethical water and Vivreau – UK supplier of purified, mains-fed water systems – heralds a new era in ethical and environmentally friendly drinking. * Vivreau and One water have announced a collaboration which offers customers in the corporate, hotel, restaurant and leisure sectors One water branded versions of Vivreau’s market leading Table Water Bottling System and its new VR3000 dispenser. For each new One water bottling system installed, Vivreau will donate £500 to One Water and £75 for each VR3000. All One water branded systems will be available at no extra cost to the customer. One water donates all its profits to funding water pumps in Africa, providing clean water to some of the 1 billion people that don’t have it. The partnership with Vivreau will help fund the installation of innovative registered ‘PlayPump’ water systems which use the power generated by children at play to pump water from deep under ground into a storage tank where it is then easily accessible from a tap. In many areas of Africa, this can save people from having to spend up to five hours a day walking to and from a drinking water source. Vivreau currently supplies its drinking water systems to 60% of the UK’s top 100 companies, as well as hundreds of small businesses, restaurants and hotels, helping them to reduce their carbon footprint by eliminating plastic and glass waste and the CO2 produced by transporting water from distant sources. Vivreau Managing Director Stephen Charles, said: “Vivreau set out to combine its environmental credentials with a social and ethical cause. I was mesmerised by the power and simplicity of One Water’s PlayPump systems which harness the power of play to solve a community’s water access problems.” One water Managing Director Duncan Goose, said “We are delighted to team up with Vivreau as it gives us a further way of generating funds to build more PlayPumps and improve even more lives. By switching to One water Vivreau systems, companies can be confident that they are helping both to fund clean water projects in Africa and improve the environment.” To provide an initial boost to the new partnership, Vivreau has undertaken to fully fund a second pump as soon as revenues from sales have raised enough for the first PlayPump.

New UK ethical fruit juice brand Good Natured launches its first TV ads this month as part of Viacom Brand Solutions’ (VBS) ‘Force For Good’ initiative. The ten and 20 second TV spots will run on Nick Jr and Paramount Comedy during popular shows such as Dora the Explorer, Lazytown and Sex and the City. The VBS ‘Force For Good’ campaign, announced late last year, offers to match advertising investment pound for pound for organisations whose products or services promote social good. Good Natured offers a strong proposition to consumers wishing to make an ethical purchase within the chilled juice category. All of the 100% Valencia oranges used in the company’s Pure Orange and Pure Tropical juices come from the Rainforest Alliance Certified Del Oro Farm in Costa Rica, and the products carry the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal. Research has also shown that because Good Natured is made from concentrate, its carbon footprint is some three times smaller than an equivalent ‘not from concentrate’ juice. The TV ads feature Costa Rican farmers harvesting the Valencia oranges which are used to make Good Natured and will highlight the farm’s Rainforest Alliance Certified status – with the aim of reflecting the brand as a responsible, sustainable choice for ethically conscious families. “The VBS ‘Force For Good’ campaign is a really exciting initiative to be involved with which we hope will help drive awareness of Good Natured and its ethical credentials," enthused Good Natured Co-Founder Greg Boyle. “We are confident that we have a great tasting product and the fact that it’s healthy too, contributing to your 5-a-day fruit and vegetables, makes it a good choice for families.”

The 100-year old Spanish laboratory Oliver Rodés has lent a sample of its 5,000 water bottles from over 120 countries to Expo Zaragoza. When Dr Benito Oliver Rodés began analysing his first water bottles in 1902 he could never have imagined that over a century later, a large selection would be on display at an international event. Laboratorio Dr Oliver Rodés currently works with hundred of companies throughout Europe related to the bottled water sector, pharmaceuticals and the control of residual water. Since its establishment in 1902, the centre has become a leading authority in the analysis of bottled and medicinal mineral waters. Throughout its 106-year history the company has analysed many bottles and a sample of those containers are kept in a museum at corporate headquarters. In total, Laboratorio Dr Oliver Rodés has more than 5,000 water bottles from more than 120 countries worldwide. Now, a significant part of this collection will be present at Expo Zaragoza. The show features around 500 exhibitors from 120 countries. The bottles on show are from 1950 to the present day including containers made of glass, plastics (PVC, polythene and polycarbonate) and even tetrabrik. Many are unique examples, whether due to their shape, embossed marks or special characteristics. They also feature different types of water: still and sparkling, medicinal mineral water, water with natural minerals, and treated drinking water. The Laboratorio Dr. Oliver Rodés collection will be shown at the entrance to the Catalonia pavilion in the form of a waterfall, so that visitors start their tour of the exhibition with the water bottle display. Grandson Rodés Jordi Oliver Rodés, great grandson of the founder and General Manager of the laboratory commented: "Some months ago, the Generalitat asked us to take part in the display within the Catalan pavilion at the Expo and, taking into account the fact that water is the event’s main theme, we are very pleased to be taking a considerable part of our museum to Zaragoza.” The complete collection can be visited at the headquarters of the laboratory in El Prat de Llobregat (Barcelona). While all of the company’s bottles can be found there, some of them are especially significant, such as the first five-litre glass bottle and bottles containing water from spas worldwide. The Laboratorio Dr Oliver Rodés works with hundreds of companies throughout Europe related to the bottled water sector, pharmaceuticals and the control of residual water. The laboratory currently analyses more than 100 different springs all over Spain, as well as many others in Europe and on the other continents. On a national level, the laboratory has worked with the Environment and Health Ministries and with a range of autonomous governments, while outside Spain it has worked with such prestigious organisations as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Safety Foundation (NSF), the European Federation of Bottled Water (EFBW) and European Bottled Watercooler Association (EBWA).

UK supplier Kleena Coola is now stocking a wide range of cleaning goods from UK-based manufacturer Cleenol. The most exciting addition will be the Cleenol Envirological Range of 'house-keeping' products. The range has been formulated to minimise the impact of each product on the environment, while not compromising on quality or performance. The range uses raw materials from renewable sources, is fully biodegradable and uses recycled or recyclable packaging. The range includes pure white detergent for hand dishwashing, glass cleaner, multipurpose cleaner as an alternative to highly alkaline alternatives, antibacterial bath and washroom cleaner for effective cleaning and descaling, liquid hand soap and citric toilet cleaner. Kleena Coola will also hold stock of a number of other Cleenol products, such as Envirowipe plus, traffic film remover, heavy duty cleaner (suitable for cooler bodies) and floor cleaner, as well as offering hygiene training and management systems for bottling plants. Kleena Coola Managing Director Ian Devine explained: “We have added various janitorial products to our offering which customers have found very useful, when ordering from our range of hygiene and sanitisation goods.”

By Mike Ramey** Agricultural, environmental and food industry groups in the US are urging the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to scale back the production of bio-ethanol this year, in light of the soaring cost of food exacerbated by recent severe flooding in the Midwest.** The flooding of “America’s grain bowl” threatens not only to send food prices still higher, but is also increasing the price of ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), used by many US soft drinks producers to sweeten their products. Earlier this month, PepsiCo CEO and Chairman Indra Nooyi urged the US Government to curb the seemingly inexorable rise of commodity costs. One contributory factor to the increases is the diversion of grain to bio-ethanol production under the so-called “food-to-fuel” policy. The EPA is currently considering a formal request from Rick Perry, Republican Governor of Texas, to reduce this year’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) by half. The RFS calls for 9 billion gallons (34 billion litres) of ethanol be blended into America’s fuel supply in 2008. However, a new study to be presented to the EPA on Monday (23 June) claims that increased bio-ethanol production has only a small effect on fuel prices, but a massive impact on food and ingredient prices. Dr Thomas Elam of FarmEcon, an agricultural and food industry consultancy, is one of a number of experts who are backing the study. * Negative effects* “It is clear that while America’s ethanol mandate has done little to hold down the steadily-climbing gasoline prices, its negative effects on the security of our food supply and the cost to feed our families are huge,” Dr Elam said during a conference call with journalists. “In light of recent events, it is imperative that the Government re-examine and reduce these mandates. We are facing tighter and tighter supplies of grain that threaten to devastate meat, dairy and poultry producers, and cause food price increases for the American consumer. The Government must not allow this to happen.” Other participants in the conference call also expressed concern about the potential environmental damage of increased ethanol production. “This year’s 9 billion gallon RFS mandate will cause an estimated 100 million tons of soil erosion, and put 300,000 tons of nitrogen fertiliser into Midwestern waters,” said Richard Wiles, Executive Director of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-governmental research organisation based in Washington, DC. “Thanks largely to the ethanol mandate and an excessively wet spring, pollution levels in the Gulf of Mexico are expected to reach record levels, with a dead zone the size of Massachusetts. That’s a high environmental price to pay for a bio-fuels policy that is straining family food budgets for the poorest Americans, and is doing next to nothing to lower gas prices.” The EPA must issue a decision by 24 July on Governor Perry’s call to cut this year’s bio-fuel production target.

Martin Amann, Packaging Design Specialist at Amann & Partners in Switzerland spoke at the recent Global Dairy Congress in Athens about emotional packaging design. He gave dairy innovation his view (issue 18 – June 2008). I guess we all agree that the consumer needs a certain amount of information on a pack. The crucial point is how much is enough and where does it get too much? The amount of information required or expected is heavily dependent on the limbic profile of the consumer. The more ‘Balance instruction’ a consumer has, the more he is interested in details and information of any kind. Consumers having more ‘Dominance or Stimulance instruction’ are rather relaxed concerning information. Many companies now put the GDAs (Guideline Daily Amounts) on the packs. Quite often the GDAs are put on the front panel. Whether this kind of information is helping to sell products is an open question and I am convinced that on some products it is even counter productive. It is the same as putting a sticker with the gas consumption on a big heavy SUV. What makes sense for a small car with a good energy balance is not very useful for other types of cars. In general I fear that we overload packs with too much – and often not very relevant – information. If the back of a pack (or even the front panel) looks like instructions for using a medical product, who do we expect to really read all of that? My point of view is: give the important and honest information where it makes sense but don’t forget that purchasing decisions are made to a large extent on an emotional level. The French Canadian writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said: “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” Shouldn’t we trust and follow this quote a bit more?

“We’re off to a strong start as a focused confectionery business and expect first half revenues above our goal range and good progress on margins. These results will demonstrate the strength of our total confectionery platform, the benefits of the significant investments made in recent years and the potential of our business. Despite the challenging economic outlook and further increases in input costs in the second half, we are confident of a successful outcome for 2008, ” said Cadbury CEO Todd Stitzer. The company expects strong revenue in the first half with second quarter growth likely to be modestly higher than the 7% like-for-like growth reported for the first quarter. Good progress is being made on margins despite a further increase in marketing investment. Price increases have been implemented across the majority of our markets and these are recovering significant increases in input costs. Margins in the first half will benefit from positive product mix and previously announced “Vision into Action” cost reduction initiatives including downsizing central and regional functions and outsourcing non-core activities. In Britain, Ireland, the Middle East and Africa, revenue growth has been driven by higher marketing and double-digit growth from the emerging market businesses. Profit and margin progress in the first half will be strong with margins benefiting from a further improvement in Nigeria, cost reduction initiatives and lower one-off costs in Britain and Ireland. In Britain, revenue growth is expected to be ahead of the confectionery market which is ahead 2% year-to-date. The exit from some less profitable promotions has been more than offset by good growth in core brands, including Cadbury Dairy Milk. In Europe, planned route to market changes in Russia and Turkey and lower market growth in Southern Europe have impacted performance. Gum growth remains strong reflecting the combination of market growth across the region and share gains in Southern Europe. In Turkey, Cadbury is integrating its existing distribution infrastructure with the Intergum business and revenues in the half are being impacted by the exit from a number of distribution arrangements. Overall, margins are expected to be lower in the region in the first half given the route to market reorganisation. In the US, the gum market is ahead 8% year to date, benefiting from the 2007 price increases and continued high levels of innovation activity. Growth continues to be driven by our Trident and Stride brands. In Asia Pacific, revenue growth in the half has benefited from an improved performance from confectionery in Australia and strong double-digit growth in emerging markets. In Australia beverages, revenue growth has strengthened in the last few months and in emerging markets, India has had another excellent half with good performances in all categories. * Outlook* For the first half of 2008, the company expects revenue growth above the top end of its 4% - 6% goal range and margin growth of at least 150 basis points (at constant exchange rates). We expect our commodity cost increases for the year to remain in the 5% - 6% range, however, these increases are now expected to be weighted toward the second half. Following the completion of the demerger on 7 May 2008, Americas Beverages will be classified as a discontinued operation and the results will not be included within the continuing operations of Cadbury plc.

RDA Organic has launched a range of organic "fresh functional superfruit" drinks that make bold health claims. The organic fruit in each bottle of the RDA Organic fresh functional superfruit range has been selected for its high content of essential vitamins and minerals. The fruits are extremely high in antioxidants and polyphenols. The first flavours in the range are Acai berry, Blackcurrant and Evesse Apple, and Pomegranate, Blueberry and Evesse Apple. Grown in Herefordshire, Evesse organic apples are the UK's local superfruit. Rich in health-boosting flavanols, Evesse apples help to maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. RDA Organic is the first brand globally to use Evesse organic apples and has agreed a brand partnership with the British growers for the next two years. "Forming this partnership has given us a great opportunity to add this fantastic variety of organically grown British fruit to our range," said Patrick O'Flaherty, founder of RDA Organic. "Previously, the major source of epicatechin – the flavanol identified by nutrition researchers as the key component in fruits proven to give cardiovascular benefits was cocoa. Now, however, Evesse organic apples provide the perfect solution to allow us to give our consumers a fantastic opportunity to improve heart health and promote good circulation while enjoying a delicious organic drink." The RDS Organic fresh functional superfruit range is available in Waitrose and Ocado.com, as well as various independent chains. RDA Organic was a finalist in the <1>, which was held in Moscow earlier this year. <1>: /articleDetail.aspx?contentId=732