In preparation for International Women in Engineering Day, packaging writer Emma-Jane Batey spoke to Brittany Brooks, sales representative at global plastic packaging producer RETAL, about her journey from humble beginnings, to mentoring the next generation of STEM students for a career in engineering.
Alabama native Brittany Brooks has forged a successful career in plastic packaging thanks to her determination to harness her intellect and utilize her opportunities. With a strong character and an even stronger dedication to being successful in everything she does, Brittany has recently been promoted to sales representative at global plastic packaging producer RETAL, at its Donora PA facility.
Born in a small town in Alabama in the southeast of North America, Brittany did not come from a wealthy or educated immediate family yet has consistently succeeded against a backdrop of limited support in her higher education. She says, “My grandparents have always encouraged me to learn and use my brain. My grandad was a retired math professor and he shared with me a love of math; he'd teach me things I wasn't supposed to know yet! I was also intrigued by science from a young age; my aunt would give me experiments to do and articles to read.”
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After a Covid-induced delay, the world’s leading drink and liquid food trade show Drinktec is fast approaching, with the RETAL team ready to head to Munich from 12 – 16 September 2022.
With Drinktec being the first international show that RETAL has attended for two years, the team is looking forward to presenting our latest sustainability-driven products, tethered closures and other recent developments at our stand C5 Booth 351.
Senior Marketing manage Europe and US Maria Jarrar says, “Drinktec is a great opportunity for us to meet with our customers as it’s such a popular trade show. There’s a great energy at Drinktec; we’ll be there sharing our most up to date packaging solutions and talking with customers, partners and friends from across the supply chain.”
RETAL is arranging meetings with customers, potential customers and valued contacts at our stand and is pleased to offer free Drinktec tickets directly from Maria or your RETAL contact.
The expansion of plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL in Donora, PA continues with investment, recruitment and production all stepping up a gear.
RETAL PA has so far included a further six injection molding lines to join its existing five lines, adding an additional 8000 sq. ft warehouse and recruiting 30 new employees to take the headcount from 40 to 70.
General manager and president of the facility Darius Janulionis notes, “This is an exciting time to be part of the US plastic packaging industry; we bring a fresh focus on sustainability in our portfolio and the demand for our expertise and our products is high. Customers increasingly appreciate our deep understanding of creating responsible packaging solutions. The new molding lines have been carefully chosen for their sustainability credentials, with the advanced technology meaning that each machine uses less energy to produce the same product.”
HR manager Elizabeth Giecek says, “We have a lot of roles available, including in the warehouse and in production, and we love to share how many of our team have been promoted internally, and that there is plenty of excellent training available for the right people. I look for enthusiasm, a positive attitude, and people that are happy to be part of our strong team.”
The team at RETAL’s Donora plant have generated excellent results, leading to the ongoing expansion program that is driven by strong demand from global food and beverage brand customers.
Direct applications for all open positions are welcome at RETAL PA, with further information available from elizabeth.giecek@retal.us
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Global plastic packaging solutions provider RETAL has been awarded a Silver level position from EcoVadis, the respected CSR performance and monitoring organisation.
RETAL achieved a 60% score, positioning the company in the 25% of companies assessed by EcoVadis, and in the top 18% of its industry.
This result marks a two-point increase from RETAL’s last assessment in 2021 and shows that the company is in line with its goal to reach 65% by 2023. Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut says, “We aim to achieve a score of 65% through the continuous implementation of actions in notable areas including Ethics, Labour Practices, and the Environment. All these subcategories, as well as Procurement, are already above 50%.”
Emmanuel notes that its score for the Sustainable Procurement category is already standing at an impressive 70%, an increase of 10 points, demonstrating the quantifiable work that RETAL is doing since the implementation of its Sustainable Procurement Program in 2019.
He adds, “Our CSR actions and mitigations are continuously improving, following the ISO 26000 standard, and ensuring the sustainable development of our company.”
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Emmanuel Duffaut, sustainability director at RETAL, discusses the sustainable potential and performance advantages of PET for FMCGs in our latest Rapid Interview.
Your elevator pitch: introduce and sell us your company in no more than 280 characters.
RETAL is a plastic packaging partner to many of the world’s leading FMCG brands, producing preforms, closures, containers, and films. We create solutions that deliver on performance and sustainability, harnessing R&D, quality assurance, and close cooperation with our customers.
Where are your company’s locations? Are there any specific challenges or advantages relating to your geographical location that you could tell us about?
We employ close to 900 people in Europe, the US, and Ukraine, and serve customers in more than 70 countries. Our many production sites across Europe and Ukraine allow us to be close to our household brand customers.
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Retal achieved a 60% score, positioning the company in the 25% of companies assessed by EcoVadis, and in the top 18% of its industry.
This result marks a two-point increase from Retal’s last assessment in 2021, putting the company on track to achieve its goal of reaching 65% by 2023. This, said sustainability director Emmanuel Duffaut, will be realised through the continuous implementation of actions in ‘notable areas’, including Ethics, Labour Practices, and the Environment.
With brand owners keento lightweighting packaging without compromising on barrier properties, packaging products, that understand the relationship between the materials used in top and bottom films can help reduce time to market and improve shelf life.
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RETAL Plastec has received the prestigious High Budget Honor from the “Aula Magna Mario Arcelli” of the Luiss Guido Carli University.
This award recognizes the strong financial performance of Italian joint stock companies, with categories noted including managerial performance, financial reliability, and ESG values.
With over 70,000 Italian companies assessed by the dedicated Scientific Committee of the university, the Felix Industry Awards and are now in their 41st year. Data analyzed included ROI, ROE and profit, as well as the Covid impact being taken into consideration.
General Manager Giampaolo Gatti says, “We share with you our happiness, our pride and our gratitude for what we have achieved. Our company was awarded the High Budget Honor on April 28th during the ‘Central Italy’ event in Rome. We are so proud to be acknowledged for our financial performance, including stability and reliability, as this truly shows how the hard work of our team is translated into tangible results.”
RETAL Plastec is one of two facilities in Italy for RETAL Industries Ltd, a multi-national plastic packaging solutions provider for many of the world’s leading household names in food and beverages.
Carbon footprint (CF) calculation study in Retal Baltic Films just showed that such assumption is not quite applicable to all plastics and products.
We’ve made the calculations with different types of our films and found out some interesting results.
But before that, some information to better understand the concept.
Black or brown APET film is a perfect grade for using the post industrial waste for recycling purposes. To produce it, we can collect not only our, but also client’s (brand owner, thermoformer) production waste in film or flake form and produce a new film. By doing this we can return up to 40% of plastic, used in production. It’s not something new to be done, but new is what we found out about it.
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Global plastic packaging solutions provider RETAL has been awarded a Silver level position from EcoVadis, the respected CSR performance and monitoring organisation.
RETAL achieved a 60% score, positioning the company in the 25% of companies assessed by EcoVadis, and in the top 18% of its industry.
This result marks a two-point increase from RETAL’s last assessment in 2021 and shows that the company is in line with its goal to reach 65% by 2023. Sustainability Director Emmanuel Duffaut says, “We aim to achieve a score of 65% through the continuous implementation of actions in notable areas including Ethics, Labour Practices, and the Environment. All these subcategories, as well as Procurement, are already above 50%.”
Emmanuel notes that its score for the Sustainable Procurement category is already standing at an impressive 70%, an increase of 10 points, demonstrating the quantifiable work that RETAL is doing since the implementation of its Sustainable Procurement Program in 2019.
He adds, “Our CSR actions and mitigations are continuously improving, following the ISO 26000 standard, and ensuring the sustainable development of our company.”
Read online at SPNews
Read / download in PDF