Complete solutions popular at BrauBeviale

The RETAL stand at this year’s BrauBeviale trade fair welcomed visitors from over 30 countries, with the RETAL and RETAL Baltic Films teams keen to highlight the latest innovative product developments.

Busy with meeting areas, filled with samples, and open to new and existing customers, the RETAL stand was a popular place at the event, which drew crowds of over 40,000 from across the beverage packaging industry.  

The latest product from RETAL created great interest. The PET wine bottle for the famous Spumante sparkling wine attracted special attention, with samples of the bottle available to people interested in knowing more. 

Samples were also available for a range of food and beverage segments, including finished products for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, edible oils and honey. RETAL presented complete solutions of rigid and flexible packaging for beverage and food producers, as well as tethered closures for a range of neck finishes. The tethered closure samples proved especially popular, as brands were ready to stay ahead of incoming legislation.

Senior marketing manager Maria Jarrar attended the event and is pleased to report that it offered a great opportunity to meet with customers. She says, “BrauBeviale was especially dynamic this year. We were delighted to speak with so many people at our stand, and also to walk around the event to catch up with our network. Sustainability continues to be the main topic, and we’re seeing how increased experience and expertise is bringing ever more innovative solutions. Being able to share samples and conversations showed how RETAL is continuing to make this leap forward throughout our complete packaging solutions portfolio.”

Thank you to everyone that visited the RETAL stand.

The latest RETAL Sustainability Report can be downloaded here LINK

Retal’s sustainability director: CSR reports must be more accessible as obligatory EU rules loom

10 Apr 2023 --- A sustainability report is the essential tool in communicating corporate social responsibility goals and actions to any organization’s stakeholders, from employees to customers to financial institutions. Increasingly, potential recruits value the environmental performance – and social values – of a company they’re considering, customers are keen to work with suppliers that align with their goals, and banks are using these reports as part of their assessment when making financial decisions. With the packaging industry at the sharp end of the pointy finger of sustainability for some time, it makes perfect sense that packaging manufacturers take creating and publishing their sustainability reports seriously.

A recent report from global management consulting firm McKinsey calls the global megatrend of sustainability in packaging a “general awakening” that shows no sign of slowing down, with all packaging manufacturers and brands that source packaging needing to “implement processes to address future requirements proactively.”

This appreciation of the seriousness of sustainability in packaging is also reflected in the report’s analysis that “83% of the legal measures relating to sustainable packaging worldwide focus on plastics,” with plastic beverage packaging leading the way in terms of accountability, according to the report.

The global beverage brands that use plastic packaging know that the quantifiable sustainability of their products, which is largely governed by the packaging, is a major factor in consumer choice, so it makes sense that these brands are driving their packaging suppliers to publish an annual sustainability report in a recognized format.

Creating an obligation

With so much at stake, it’s understandable that plastic packaging manufacturers for the F&B industry want to be sure that their annual sustainability reports are accurate, easy to understand, and effectively communicate their position and mitigating actions regarding their environmental and social impacts, even before the EU Directive makes it an obligation. Emmanuel Duffaut is the sustainability director at Retal, a multinational plastic packaging producer serving many leading food and beverage brands. Duffaut has seen how the company’s annual sustainability report has evolved since he joined in 2018, tasked with defining and driving its sustainability actions.

He explains: “Producing a sustainability report is a massive undertaking – you must provide a significant amount of data and information in a way that is easy to read and which provides an accurate image of the company.”

“Everything starts with the collection and aggregation of data and information from each of our 12 plants throughout the year to answer the indicators required by the GRI standard. Then you must build the narrative of the report around how we manage CSR and our goals,
actions and results in the different sustainability topics.”

“Last but not least, you must make the report appealing and reader-friendly, easy to navigate, highlighting the key information and data in
each section and providing a positive image of Retal. Retal collaborates with professional writers and designers to ensure that its report will deliver its CSR information to all its stakeholders in the best possible way. In that respect, we also provide an executive summary.”

Read online in Packaging Insights

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Head of R&D to present tethered closures insight in Barcelona

RETAL’s Head of R&D Anton Sugoniaev will be participating in the Plastic Closures Innovations event in Barcelona.

From 13th – 15th June, this respected industry event, hosted by AMI, will take place, with many industry partners and decision makers present.

Sugoniaev will be delivering his presentation, entitled ‘Insight into Creating Successful Tethered Closures’, explaining how small technical and design elements can offer big benefits for tethered closure production.

He says, “I am looking forward to sharing how our journey to creating a range of tethered closures for our customers has evolved, showing the twists and turns of legislation, implementation and production to an audience of fellow packaging experts. It will also be a good opportunity to meet with people we know and who share our commitment to the role of progressive packaging in the circular economy.”

Careers in packaging – Oleksandr Grynko

The vast array of careers in the packaging industry can be hard to quantify as the technical opportunities sit alongside sales, administrative and financial, as well as business development, communications and R&D. Here is an insight into the career development of product quality expert Oleksandr Grynko, whose background in chemistry has seen his work life evolve into a senior management role with a multinational plastic packaging manufacturer.


Highly experienced and dedicated to integrating his extensive chemistry knowledge into his work, Oleksandr is thoughtful, considered and approachable.
Growing up in a small city in the centre of Ukraine, Oleksandr starts by sharing his education, and how his early inspiration led to his career in the packaging industry. He says, “After going to school in my home city, I moved to Dnipro, although it wasn’t called Dnipro then. Here, I studied at college for four years. I have loved chemistry since high school; I love to watch the process of one substance magically turning into another. There are countless chemistries – inorganic, organic, physical, quantum, analytical – and I chose analytical chemistry at college. But it wasn’t enough! So, I continued on to university and studied ‘trendy’ polymer chemistry and completed graduate school.”
Even though Oleksandr has always loved chemistry, he also dreamed of becoming a seaman as a child and travelling the world across the seas. But the ocean’s loss is the packaging industry’s gain, and he continued studying chemistry instead of taking to the waves.


Further studies in chemistry

After Oleksandr’s post graduate studies that saw him gain a PhD in Chemistry, adding analytical chemistry and chemistry of polymers to his ever-expanding knowledge, he took his first professional job in a large agricultural chemical company, where he was in charge of the chemical
laboratory.
Oleksandr continues, “This was only a two-month job, as I then joined the company that became RETAL in October 2000. The company was very different to what it is today, it was all just beginning. There have been so many big changes and I am pleased to be a part of it. There were only seven machines at the start! It’s great for me to always be involved in the process; building new factories, new opportunities, new developments...new, new, new!”
Initially the only engineer in the chemical laboratory and then progressing to chief of the lab with a responsibility for a team of experts, Oleksandr has enjoyed that his career development has run in parallel to the development of RETAL. He says, “I like to make the most of the opportunities I am given, but without making fast changes that are not carefully planned and assessed. That way, we can be sure that our progress is sustainable. I like to be involved with the progress of the laboratory and our capabilities - raw materials, closures development – to make the most of our equipment and the skills of the team.”
Having moved with his family to Klaipeda from Dnipro around eight years ago, Oleksandr is happy to continue with his outdoor hobbies of biking and fishing all together, no doubt looking out to sea and planning where their next travelling adventures will take them.

Read online at Eco-Plastics in Packaging

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Sustainable Complete Films Well-Received at FACHPACK

RETAL Baltic Films enjoyed a welcome reception at this year’s Fachpack trade show for the packaging industry, held in Nuremberg at the end of September and now in its 40th year.  

Focusing on presenting its complete range of films solutions across both flexible and rigid films, RETAL Baltic Films hosted a busy stand, showing its rigid mono thermoformable APET film with mono top lidding BOPET film, with food contact approval.  

General manager Viktorija Griziene says, “Fachpack was a great opportunity for us to present our complete rigid bottom and top lidding film solutions for a range of food and personal care applications; we had plenty of samples available to show how the two elements work well together. Our team could also explain to visitors how our extensive in-house testing capabilities lets us really explore how to give our customers the best solution for their needs.” 

Griziene adds, “It is clear that there is a growing trend for increased sustainability and an interest in mono films across the industry. Our Fachpack stand was buzzing with questions and answers. It was so interesting to share that we regularly collaborate with our sister company NEO Group and can now offer rPET integrated into our APET, created through chemical recycling, bringing a wider range of sustainable solutions to our customers.” 

Chemical recycling helps to support a circular economy by reducing plastic waste, decreasing dependency on crude oil, and by lowering the carbon footprint of products made using the resulting rPET.  

Tethered closure expertise presented at Plastics News speaker event

The multinational sales team from plastic packaging producer RETAL was out in force at the recent Plastics News Caps & Closures speaker event in the US.  

Held in Schaumburg, Illinois, the prestigious event, hosted by the world’s leading online and print magazine for the plastics industry Plastics News, took place from 19 – 21st September 2022, with over 1500 participants.  

RETAL’s sales director for Europe and the US Vitaly Lavrinenko and key account manager Gennadiy Khmelevskiy presented to a packed audience, with the subject ‘Staying Ahead of Legislation – Caps & Closures for Global Beverage Brands’.  

The presentation started with details of the impending EU legislation regarding the requirement for all single-use containers of over three liters to have closures that stay attached, explaining how RETAL has developed closures in-house to ensure all its customers are in line with the new rules.  

A mineral water bottle made with NEOPET Cycle (PET resin with 30% rPET integrated into the flakes produced by sister company NEO Group) and tethered closure produced by RETAL in Europe was used to demonstrate how the combination works. Lavrinenko and Khmelevskiy continued to explain how the R&D behind the development was achieved, notably sharing how close cooperation with global customer requirements were met alongside the EU Directive.  

Following the 20-minute presentation, the RETAL team took a wide range of questions from the floor, with both noting that the audience asked many pertinent questions, highlighting that the dynamic US market is considering the potential realities of implementing tethered closures both to stay ahead of possible legislation and to support global brands in achieving their own ambitious sustainability targets.  

Design-for-recycling at RETAL: A day in the life of a packaging engineer

R&D is an integral part of daily life for design engineer Andzejus Buinovskis. Buinovskis has worked at global plastic packaging manufacturer RETAL since 2015, bringing his creative design skills to his CAD-based role in the company’s R&D team at its largest facility in Lithuania. To demonstrate how R&D supports progress at RETAL, we share a day in the life of Buinovskis. 

In terms of product development, Buinovskis acts as a pivotal point of contact between the sales team and the market, with his remit to translate the requirements of the customers into functional packaging solutions. A day in the life of Buinovskis reflects how design is integral to the ongoing development of packaging solutions at RETAL, including evolving tethered closure options, lightweighting and integrating environmental sustainability at every stage.

Buinovskis generally starts his day by checking what online meetings are scheduled to understand what new information may be forthcoming. A regular participant in meetings for various teams throughout the company, Buinovskis’s input is valued by the sales, NPD, communications and sustainability departments.

Read full article online at Packaging Insights 

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Road to success: bringing the next generation into injection moulding

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.”

Read online at Interplas Insights

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Expansion continues at RETAL PA

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

Read online at Business Focus

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The Rapid Interview with RETAL

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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