Multinational packaging producer RETAL welcomed visitors from across Europe and beyond to its stand at Drinktec 2025, ‘the world’s leading trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry’, held in Munich, Germany, from 15th – 19th September. The event, which attracted about 60,000 professionals from over 170 countries, provided a global platform for RETAL to highlight its latest packaging innovations.
RETAL’s new 2.70g ultra-lightweight closure for returnable glass bottles, developed at RETAL Baltic Films in Lithuania, was presented at Drinktec. Designed for medium carbonated beverages and ambient filling, the closure combines material reduction with reliable performance and consumer convenience. Visitors also explored RETAL’s wider portfolio, including preforms with up to 100% rPET, tethered and non-tethered closures, and digital tools for sustainability and efficiency.
Maria Jarrar, RETAL’s Senior Marketing Manager EU & US says, “Drinktec is a valuable opportunity to meet with global customers, share our latest innovations, and discuss how RETAL can support the industry’s sustainability journey. This year’s show was bigger and better than ever, and it was great for our innovations and team of experts to right in the middle of it.”
RETAL’s strong presence at Drinktec reflects its commitment to innovation, sustainability, and collaboration across the beverage industry. With a focus on lightweighting, circular design, and renewable energy, the company continues to support customers in meeting regulatory requirements and sustainability targets while ensuring packaging performance and reliability.
Jarrar adds, “Thank you to everyone that visited our stand, and to the Drinktec organisers for such a dynamic event. We look forward to continuing the interesting conversations we started as we combine our capabilities with our customers’ expectations in the coming months.”
For further information, please contact Maria Jarrar on maria.jarrar@retalgroup.com
RETAL publishes its seventh annual Sustainability Report this week, highlighting clear progress in embedding sustainability across its global operations.
Key achievements in 2024 include setting more ambitious GHG reduction targets, clear progress towards these targets, expanding the use of renewable electricity with seven out of ten plants operating at 100 percent, increasing recycled content with 58,000 tonnes of recycled PET processed, improving our Social and Governance action and reinforcing accountability by joining the UN Global Compact, alongside maintaining strong third-party ratings.
Emmanuel Duffaut, RETAL Chief Sustainability Officer, says, “This report highlights just how far RETAL has come since I joined in 2018; it’s proof of the consistent dedication from our top management in embedding sustainability as a strategic priority. In 2024, we took further steps to address major environmental impacts, while never losing sight of our holistic sustainability management promise by fully addressing all the topics that are material to RETAL.”
As an industry leader in sustainable plastic packaging, RETAL continues to demonstrate ongoing, provable results that strengthen its role as a trusted partner for global food and beverage brands.
To read and download the 2024 Sustainability Report, please visit https://www.retalgroup.com/csr-at-retal/
To discuss this report, contact Emmanuel Duffaut directly by email emmanuel.duffaut@retalgroup.com For further information, please contact Maria Jarrar, RETAL Senior Marketing Manager maria.jarrar@retalgroup.com
Global key account manager at RETAL Balkan Nedko Nedev recently recorded a presentation for the respected online event hosted by Plastics News.
The Plastics News Caps & Closures Online Event will be held on June 18, with Nedev presenting alongside other leading plastic packaging industry leaders.
With his presentation titled, ““Getting Closure – How an Evolving Product Needs Established Expertise”, Nedev touches on the trends and challenges that are currently facing the supply of closures for the packaging industry, with his insight on how RETAL solves these issues thanks to R&D, expertise and reliability.
To find out more about the event and to register, click here.
Nedev adds, “I am pleased to be a part of this event and to present how RETAL is committed to developing and sharing practical, sustainable closures and preforms for global food and beverage brands. Our teams are continually rising to the challenges of our industry and it’s great to share these solutions to this engaged audience.”
For further information, please contact Maria Jarrar, RETAL Senior Marketing Manager maria.jarrar@retalgroup.com
Two senior leaders from plastic packaging producer RETAL will be presenting at the upcoming PETnology Conference in May.
Held on 27 – 28 May in Lake Zurich, Switzerland, the PETnology Europe 2025 event, now in its 30th year, will focus on smart solutions for the sustainable future of PET packaging.
RETAL Chief Sustainability Officer Emmanuel Duffaut and Production Director Dainius Staniulis will be sharing their insight into how RETAL’s proven combination of investment, expertise, progressive approach and integration enables the company to deliver innovative solutions for global food and beverage brands.
The presentation will include details of how RETAL identifies risks and opportunities and utilises proprietary software and optimized process to deliver a competitive advantage.
Dainius Staniulis explains, “This industry-leading event is a great opportunity for us to meet with fellow packaging experts and present our understanding of how our holistic strategy is supporting our progressive position in the rPET revolution. We’re looking forward to the event and the interesting discussions that it will certainly generate.”
For further information, please contact Maria Jarrar, RETAL Senior Marketing Manager maria.jarrar@retalgroup.com
RETAL is set to showcase our latest innovations at this year’s Drinktec, the world’s leading trade fair for the beverage and liquid food industry, highlighting our commitment to sustainability and cutting-edge technology for food-safe packaging.
We are pleased to welcome guests to our stand by offering our network complimentary tickets to Drinktec. Use the code DRI25RETAL at the Drinktec ticket shop to get free tickets, then come and visit us at Stand 360 in Hall C6.
That’s right! Our RETAL stand is number 360, and we’re promising to deliver a full 360° view of our innovative and sustainable plastic packaging solutions.
Maria Jarrar, Senior Marketing Manager, says, “Drinktec is the perfect place for us to present our complete packaging solutions, including our latest 26/22 preforms, tethered caps for various neck finishes, our patented designs, and our brand-new plastic closure especially for returnable glass bottles. Drinktec has always been a unique platform for sharing exciting developments, and this year is no exception.”
With plenty of samples and many RETAL experts on hand to answer any questions, our Stand 360 in Hall C6 will be ready to welcome you to Drinktec 2025, from 15-19 September, in Munich.
For further information, please contact Maria Jarrar, RETAL Senior Marketing Manager maria.jarrar@retalgroup.com
Insight Focus
The goalposts are constantly shifting for plastic producers as new legislations and designs come into play. It is vital that producers and recyclers keep up with new and exciting developments.
Go to any packaging industry or plastics trade show and the hot topic will be the circular economy.
It may be that major players are talking about recycling, or lightweighting, or rPET usage, or that they’re lamenting the lack of recycled material available on the market. They may even be discussing the challenges of implementing tethered closures on their production lines before the fast-approaching deadline. But all the questions and issues come back to the unquestionable need to support the circular economy.
So, how can PET play a meaningful role in the Circular Economy? And how can PET industry leaders be sure that their contribution is not just hot air?
Design for Recycling (DfR) is a non-legal (yet!) set of guidelines that offers practical and technical insight into the compatibility of different packaging elements, including caps and closures, labels or adhesives, according to the various recycling streams.
The idea is that these Design for Recycling guidelines support the packaging industry on how to improve overall recyclability of plastic products and provide clear suggestions on what to do. These include the types of materials used, the ways in which material use can be reduced and the design behaviours that make recycling harder and don’t actually offer any consumer benefit.
The EU Commission is also promoting the increased use of recycled plastic materials for food contact, stating that 100% of plastic packaging must be recyclable by 2029. There is a 77% plastic bottle collection target by 2025, which rises to 90% by 2030. Furthermore, PET packaging must contain 25% post-consumer recycled plastic content from 2025.
While converters and brand owners are keen to meet this legislation, there is an issue of availability for rPET, so there are interesting solutions available such as NEOPET Cycle from Lithuania-based PET producer NEO Group. This is a PET resin that includes up to 30% of rPET integrated directly into the virgin PET, so converters can use one product instead of two, while still meeting legislative requirements.
The objective of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) is to support sustainable choices in sourcing, product design and manufacturing, so the most progressive decisions can be made for each application.
Often, brand owners that are looking to assess their suppliers though a tangible sustainability lens will ask for a clear LCA on each element of their potential procurement, making it easier to compare tenders and make more environmentally efficient decisions.
The European Union’s Single Use Plastics Directive (SUPD) involves an increase in collection and recycling of used plastic packaging and includes the obligation to use tethered caps for any single use plastic beverage container of up to 3 litres.
Tethered closures or caps means that the lid of the single use plastic beverage bottle stays attached to the bottle after opening. There are clear rules around how this should perform, including the number of opening and closing cycles, the audible or tangible ‘click’ to show the consumer the cap is sufficiently opened, and how it must be comfortable for the consumer to be able to drink from.
The purpose of this legislation is so that the bottles and their lids are not separated in the recycling collections, making it easier to keep the materials of the closures in the recycling stream and to avoid them being discarded into the environment.
Read online at Czapp
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Multinational plastic packaging producer RETAL is pleased to announce a new industrial partner in Central Asia.
A Polymer Industries LLC, trading as Orzuplast, in Uzbekistan is a provider of packaging solutions for its local and neighbouring markets and is now welcomed by RETAL as the latest addition to its partner network, helping to serve the global food and beverage packaging industries.
Orzuplast is keen to highlight investment and development, with plans for additional expansion. The updated factory for Orzuplast is now officially opened, with two capping machines and two preform machines up and running, joining the extensive shipment capabilities that have long been present at the facility.
General manager, Orzuplast Sherzod Tursunov says, “The Orzuplast site has been here for some time. We are proud to be harnessing the knowledge of the employees that have been working on this site for many years, all of whom are still with us. We need their expertise to help us all continue to succeed in this dynamic, growing market, as we turn our attention to preforms and closures. We see excellent opportunities for advancement, with both local customers and our global food and beverage brand customers assured that our capabilities in Uzbekistan meet the highest standards.”
With a young population and an ancient culture, Uzbekistan and neighbouring countries represent an exciting growth market, with Orzuplast happy to serve customers throughout this fast-developing Central Asia territory.
Read online at Sustainable Packaging News, PET Planet, Business Focus, PETnology, Eco Plastics in Packaging, Polyestertime
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The future of tray-to-tray recycling is promoted by the RETAL Baltic Films team at this year’s Fachpack, the European trade fair for packaging, technology, and processes.
RETAL Baltic Films will be in Nuremberg, Germany, from 24th to 26th September, presenting its wide range of rigid APET films and flexible printed packaging solutions in Hall 4, Stand 250.
The portfolio of rigid APET films will share alignment with the Tray Circularity Evaluation Protocol (TCEP), developed by PETcore - ‘the voice of the European PET industry’ - to enhance the value and sustainable growth of the complete PET value chain in Europe. The RETAL team will be on hand to show how monoPET should be the first choice for sustainable packaging wherever possible.
Head of Marketing & Innovation at RETAL Baltic Films Irena Vitkauskiene says, “We’re a part of the Petcore Europe Thermoforming Working Group and our developments and our products support the guidance for recycling. We have a range of complete packaging solutions for rigid bottom trays and flexible printed top liddings based on monomaterials like monoPET, monoRPET and monoBOPET, monoPE and monoPP and many others. We offer solutions that ensure circularity, plus we provide whatever packaging our customers’ demand; we understand the balance of functional packaging that keeps products safe, fresh and consumers’ happy, while respecting sustainability.”
With various samples available on the RETAL Baltic Films stand, everyone is welcome to visit to discuss how to minimise the impact of PET packaging trays on environment, decrease packaging waste and ensure proper post consumed trays feedstock for the tray-to-tray recycling stream.
Irena adds, “We’re pleased to make it easy for customers to go for monoPET. Come to our stand to discuss implementation of PPWR, obligations for recycled content and recyclability grades of plastic packaging. We’re here to help you make good choices for all your PET trays packaging requirements.”
For a free entry to this year’s Fachpack from RETAL Baltic Films, please use this link Code: A519230
For further information, please contact Irena Vitkauskiene irena.vitkauskiene@retalfilms.com
On 30 July 2024, A POLYMER INDUSTRIES LLC, trading as Orzuplast, the Uzbekistan-based industrial partner of the multinational packaging producer RETAL, has recently gained the FSSC 22000 version 6 certification for quality and food safety, the first producer in Uzbekistan to achieve this standard.
The internationally recognized FSSC 22000 version 6 certificate has been granted following a successful audit of its new production, including the development and implementation of the site. Orzuplast is now certified as a producer of food contact packaging.
Sherzod Tursunov, CEO of Orzuplast, announced, "We are proud to announce that we are the first packaging manufacturer in Uzbekistan to receive this certificate. Thanks to the high standards of our production and the training of our employees, we were able to pass all the necessary audits on the first try, without additional comments and adjustments to the production process. The certificate confirms that the implemented processes, principles and operating conditions of the entire factory, from the receipt of raw materials to the production of finished products, meet international requirements for quality and food safety. We are ready to work with VIP clients in our industry."
For further information, please contact office.manager@orzuplast.uz
Head of RETAL Service Vladislav Medvedovskiy presented at the AMI Plastic Closures Innovations (PCI) Conference on 6 June 2023.
With a technical and engaging presentation entitled “Implementation Insights: Solving Tethered Closure Challenges”, Vladislav took his turn on the stage in front of many packaging industry leaders.
Held at the World Trade Centre in Barcelona from 4-6 June, the event is widely considered to be an important date in the plastic industry calendar, and billed as ‘bringing together leaders, innovators and experts to explore the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in plastic closures’.
Vladislav explains, “I welcomed the chance to share my technical insight on the implementation challenges of tethered closures and how RETAL Service supports our customers in quickly and effectively solving those challenges. I shared how we made over 180 visits to customers in 2023 alone, and how we’ve seen all the possible issues with implementing tethered closures! I really enjoyed the event, especially having the chance to meet with so many fellow professionals and listen to other interesting presentations.”
The RETAL team are keen participants in plastic packaging industry conferences and events, supported by the communications team. For further information contact Maria Jarrar at media@retalgroup.com