ALPLA Group

ALPLA and Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs to join forces to pio­neer paper bot­tles for a sus­tainable future

Hard/Stockholm, 03 April 2019 – Pla­stic pack­a­ging solu­tions pro­vider ALPLA and paper pack­a­ging materials- and solu­tions pro­vider Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs today announced that they will embark on a joint ven­ture. They do so with the vision to develop a fully bio­based and recy­clable paper bottle. 

ALPLA and Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs today announced that they will form a joint ven­ture in the Danish paper bottle com­pany ecoXpac. When the tran­sac­tion has been com­pleted, ALPLA and Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs will own equal parts of ecoXpac. A mino­rity post will be held by the founder family. Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs is curr­ently the majo­rity owner and has been a share­holder in the com­pany since 2015. Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs has been a dri­ving force in the ongoing deve­lo­p­ment of a paper bottle, which was started by ecoXpac in 2010 and with Carls­berg Group since 2015.

ALPLA and Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs share the ambi­tion to drive pack­a­ging inno­va­tion in a sus­tainable direc­tion. The two com­pa­nies intend to leverage the deve­lo­p­ment by com­bi­ning their resources, com­pe­ten­cies and strengths to sup­port sca­ling ecoXpac in the com­mer­cia­li­sa­tion of a fully bio­based and recy­clable paper bottle.

In late 2016, Carls­berg Group reve­aled a first phy­sical pro­to­type of a paper bottle, the Green Fiber Bottle, and the first gene­ra­tion of paper bot­tles has since then been in a testing phase. The plan now is to con­tinue the deve­lo­p­ment to be able to launch and then scale up pro­duc­tion. Fol­lo­wing gene­ra­tions will be both fully bio­based and have biode­gra­dable bar­riers thereby fully rea­li­sing the vision and enab­ling con­su­mers all over the world to live more sus­tain­ably. It is to rea­lise this vision the two com­pa­nies come tog­e­ther on this journey of innovation.

  • With Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs we have found an ambi­tious partner crea­ting a new pack­a­ging market seg­ment that offers a com­ple­men­tary con­sumer expe­ri­ence to our cur­rent rigid pack­a­ging solu­tions. ALPLA is sha­ring the pas­sion for tech­nical chal­lenges and inno­va­tion. I want to empha­sise the long-term vision of the joint ven­ture to intro­duce fully bio­based paper bot­tles. ALPLA is con­tri­bu­ting capital as well as tech­nical know-how to the joint ven­ture to acce­le­rate the deve­lo­p­ment and market intro­duc­tion of the paper bottle”, says Gün­ther Lehner, CEO of ALPLA.
  • I believe that with our shared and honest ambi­tion to break new ground, ALPLA and Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs now make an important com­mit­ment to con­tri­bute to a more sus­tainable future. The ques­tion is not ‘if’ but rather ‘how soon’ this joint ven­ture will intro­duce a fully bio­based and recy­clable paper bottle to the market. And when we do, it will enable a signi­fi­cant shift in con­sumer beha­viour glo­bally,” says Petra Einarsson, CEO and Pre­si­dent BillerudKorsnäs.
  • EcoXpac was founded with a strong vision for the future. Today we are pri­vi­leged to have the best players in their fields sha­ring our vision. It makes me proud of what we have achieved so far. The vision has never felt closer to rea­lity than today,” says Martin Grosen Petersen, CEO of ecoXpac.

The for­ma­tion of the joint ven­ture is sub­ject to cus­to­mary regu­la­tory appr­ovals such as merger con­trol cle­arances. It is expected that the tran­sac­tion is com­pleted in Q3 2019.

About ALPLA
ALPLA is one of the leading companies involved in plastic packaging. Around 20,800 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, closures and moulded parts at 178 sites across 46 countries. The high-quality packaging is used in a wide range of areas, including for food and drinks, cosmetics and care products, household detergents, washing and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.

ALPLA operates its own recycling plants: PET Recycling Team with a site in both Austria and Poland, and in the form of a joint venture in Mexico. ALPLA has been cooperating with Texplast (Germany) on PET recycling since July 2018.

Further information: www.alpla.com

About BillerudKorsnäs
BillerudKorsnäs provides packaging materials and solutions that challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future. The world-leading provider of primary fibre based packaging materials has customers in over 100 countries. The company has 8 production units in Sweden, Finland and the UK and about 4400 employees in over 13 countries. BillerudKorsnäs has an annual turnover of about SEK 22 billion and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. BillerudKorsnäs Venture AB, a fully owned subsidiary, accommodates several venture initiatives.

Further information: www.billerudkorsnas.com

About ecoXpac
EcoXpac is an innovative Danish company specialised in designing, developing and implementing process solutions for moulded fibre bottles. The company follows a strategy striving to introduce fibre-based products in categories dominated by other materials and by so doing contributing to a more a sustainable future.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please contact:
ALPLA, Alex­andra Dittrich (Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions), alexandra.dittrich@alpla.com, +43 (0)5574 602‑1083
Bil­le­rud­Korsnäs, Anna Helsén (Press Officer), anna.helsen@billerudkorsnas.com, +46 (0)70 6984858