ALPLA Group

Inno­va­tive paper bottle: ALPLA becomes the majo­rity owner of Paboco

Pack­a­ging spe­cia­list takes over shares from joint ven­ture partner Billerud

Hard, 24 October 2023 – Paboco deve­lops bio-based pack­a­ging solu­tions made from pulp. The Danish joint ven­ture was founded in 2019 by ALPLA and pulp and paper manu­fac­turer Bil­lerud. The inter­na­tio­nally active pack­a­ging spe­cia­list ALPLA is now taking over Billerud’s shares and, as majo­rity share­holder, is inves­ting in sca­ling manu­fac­tu­ring capa­city. From the end of 2024, Paboco plans to pro­duce a fully recy­clable paper bottle at a new state-of-the-art manu­fac­tu­ring site in Denmark. 

Paboco (The Paper Bottle Company) deve­lops and pro­duces fibre-based pack­a­ging solu­tions using inno­va­tive pulp-forming tech­no­logy. The com­pany, based in Slan­gerup, Den­mark, was founded in 2019 by ALPLA and Bil­lerud as a joint ven­ture. By taking over all of Billerud’s shares and inves­ting in Paboco, pack­a­ging and recy­cling spe­cia­list ALPLA, as majo­rity share­holder, is pushing the rapid indus­tria­li­sa­tion of the fully recy­clable paper bottle made from FSC-certified fibres.

Safety, afforda­bility and sus­taina­bi­lity are the cen­tral cri­teria of our pack­a­ging solu­tions. After several years of inten­sive deve­lo­p­ment and ground­brea­king inno­va­tions, the Paboco team is now ready to take its pio­nee­ring pro­duct to the market and estab­lish the paper bottle as a sus­tainable alter­na­tive for a wide range of cus­to­mers,’ says ALPLA CEO Philipp Lehner.

Suc­cessful test phase
Since 2021, Paboco has been testing the first pro­ducts on the market tog­e­ther with the Paboco Pio­neer Com­mu­nity mem­bers: The Absolut Com­pany, Carls­berg Group, The Coca-Cola Com­pany, L’Oréal and Procter & Gamble. After the suc­cessful test phase, series pro­duc­tion of the next gene­ra­tion of recy­clable paper bot­tles is sche­duled to start at the end of 2024.

The vision of the fully bio-based and recy­clable paper bottle has driven the team to create ama­zing results in just a short deve­lo­p­ment period. With the bottle con­fi­gu­ra­tion now, we are tar­ge­ting the beauty and fabric and home-care seg­ment, but con­ti­nuous deve­lo­p­ment will also enable us to bring our next-generation bottle into fur­ther appli­ca­tions. We are happy that ALPLA is fully com­mitted to sup­porting us on this journey,’ explains Tim Sil­ber­mann, CEO of Paboco.

For the market launch, the com­pany plans to set up a new state-of-the-art manu­fac­tu­ring site and deve­lo­p­ment centre in Den­mark. There are curr­ently 18 employees at Paboco – the number of employees is expected to increase signi­fi­cantly by the time series pro­duc­tion begins.

Inno­va­tions for the future
The long-term goal of Paboco is to develop and scale fully bio-based and recy­clable paper bot­tles. In doing so, the com­pany can count on the sup­port of ALPLA: ‘We at ALPLA work inten­si­vely on alter­na­tive mate­rials, invest in pro­mi­sing pro­jects and actively shape tech­no­lo­gical pro­gress as a “Family of Pio­neers”,’ empha­sises Chris­tian Zmölnig, Director Cor­po­rate Rese­arch, Deve­lo­p­ment and Inno­va­tion at ALPLA and Chairman of the Board of Direc­tors at Paboco. The newly formed Board of Direc­tors of Paboco is com­pleted by Ricardo Rehm, CFO of ALPLA, and Rainer Widmar, Mana­ging Director Cen­tral and Eas­tern Europe at ALPLA.

The tran­sac­tion took place at the begin­ning of October. The con­trac­ting par­ties agreed not to dis­c­lose the details.

 

About the ALPLA Group
ALPLA is one of the world’s leading companies in the manufacture and recycling of plastic packaging. Around 23,300 employees worldwide produce custom-made packaging systems, bottles, caps and moulded parts at 190 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 cleaning products, detergents and cleaning agents, pharmaceutical products, engine oils and lubricants.

ALPLA operates recycling plants for PET and HDPE in Austria, Germany, Poland, Mexico, Italy, Spain, Romania and Thailand. Other projects are being realised elsewhere around the world.

www.alpla.com

 

About Paboco
We are Paboco, The Paper Bottle Company, and we have decided to take action and become part of the solution – by designing for circularity using renewable materials. The paper bottle project is an innovation community joining some of the world’s leading players in materials, design and technology; united by the vision of creating the world’s first 100% bio-based and recyclable paper bottle. Paboco is a company leading the development and production of paper bottles out of Denmark, but supported across industries and geographies.

www.paboco.com

 

Infor­ma­tion for editorial
ALPLA, Erik Nielsen (Team Leader, Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions), +43 (0)5574 6021 701, erik.nielsen@alpla.com
Pzwei. Pres­se­ar­beit, Joshua Köb, +43 (0)5574 44715 22, joshua.koeb@pzwei.at