In our latest Rapid Interview, we speak with Andrew Smith, key account manager at Camvac, about bulk packaging, carbon footprints, and the wider benefits of flexible packaging.
Your elevator pitch: introduce and sell us your company in no more than 280 characters.
For 30 years, Camvac has been a supplier of barrier laminates for liquid packaging in bag-in-box, aseptic bag-in-drum, IBC, and flexitank formats; combining our vacuum coating barrier technology and capability to manufacture both adhesive and thermal laminates in slit rolls up to 2200mm wide.
Where are your company’s locations? Are there any specific challenges or advantages relating to your geographical location that you could tell us about?
Based in the UK, Camvac benefits from strong transport links by road, rail, and sea to Europe and within an hour of a major international shipping port for its global customer base. Brexit trade deals and future global trade deals may open further opportunities for Camvac.
Tell us a surprising fact about the market you work in.
Consumers may not realise that this packaging is used to globally ship, protect, preserve, and supply many different food products: wine, fruit juice, tomatoes, eggs, dairy items. Annually, over 2 billion litres of liquid products are filled into packaging using Camvac technology.
At Packaging Europe, we like to watch trends and areas of innovation as they evolve. Can you tell us something we might not be aware of that is driving technology in your sphere?
Bulk liquid packaging is growing. The format has a lower carbon footprint than many alternative packaging options and can use recyclable materials and reusable containers. Camvac’s focus is the development of laminates that may enable full bag recycling and pack weight reduction.
What would you say is the biggest common misconception that you encounter in your business?
The significant carbon footprint benefits and reduction of food waste using this packaging format has been lost in the media portrayal of “plastic”, however Camvac continues to innovate solutions for the market, improving recyclability and sustainability and reducing pack weight.
If the wider packaging industry could be transformed in some way, what kind of change would you like to see?
A unified approach outlining the positive benefits of flexible packaging to the consumer, aligned with investment from industry and government with a focus on collecting materials and enabling mixed plastics to be recycled with innovative outlets for re-use in new applications.
…and how do you envisage your company changing the industry in the coming years?
Camvac will launch new products that could transform the recycling capability of many packaging formats used by our customers and end-users. Our barrier coating and lamination technologies will innovate new possibilities as we move into a more sustainable future.
