News

Propel Fitness Water is rolling out a major brand refresh that includes a new packaging design and logo. The new packaging first appeared on store shelves in early 2023 and will be fully rolled out by summer. PepsiCo, Propel’s brand owner, executed the project inhouse.

Propel products are made with Gatorade electrolytes — ideal for exercisers looking to replace electrolytes lost to sweat — and the refresh emphasizes Propel’s Gatorade connection. The new Propel logo, for example, features the orange Gatorade bolt at the center.

The startup received a subsidy of €2.5M in 2022 to finance the completion of the development of several new features. It has recently secured a €2.7M investment from the Luxembourg EIC Fund. 

The company says the funds are earmarked to support its further expansion and the implementation of new installations in supermarkets across Europe.

With this funding, Miwa becomes the only startup from the food reusable packaging segment which has ever succeeded. 

The deal will enable Close the Loop to focus on resource recovery in the US, giving it a significant remanufacturing and reuse presence in the US, and ‘extensive’ distribution networks, while for ISP it would provide a route to expand in overseas markets.

Funding for the deal includes a non-discounted US$45m capital raising. The capital raising was immediately successful. The founders of ISP Tek Services will now become substantial shareholders in Close the Loop.

Parason, a major producer and supplier of pulp and paper machinery, has partnered with ABB India to automate and expand the production of environmentally-friendly, compostable packaging solutions. This collaboration aims to reduce the use of single-use plastics and Styrofoam packaging among Parason’s customers, including those in the restaurant and catering industries, transportation, travel, and industrial canteens.

Every spring, homeowners rush to the hardware store to get fertilizer bags to put in their gardens and around their homes.  Before those bags make it to the customers, there are a lot of different steps and hands it has to pass through.  And if you are the fertilizer supplier, you want to ensure that it makes it there in one piece.  That is why your bag sealing is so important and why you need to have a reliable machine in your production line.

Pulsed light decontamination sterilizes the outside of ready-to-use (RTU) tubs containing syringes, vials, or cartridges before they are introduced into an isolator-based sterile filling line. The innovative technology uses a high-intensity broad-spectrum pulsed light to sterilize the surface of the RTU tubs. The decontamination chamber, built by Steriline, involves an isolator-based, highly sophisticated robot arm that picks up tubs and presents each character to the pulsed light generator, produced by Claranor.

Sustainability

Feneberg Lebensmittel GmbH, a successful retail chain from Southern Germany, demonstrates in an impressing manner the opportunities that arise from questioning existing concepts and breaking new ground. This family business, based in the Allgäu region of Germany, now uses an innovative packaging solution by Schur Flexibles for its self-service minced meat products by the Feneberg in-house butcher’s: the recyclable and sustainable flow-wrap film MonoFlowre . The results have been impressive: By switching from tray to flow wrap, the two companies have managed to save 70% of plastic.

This week will see Tesco replace the plastic tubs its laundry detergent pods are sold in with new recyclable cardboard packaging.

The move into card will save 252 tonnes of plastic annually, and over four million pieces of plastic across eight lines. The box contains more than 90% recycled cardboard, and is FSC certified, with a thin plastic liner inside to protect the pods. When empty, the cardboard box can be put in the normal household recycle bin.