Klöckner Pentaplast (kp), a global leader in rigid and flexible packaging and specialty film solutions, has launched kp Infinity® HP3, the largest and most rigid addition to its award-winning Hotpacs® range.

Developed in response to customer demand, the HP3 is purpose-built for hearty, generous portions of food-to-go that have stretched existing formats to their limits – until now. Manufactured in the UK, the HP3 supports operators seeking locally made, reliable packaging solutions.

Foodservice operators serving loaded fish and chips, burgers and chips, jacket potatoes, and popular Asian noodle-based dishes require a bigger, more robust pack; one that can handle the larger portions and varied textures that make these dishes such firm favourites with consumers. The HP3 is kp's answer.

Like all kp Infinity® Hotpacs® packaging, the HP3 is manufactured from Expanded Polypropylene (EPP), a recyclable material not subject to the UK's ban on EPS/XPS single-use foodservice packaging. Its monopolymer construction means it is recyclable in existing PP waste streams, and every pack carries prominent, embossed 'Recycle Me' messaging to guide consumers at point of disposal. Recycling code 5 on every unit confirms compliance and recyclability at a glance. By producing the HP3 in the UK, kp further supports national recycling efforts and shortens supply chains for foodservice operators.

The performance credentials of HP3 are as strong as ever. It keeps food more than 10°C hotter than alternative packaging solutions, while its exterior stays cool and comfortable to handle. It is naturally waterproof and resistant to hot oils, acids and alkalis; critical properties for the loaded and often sauce-based dishes the HP3 is designed to carry. It is also microwaveable, giving consumers the added convenience of reheating at home.

"The kp Infinity® Hotpacs® range was built on listening to what the foodservice market actually needs. The HP3 is the clearest example yet of that principle in action” said Austin Schwarz, Sales Director, UK&I at kp Food Packaging.

“Our customers are telling us they need a larger, tougher pack for some of the most-loved dishes on today's menus. We’ve designed exactly that, without compromising on recyclability, performance, or the quality that kp customers expect. And by producing the HP3 here in the UK, we can deliver this solution with speed, assurance and a reduced environmental footprint."

The kp Infinity® Hotpacs® HP3 is available for delivery at the end of April through kp's network of distributors and wholesalers, offering operators a compliant, high-performance, fully recyclable solution built for the realities of today's foodservice market.

To learn more about kp’s market-leading range of packaging solutions, visit Food Packaging Films & Solutions - Klockner Pentaplast

Success in the London Packaging Week 2025 Innovation Awards was about more than proof of concept for PA Consulting, PulPac, and Diageo.

It showed the real potential in fibre-based drinks packaging. For many years it has been used in bags, boxes, and cartons and now bottles are being explored.

Fibre-based packaging has long been seen as essential to the future of the packaging industry.

It is a readily available, highly recyclable, and easily regenerated material.

However, the porous nature and hygroscopic tendency of fibres have largely limited the use of paper-based packaging to secondary packaging applications (cosmetics and cereal display boxes, etc) or even tertiary packaging formats (shelf-ready, delivery).

That is, until now. With consumers demanding more sustainable packaging choices and brands needing to respond, the material supply chain has been working hard to make paper-based packaging more usable for a wider range of applications.

This was realised at the London Packaging Week Innovation Awards, with PA Consulting, PulPac, and Diageo lauded in the Sustainable Packaging Innovation category for their ongoing work to develop a lower-carbon, fully recyclable paper packaging for drinks.

Betting big on fibre-based bottles

Bottles are one obvious area where the gains to be made can be substantial. When made from glass, bottles can be energy-intensive to produce, weighty to transport and store, and in some circumstances cumbersome to handle.

In favour of glass is its full recyclability and ability to be reused multiple times without loss in quality or purity. There are also ongoing efforts to lightweight glass. Having said that, paper is the most commonly and widely recycled packaging material in Europe. Well-established recovery streams and ingrained consumer behaviour mean collection rates for paper-based packaging regularly achieve high double-figures.

If a way to make paper suitable for use with liquids existed, this would surely move the needle a long way in the right direction towards sustainable and circular packaging.

Enter PulPac and PA Consulting.

Back in 2023, the two businesses launched the Bottle Collective, of which Diageo is a founding member. One of the goals of the collective is to create a fibre bottle alternative to help minimise the use of single-use plastic bottles in food, drink, consumer health, and FMCG industries.

This was centred on PulPac’s Dry Molded Fiber technology and uses renewable pulp and cellulose resources to produce low-cost, high-performance fibre-based packaging. The patented manufacturing process uses less carbon dioxide than plastic and conventional wet moulding options. Almost no water is used in manufacturing to create a highly versatile container mould for brands and retailers.

While a thin plastic liner is still required, it is not bonded to the fibre layer, to make it easier to separate during recycling and to allow use with almost any mechanical process. This can even occur during kerbside collection, with the pressure from collection vehicles enough to easily separate the liner from the outer layer. However, collection and sorting processes vary by geography, and the infrastructure is not in place everywhere for these bottles – this is something the Collective is actively working on.

Anthony (Tony) Perrotta, sustainability and regenerative economy expert at PA Consulting, believes the creation of the Bottle Collective has been essential to breaking through with paper bottles that have the potential to scale effectively.

“Sustainability wins that cannot ultimately be industrialised at meaningful volumes will not satisfy brand owners or regulators,” he opines. “Whilst this is an ongoing challenge, the Bottle Collective considers commercial scalability as an essential factor during the development.

“We knew that this could not be a curated ‘lab trophy’. While it is a bold innovation, there needed to be clear line of sight into producing millions of bottles at the speed, scale, and cost the industry requires. As a collective, that remains the direction of travel, and for Diageo’s products specifically, we are still validating what that pathway looks like in practice.”

That comes from PA Consulting putting its own money where its mouth is. A self funded stage of the development process enabled PA Consulting to effectively de risk the concept, build early prototypes, and gather data that convinced global brand owners such as Diageo that a high performance fibre bottle was feasible.

“No matter how strategically important, no one client is going to foot the bill for such a large project. But what if you split this among six, seven, or eight different partners? Suddenly, that becomes palatable and easier to digest.”

It was also necessary to involve those building the lines that produce and fill bottles into the project at an early stage. This includes welcoming Logoplaste and Krones, among others, as technology partners into the Bottle Collective.

Tony goes on: “By tapping into specialist engineering partners instead of trying to design everything from scratch, we avoided reinventing the wheel all over again.

“We shouldn't and couldn’t develop a fibre bottle on our own. It has to be commercially scalable. Our focus is ensuring the first production line can reach up to 20 million bottles annually, establishing the base capability required before we can scale further.”

Success on the shelf (and on stage)

Tony is fully aware that the Bottle Collective is a ‘very uncommon’ model, but one which might need to become more common. “This matters, as tackling systemic packaging challenges requires shared platforms, shared risks, and new governance models, not just individual R&D projects.”

For leading beverage brand Diageo, participation in the Bottle Collective has led to a live consumer trial in real-life conditions of a 70cl paper bottle made from 90% paper for its Johnnie Walker Black Label whisky. This makes it around 60% lighter than glass alternatives, with almost half the CO2e.

Paper will always be less robust than glass and tests like this are important to learn how the bottles survive in real environments. For a premium whisky like Johnnie Walker Black Label, aesthetics and environmental metrics are only part of the equation. The pack must also protect product integrity under strict regulatory requirements. Tony notes that, ahead of Diageo’s market trial, there was extensive testing for alcohol loss. “Spirits are heavily regulated, so if we have any mass loss in the bottle, that changes the proof level of the contents and would run afoul of all sorts of laws.”

For the flavour, Diageo’s specialists set a non negotiable bar. “We had their flavour specialists constantly ensuring the product tasted like Johnnie Walker throughout the development and commercialisation process to make sure we didn’t taint the product.”

“The fibre bottle had to pass the same rigorous sensory scrutiny as any new glass format, and we were able to pass those tests,” says Tony.

In a drinks category facing multiple headwinds, Tony expects the Johnnie Walker project and others like it to act as a catalyst for more of the industry to embrace paper-based solutions. For example, Johnnie Walker has shown that paper bottles can convey a sense of luxury and high quality previously thought impossible to achieve with fibre-based alternatives. “Not only are we disproving this, in some cases we've added luxury cues that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

“This is helping non alcoholic beverages and mainstream FMCG brands have the line of sight that enables the consideration of other materials.”

Tony sees that packaging is undergoing significant change right now. “Fibre is the lead horse in the race to alternative materials,” he says. “In that context, the brands that lean into experimentation and are willing to showcase their progress will have an advantage in shaping future norms rather than reacting to them.”

He caveats that statement with: “For alternative materials to be taken seriously at scale, they must not risk compromising the product and nor should they ask consumers to compromise on their experience. That balance is not fully resolved yet, and like any meaningful breakthrough, it takes time to get right.”

Success in the London Packaging Week 2025 Innovation Awards for the Johnnie Walker Black Label moulded fibre bottle was proof in action and cemented the project as one of the boldest, most creative, and most sustainable activations of the previous 12 months.

The window is now open for the next innovation that demonstrates the packaging industry's progress towards a sustainable, circular future.

With the deadline for entries into the London Packaging Week 2026 Innovation Awards closing on 24 April, those with an innovative product or project to shout about should submit their entry into one of the 23 categories without delay.

As noted by Tony’s colleague, Jamie Stone, design and sustainability expert at PA Consulting: “Breakthrough innovation takes a lot of time, and it takes a lot of partnership. Having big brands like Diageo and others sponsor our technology helps us move forward. Every technology needs to reach a wider audience, and you need people to understand it. Winning awards is a great indication that we're on the right track, step by step.”

Discover the categories for the London Packaging Week 2026 Innovation Awards and start your submission journey at https://www.londonpackagingweek.com/innovation-awards/

PulPac today announces that its intellectual property portfolio within Dry Molded Fiber has surpassed 500 national patent grants globally. The milestone comes as Dry Molded Fiber gains recognition as an established manufacturing method rather than a new and emerging alternative.

For decades, fiber forming has been dominated by wet processes. Today, the category is broadening as Dry Molded Fiber gains traction as a scalable and competitive fiber forming method.

“Dry Molded Fiber is no longer an experimental technology. It is an industrial category in its own right, and we are seeing the market move from curiosity to commitment,” says Viktor Wingård Börjesson, Chief Operating Officer at PulPac. “The intellectual property platform and engineering experience we have built over the past decade provide a stable foundation for companies investing in Dry Molded Fiber, and that is increasingly reflected in the level of industrial engagement we are seeing.”

PulPac’s patent portfolio spans fiber preparation and airlaying, forming and pressing methods, tooling configurations and integrated functional features. Surpassing 500 national patent grants reinforces the company’s position as the most established intellectual property holder within industrial dry forming of fiber.

Reaching 500 granted patents represents years of accumulated engineering experience and continuous process refinement. PulPac alone is approaching 800,000 R&D hours invested in Dry Molded Fiber. That accumulated knowledge significantly reduces uncertainty in industrial implementation and lowers the barriers for scale.

Industrialization is supported by PulPac’s ecosystem of leading machine builders. This network brings together globally active companies with deep expertise spanning injection molding, nonwovens, fiber processing, and advanced packaging automation. Continuous developments within this ecosystem, including expanded Dry Molded Fiber platform capabilities, demonstrate strong industrial commitment and support broader implementation across markets.

“We see clear signs that Dry Molded Fiber is approaching a tipping point,” concludes Wingård Börjesson. “The engagement of globally established machine builders is one indicator, while regulatory developments such as the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation are accelerating demand for scalable fiber-based alternatives. Implementation is increasingly happening alongside plastic conversion and traditional wet molded fiber production rather than replacing them outright, lowering the barrier to adoption. The fundamentals for large-scale implementation are now in place.”

Regina, Saskatchewan, April 1, 2026 – Canada’s food and beverage manufacturers are expected to see modest sales growth in 2026, but weak demand continues to challenge the sector, according to the latest . 

FCC Economics forecasts food and beverage manufacturing sales will increase 0.8 per cent in 2026, driven by higher prices, while sales volumes are expected to decline by 0.7 per cent. That would mark the fourth consecutive year of falling volumes, continuing a trend where higher prices support revenues while underlying demand remains weak. 

“The gap between modest sales growth and declining volumes highlights the demand challenge facing food manufacturers,” said Craig Johnston, chief economist at FCC. “Weak volume growth shows the sector is still adjusting to tighter consumer spending and slower population growth.” 

Input costs have risen sharply in recent years as supply disruptions pushed prices higher across the agricultural supply chain. Events such as avian influenza, drought in cocoa-producing regions, and tight livestock supplies increased costs for many manufacturers.  

Looking ahead to 2026, prices for key inputs including cattle, hogs, canola and cocoa are expected to ease, providing some relief for processors. It should be noted that this outlook is subject to uncertainty, as the conflict in the Middle East has introduced new risks to energy and commodity markets.  

Gross margins for food and beverage manufacturers are forecast to improve in 2026 and 2027 following several years of pressure. In 2026, the improvement is expected to come mainly from easing raw material costs as sales growth remains modest and volumes continue to decline. As market conditions stabilize, margin gains in 2027 are expected to reflect a combination of improved cost conditions and stronger revenue growth.  

Performance will vary across subsectors. Margins are expected to improve in meat processing, seafood preparation, bakery products, grain and oilseed milling, and sugar and confectionery manufacturing. By contrast, fruit and vegetable processing and beverage manufacturing are expected to face renewed pressure. 

Trade uncertainty continues to influence the outlook. Tariffs, supply chain disruptions, and geopolitical tensions are affecting export markets, input costs and creating uncertainty for businesses planning future investments. The conflict in the Middle East stands out as a potentially important risk shaping the outlook. 

“Demand conditions remain uneven across product categories, and that will shape performance across the industry,” said Johnston. “Businesses that improve productivity, manage input costs and adapt to changing consumer preferences will be better positioned as conditions evolve.” 

Investment trends reflect the cautious environment. Capital expenditures in the food and beverage manufacturing sector declined 5.3 per cent in 2025, and early indicators suggest investment may weaken further in 2026. Sustained declines in capital spending could limit productivity growth, reduce capacity expansion, and slow the adoption of new technologies across the sector. 

Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing sector includes more than 11,000 businesses and employs roughly 318,000 people, making it the largest manufacturing employer in the country and a critical link between Canadian farms and consumers. The sector serves both Canadian households and export markets, with many processors relying heavily on international demand, particularly from the United States, while trade disruptions, tariffs and shifting global demand continue to influence sales and investment decisions. 

The annual FCC Food and Beverage Report provides forecasts and analysis across key segments of the sector, including grain and oilseed milling, dairy and meat processing, sugar and confectionery manufacturing, bakery products, seafood preparation, fruit and vegetable processing, and beverage manufacturing. 

By sharing economic knowledge and forecasts, FCC provides insights and expertise to help those in the business of agriculture and food achieve their goals. For more economic insights and analysis, visit FCC Economics at .