In the wake of the acquisition of Ecologic Brands in January, Jabil has announced huge expansion plans for their paper bottle technology with a USD 25 million investment in Ecologic’s plant in Manteca, California, with the delivery of new equipment and automation, and the buildout of a new paper bottle plant in their Sustainability Center of Excellence in Tortosa, Spain.

Scaled production

Creating the first paper-based scaled production in the market, this expansion will enable the production of hundreds of millions of new paper packages, said Jabil in a statement. In particular, it will allow Jabil to deliver Ecologic’s innovative pulp molding technologies to new geographies.

The technology developed by Ecologic Brands enables a significant reduction in the amount of plastic (up to 60% less) needed to manufacture rigid primary packaging. Briefly said, an outer paper shell is molded around a plastic insert which provides the barrier effect. This solution was chosen by L’Oréal for its Seeds Phytonutrients brand, launched in 2018 in the United States.

Recently, L’Oréal announced their intention to extend this solution to some of their iconic brands such as Redken and Matrix.

Demand for sustainable packaging is booming

Jabil is making this investment in response to a significant rise of the demand for sustainability in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) market. According to Euromonitor, consumers reported that they are three times more likely to prefer paper-based packaging over alternatives that leverage metal or plastic.

As consumers become more informed about the environmental impact of plastic waste, they are looking for new, sustainable packaging solutions such as paper. The challenge for packaging providers is the ability to scale production to meet this demand,” said Jason Paladino, senior vice president of Jabil and CEO of Jabil Packaging Solutions. “The expansion of these two facilities will result in a significant increase in packaging capacity for the North American and European markets, helping CPG brands in pursuit of challenging sustainability goals.

A global packaging giant, the Jabil group employs about 260,000 staffs across 100 locations in 30 countries.