Being different pays

“Our strategy is not to be the lowest cost producer, but concentrate and celebrate where we can be different and so add value for our customers and ourselves,” said David Beeby, ceo of Innovia Films, BOPP and regenerated cellulose film supplier to packaging and label converters and security printers.

Still referred to by many as “UCB”, Innovia was formed in October, 2004, following the €320M acquisition of the former film business of the UCB Group by a consortium led by Dennis Mathewman and Candover Partners. The business - with production plants in Wigton (also the headquarters and R&D site), Belgium, the USA and Australia and 16 sales offices around the world - has a turnover of over €400M and employs 1,350. Annual film capacity is believed to be around the 120,000t mark.

So far, so good for the ceo appointed shortly after Innovia was established. “We think the vast majority of the film market would love to be in our position,” he proudly announced. “We are financially strong - I'm happy we are outperforming the industry. “

Innovia stands for Innovation In Action. So how's it done? “Innovation is firstly all about people. I am immensely proud to be able to lead this team and company,” reflected the ex vp of marketing and international sales at Alcan Packaging. “But what we are completely focused on is our special technology and therefore the products.”

At the heart of this is the modern bubble technology developed for OPP film production. Design and construction of the equipment, which extrudes a typical three-layer structure over a mandrel and then heats and blows the resultant cast tube into a bubble so stretching it in both directions in a controlled way, is all bespoke and engineered in-house.

Latest of the 10 bubble lines was commissioned in 2001. The multi million pound “super-bubble” unit at the Wigton site added some 11,000t capacity per annum, bringing the company's total worldwide production capability to just under 100,000t. It is claimed to provide greater flexibility in producing films of varying widths to meet increasing demand, particularly in the labels market where it says it holds the leading global position.

“I can talk passionately about OPP and our technology,” enthused David Beeby, who some 11 years ago worked down the road at what was LMG Smith Brothers as its managing director. “The stentor technology is fantastic and the best for massive parts of the market. I am not saying that the bubble method is better as a whole, but there are areas of the market where it is. It is different.”

“Complementing this is our coating capability and innovation,” added David Beeby. Much of the development work is centred on developing new performance coatings to produce films for specific applications. In the labels sector, for example, the coated BOPP “is the industry benchmark and has “opened up large and new opportunities for paper replacement”. In areas that require excellent adhesive and print adhesion the company's coatings are claimed to deliver just the right surface characteristics. A third advanced coating machine was commissioned in 2000. Innovia also offers metallized film produced on its General Vacuum equipment installed in 1999.

“Some €10 - 12M is invested in capital equipment each year across the group,” he said. “This year, for example, we are putting in three Ashe machines (including a material recovery rewinder) at Wigton, and a large Atlas slitter rewinder into the Melbourne plant.” Naturally, there is a rolling investment in continuous updating and refurbishment of all the lines.

Innovia inherited a new, architecturally stunning R&D centre, which also houses marketing and technical services. Designed to “increase global effectiveness in four key activities: new product development, product enhancement, validation of emerging technologies and raw material qualification,“ the €12M 5,500m² centre features laboratory facilities accommodating a huge range of material science, chemical and physical disciplines as well as pilot coating and, installed just before last Christmas, a pilot three-layer extruder.

How does R&D feature in the mix? “Innovation is a business agenda and it comes in a whole raft of areas across our business,” he replied. R&D has always been an important part, but I have equally always maintained that it should be set by the business, otherwise it becomes R&D for the sake of it. Yes, you have to have some room for the science - but you also have to have a big chunk of it directed to answering opportunities, providing the materials with attributes that the market needs. If we don't we'd just be spending a lot of money going nowhere.“ In other words it has to deliver practical innovation.

Difference

“So we have what we call our Greeenhouse Group keeping up the contacts with the universities, looking at the new materials, but then we see if we can make something out of it, something which plays to our difference. We have marketing and technical teams feeding into the process and there are cross functional teams for each project.

“The question I always ask for each is 'what does success look like?' When you describe that you can decide whether it is worth the effort. It is fundamental that the more you are spending on something the more you have to understand why.”

So what has come out at the other end? In the last 18 months some 13 new products have been introduced to the market. They include some fairly radical moves in label films including what was claimed to be the world's first white squeezable label film launched at Labelexpo in Brussels last year. Radical moves are set to continue at Labelexpo Americas this month, where another four materials are to be announced on booth 1429 Hall A. (See separate feature).

It has not all been plain sailing for David Beeby. Last year he was faced with the decision to close one of Innovia's three cellulose film plants. Narrowed down to a choice between Kansas and Bridgwater, the axe fell on perhaps the UK's best known Cellophane production plant. He said at the time: “There simply is not sufficient business to justify our operation of three production plants.” The company, global leader in the development and production of Cellophane films, said capacity at its other two sites in the UK and America is more than sufficient to meet global demand.

“We are the residual major player in cellulose. The last manufacturer in Europe and the last in the USA.” It's a strong residual business and the company is working hard to remind the industry of Cellophane's special properties. It is here that products are being developed to fit the increasing demand for biodegradability.

The company's NatureFlex range launched over 2005 and 2006 is both biodegradable and compostable. When interviewed in 1989 for sister publication Packaging Today David Beeby said: “There are going to be a lot of myths and hype about what might be better for the environment. I believe we should regard the oil used to make plastics as borrowed energy. We should use it and then put it back into the energy chain, not attempt to biodegrade the plastics.” Had he changed his mind?

“I do believe that for a lot of the mainstream plastics. You know, if plastics were invented today… if someone had said let's borrow 2 to 3 per cent of the oil to allow more food to get to the consumer and then put the same caloric value back into the chain, they would be hailed as a genius.

“But there is a market developing around biodegradability and composting for certain applications. Both should be developed together.” What really annoys him is “people who claim something is biodegradable when it isn't”, materials that break up and deal with a litter problem rather than offering environmental benefit. “There is still a lot of myth and hype about what is biodegradable.

“NatureFlex is made from trees sourced only from managed plantations. Trees are good for CO₂ and they are renewable. And NatureFlex is actually home compostable. Our material does what it says it will do.” The R&D resources have enabled the company to combine established cellulose film know-how with coating and formulation technology to develop the range.

“I think the challenge is probably for the brand owners. They have to get it across to consumers that this product biodegrades. Perhaps if they link it to organic foods then it will be part of a broader message. It is also packaging suitable for flushing down the loo.” In fact the film has already been used to wrap individual tampons.

Growth

“What do I see for biopolymers?” he asked. “They will grow significantly in the next decade. The pie is small today and NatureFlex is an important player within that. The pie will grow a lot larger with NatureFlex playing its part, but there will also be PLA and starch based products.” He hinted: “Maybe Innovia will play a part there too. We will continue to look at other materials.”

And the future? “We have been lucky in many ways. UCB had been a fantastic owner and supported the businesses tremendously, but it had got to the point where the business needed to become independent and focus entirely on films.

“Now we live or die by our success as that films business,” he stated. “That's healthy. There's a new buzz.”

“Someone once said that when you look at any industry that is successful the reason for that success is not that everyone is doing the same thing. Rather everyone has found a different role and a different strategy.

“We have that different strategy that plays to our strengths,” concluded David Beeby. “We celebrate those differences - differences in our technology, our processes, our people, our markets and our know-how.”