Welcome to February!

After what seems like weeks and weeks, we’re finally into February and thank goodness because January really seemed to drag this year! February is the month of love with Valentines Day coming up on the 14^th. With the world opening up though and Covid restrictions all but disappearing hopefully this year we can manage a bit more than virtual hugs.

With International Women’s day coming up next month, we’re celebrating the female trailblazers in the industry with a series of podcasts. Check out our feature from last year, ‘Jobs for the boys’ by the wonderful Karen McKenzie here to find out more about them.

You’ve been busy….

Sonoco has completed the acquisition of Ball Metalpack. Ball Metalpack was a joint venture owned by Platinum Equity and Ball Corporation. Previously part of Ball Corporation, the Ball Metalpack joint venture, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, was formed in 2018 and has more than 100 years of experience producing steel tinplate food and aerosol cans, as well as closures and packaging components. Read more here.

To mark the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing this February, Slovenian brewer Pivovarna Laško Union has initiated an ingenious marketing campaign for its Laško brand. The initiative is set to raise awareness and highlight the potentially catastrophic impact of climate change on future Winter Olympics if our planet keeps heating up. As a trusted partner, CANPACK has been tasked with producing cans for this project. Pivovarna Laško Union’s limited edition can design encourages consumers to find out more about the campaign via the interactive QR code, find out more here.

L’Occitane has been working with women’s cooperatives in Burkina Faso since the 1980’s, and more recently in Ghana, to improve the lives and working conditions of Burkinbé and Ghanaian women, building long-term and 100% Fair Trade partnerships to provide educational and financial resources in collaboration with the L’Occitane Foundation. They purchase the shea butter directly from the producers, which is financially advantageous for the women, providing more economic security so they can achieve a higher level of independence. This also helps them to invest in improving working conditions and making production chains more sustainable. Thanks to the new aluminium packaging and availability of eco-refills, 28 tons of plastic will be saved every year – reducing 1.8% of L’Occitane’s total plastic consumption, read more about the co-operative here.

Janis Osborn

Publisher