China's first open technology and knowledge sharing platform for the packaging industry was established
Amcor, the world's leading consumer packaged goods company, has officially launched its latest strategy to accelerate co-creation with local customers in China.
Recently, Amcor China Packaging Academy was officially established in the Asia-Pacific R&D Center of Amcor Group in Jiangyin, which is also the first open technology and knowledge sharing platform for the packaging industry in China. She Xin, President of Amcor Group Greater China, said in the exchange that China is currently one of the largest single markets in the world, and the group plans to continuously increase investment in China and accelerate organic growth in China.
"In the past few years, even due to the impact of the pandemic and the economic environment, we have maintained double-digit organic growth, thanks to the continuous growth with our customers." In She's view, the key to Amcor's growth opportunities in China lies in working closely with local customers to seize new opportunities for the growth of consumer goods in lower-tier cities such as the third, fourth and fifth tiers. With the help of the above-mentioned packaging academy to share cutting-edge technologies and trends in the packaging industry, Amcor has been able to establish new contact points with local consumer brands, timely grasp the latest domestic consumer trends and brand demand for packaging, which is expected to bring more opportunities for co-creation with customers.
Let's take a look at the details.
New trends bring new business opportunities
As a consumer packaging supplier, Amcor provides unique insight into the latest development trends in different tracks of the food and other industries by observing the changes in the brand's demand for packaging. It is understood that Amcor currently has more than 3,000 customers in China, basically covering clothing, food, housing and medical needs, in China, about 300 million products using Amcor packaging flow in the market every day.
She Xin said in the exchange that from the perspective of the growth rate of consumer packaging, Amcor has noticed that the development of domestic mid-end and even low-end consumer goods is faster than that of high-end. For example, a casual snack brand was originally done in the first- and second-tier markets, and then dispersed to the third, fourth and fifth-tier markets, but now it is the opposite.
From the perspective of categories, the snack industry, pet food industry, coffee industry and other tracks are growing rapidly.
He explained that in the past two years, people have been more interested in cost-effectiveness, but since last year, they have also begun to pursue emotional value, so snacks and other products that provide emotional value to young people have developed very quickly.
She Xin, President of Amcor Group Greater China
"How fast is the snack industry growing now? It is hoped that any dish on the table will be turned into a snack, such as fish-flavored shredded pork and hot pot, and there are enterprises in research and development, hoping to make snacks that can be eaten in different consumption scenarios, such as tourism and leisure scenes, which has brought huge business opportunities to our packaging industry. She Xin said that Amcor is full of confidence in China's consumer market.
He also mentioned in particular that he is very optimistic about the business prospects that this pet food and prefabricated food track will bring to the packaging industry in the future.
In terms of pet food, because cats and dogs have much better taste and smell sensitivity than humans, pet food will have very high requirements for oxygen permeability and water permeability on packaging, and it will not be able to meet the needs of pets if it is a little worse. In addition, with the increasing demand for convenience and other consumer needs, there are now many prepared foods, and Amcor also provides packaging for many prepared foods.
Increase local co-creation
During the exchange, She Xin used prepared food as an example to further share the case of Amcor's packaging innovation in China and local customers.
He said, for example, Zhou Heiya hopes to go out of Wuhan, but the demand for lo-mei preservation puts forward high requirements for packaging. So Zhou Heiya contacted Amcor, who completed the packaging design in two days. Now, Amcor's packaging for Zhou Black Duck can keep the product fresh at 0-4°C for more than 10 days, and the taste is completely unchanged, so good packaging also helps the brand go further in the market.
She Xin also said that there are many types of prepared foods on the market: ready to cook can be eaten directly after it is ready, ready to eat it can be eaten, and different categories have different needs for packaging. For example, a xiaolongbao microwave self-exhaust bag designed by Amcor can be directly put into the microwave oven for heating, and the first requirement for packaging is that the temperature must reach 120 °C (tolerance), and at the same time, it is necessary to solve the heating expansion and bursting bag. For this purpose, two exhaust channels are designed to be released only when the pressure reaches a certain level.
It is understood that during this year's spring sugar and wine fair, Amcor and the Siping government signed a strategic agreement to empower China's corn industry with packaging and released a fresh corn package.
"China sold 7.5 billion corns last year, and the average Chinese ate five corns. Now it is required that the packaging can achieve a shelf life of 3 months, 6 months or even 1 year at room temperature, which is very demanding for packaging. He explained that the Siping government hopes that the local corn can be a staple food, industrial development, and the existing aluminum foil packaging because the contents can not be seen, will make dealers unable to distinguish the situation of the product after three months of storage, transparent packaging to ensure that the color of corn can not be yellow at the same time, but also hope to have both cost-effective, so relying on the innovative development of packaging can help them solve the problem.
Previously, Amcor also produced a soft plastic packaging for Shanghai Merlin luncheon meat, which can be torn open and eaten, which can not only ensure the same shelf life as the tinplate packaging in the past, but also provide consumers with higher convenience.
She Xin also believes that in the future, through Amcor Packaging Academy, we can solve some common needs of local consumer brands in the pursuit of cost performance, innovation and sustainable development while breaking the contradiction between the growing demand for packaging innovation and the lack of packaging expertise of brands in different industries, such as helping customers to save packaging costs by lightweight and miniaturization, or making packaging more eye-catching through naked-eye 3D technology and other designs.
Continued investment expansion
According to the data, Amcor Group, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, achieved annual sales of about $13.6 billion in fiscal year 2024. The company has been in the Chinese market for more than 30 years, with a cumulative investment of more than 2 billion US dollars, and currently has 13 production bases, 1 Asia-Pacific R&D center and 4 offices in China.
It is worth noting that since 2018, Amcor's performance in Greater China has maintained a high average annual double-digit growth. In December 2022, Amcor's Huizhou base, which has invested more than RMB 1 billion, is one of the group's largest and smartest automated flexible packaging factories in China.
In addition, Amcor has been expanding through mergers and acquisitions over the past few years. In 2019, Amcor acquired the KPMG Group, and in 2022, it acquired Medico (MDK), a packaging company for medical devices, in China. In November last year, Amcor Global acquired the U.S.-based Berry International Group, which is expected to enter Amcor's operating system in the next two to three months. She Xin said that the acquisition of Berry International Group will lay a good foundation for Amcor's rapid development in the next five years.
Looking at the Chinese market, Amcor is also quite optimistic about the future market prospects. She Xin said that the packaging industry in any country can probably account for 1%-2% of its GDP, and the more developed countries account for the higher the proportion.
"China is first of all one of the world's largest consumer goods production markets, China produces more than 30% of the world's consumer goods, Amcor Group, as the world's leading consumer packaging company, has a long-term development strategy in China, and will continue to increase investment in the future." She Xin said.