Roberts Metal Packaging, Europe’s leading provider of pre-threaded screw-caps, godets and aluminium and tinplate containers, has relaunched its popular classic Softline Extreme aluminium jar range with two new collections.  

The pack, which features a threaded lid and flat, angular bottom, is now available in deep and shallow ranges.  

Softline Extreme Deep includes 75ml up to 250ml capacity, with a new 170ml option. These sizes provide the perfect packaging format for health and beauty products such as hair care and body butter.

Softline Extreme Shallow is available from 25ml up to 120ml capacity, but with a new 100ml pack now available. The new shallow collection provides ergonomic packaging options for products such as hand and face creams or even household products such as natural furniture polish.

Chris Saunders, Roberts Metal Packaging Managing Director, commented:  

“Our Softline Extreme range was originally launched over a decade ago and has proved incredibly popular with customers who have utilised this packaging format for products from beard balms to solid fragrances.  

“Certainly, in the last few years, and in the context of health and beauty especially, we’ve noticed more customers switching to metal containers because of metal’s highly rated sustainability credentials, not least its status as a permanently available material which can be recycled again and again with no loss of quality. 

“It’s this increasing demand that has led to our relaunch with two collections that showcase the versatility, size and depth of the entire Softline Extreme range.” 

Roberts Metal Packaging’s range of forever recyclable lids and jars is met with interest and enthusiasm at Packaging of Perfume Cosmetics & Design (PCD) in Paris and Packaging Innovations, Birmingham 

Trade shows in the packaging space are back and they mean business! Busier than ever and boasting a wide range of high-quality product ranges, Brexit has been powerless to dampen the sector’s enthusiasm for trade exhibitions. Any lingering misgivings about meeting up in-person at such events seem to have disappeared too.  

We need to look no further than Roberts Metal Packaging’s recent experiences at PCD, Paris and Packaging Innovations, Birmingham for a case in point. Let’s hear what Kirsty Taylor, the company’s Sales and Marketing Manager, has to say on the subject.  

Ashfield Extrusion exclusively on-stand with Roberts at PCD, Paris  

As Europe’s premier manufacturer of aluminium and tinplate jars and screwcaps, Roberts Metal Packaging has been exhibiting at PCD as part of Paris Packaging Week – the must-attend event for business and innovation within the global perfume and cosmetics packaging community – for many years.  

As always, Roberts was pleased to showcase its full product range to customers and prospects from France, Germany, the UK and other European countries. Vastly exceeding usual traffic numbers, visitors were keen to source new packaging ideas and brainstorm the options with us. They were particularly interested to see the range of extruded jars and pots we had on-stand – the result of a longstanding, close collaboration with Ashfield Extrusion.  

We provide all the aluminium lids and caps for Ashfield Extrusion’s range of jars and tubes. Working in close partnership with them, we ensure perfect-matching in terms of sizing, colour, embossing, style and more.  We can match almost any Pantone colour requirement imaginable. And if it doesn’t already exist – thanks to our partnership with Sun Chemicals – we will create it. The only limit is your imagination!  

Our Ashfield Extrusion range was exclusive to Roberts at the show and made quite a splash!  

Sustainability still top of mind at Packaging Innovations, Birmingham 

Where PCD attracts an audience from across Europe and the UK, Packaging Innovations enables us to focus our attention on networking with our UK-based suppliers, customers and prospects. We exhibit at this must-attend event every year and – as with PCD – were surprised to find that the show was much busier than usual.  

Frequent questions, as always, related to compatibility between our caps and customers’ own jars and bottles. Happily, since our caps have been designed for use with glass and plastic bottles, the answer is almost always ‘no problem.’ So – whether companies were looking to launch an entirely new product or to transition from plastic to aluminium caps – they appreciated our positive can-do approach, proven capabilities and examples of the finished products.  

The show also highlighted that interest surrounding sustainability and recycling continues to gain momentum. We always warn our customers of the dangers of relying on such misleading metrics, useful only as marketing soundbites. Unlike with plastic or paper packaging, metal is infinitely recyclable. It’s this message that manufacturers need to focus on. It’s about educating consumers about the ‘forever recyclable’ aspect of metal that matters. 

The packaging industry is both highly competitive and constantly-evolving. If you want to gain and retain a competitive edge, you need to keep your fingers firmly on the pulse of all the latest trends and innovations. Attending trade shows is a key part of the challenge.  

The incredible dynamism and vibrancy we witnessed at this year’s PCD and Packaging Innovations, and rapidly growing consumer appetite for recycling combine to offer a great growth opportunity to Roberts Metal Packaging. Our high-quality solutions enable our customers to stand out from the crowd and we look forward to helping them to do so today, tomorrow and for the long-term.  

To tap into our industry expertise and brainstorm best-fit options, please get in touch with our Sales Team today on salesteam@roberts-metpack.co.uk or on +44 (0)20 8320 9500! 

Chris Saunders, Managing Director, tells how even small businesses can create a big impact with sustainable packaging choices

I’ve seen a lot of new start-ups and businesses on Instagram and other social media channels recently, and often look at their product packaging and think, ‘it’s all just a lot of plastic again’. Packaging is frequently missed as part of the promotion or marketing plan for SMEs.

Small or medium size businesses could make a bigger impact not only environmentally but also in their marketing if they were using sustainable metal packaging as part of their range. There’s no rule that says you must only use metal or plastic or glass – there is huge value in simply changing one product pack or one lid to metal, for example.

The small changes really add up in terms of environmental impact. As a result, small brands can then promote the packs as much as the product.

In the context of cosmetics especially, which is a major sector for us, one of the biggest impacts that a small company could make by changing to metal would be on the recycling rates of beauty packaging compared to a plastic hair wax tub or a plastic lip gloss container for example.

In my opinion, the younger generation are the most committed to sustainability, and the most likely to pay attention to the recycling credentials of product packaging. Brands who focus on this point will boost their eco credentials and win a major marketing point with young consumers.

Ultimately, our key message is that metal recycles forever and for the younger generation, ‘forever’ is perhaps more meaningful. It’s their future we’re protecting by recycling packaging today. For older generations, issues around sustainability and recycling aren’t ingrained into everyday life in the way it hopefully will be for the next generation of industry leaders, policy makers and consumers.

There are many challenges for small companies now. Supermarkets are reducing stock keeping units (SKUs) like there’s no tomorrow. Compared to how many different SKUs supermarkets and department stores were selling 2-3 years ago, it’s massively reduced. So, who’s going to take a product from a new start-up? Probably not the supermarket chains.

One thing we can do to make metal packaging a more affordable option for small businesses looking to make a big eco impact is to steer them towards keeping packs as standard as possible. If, as a small business, they only want small quantities to begin with, it’s likely to be the more cost-effective solution for them, as we will have units in stock and don’t require the purchase or creation of bespoke tooling.

For example, a standard 15ml aluminium jar (popular for lip balms) that we make and sell to UK and European stockists would be available to order in a relatively small number, and customisation options are available via labelling. This is an inexpensive way to trial metal packaging without overcommitting on the budget sheet.

It’s worth noting also that small companies don’t have to feel pressured to choose between metal and plastic packaging. Quite a few companies decide to have an aluminium product (such as a hair or beard wax tin) within a larger range that includes other packaging formats such as glass and plastic (a hand pump bottle for soap or lotion for example). Often, they’ll request items that need to aesthetically match and look pleasing alongside other items in their range, but they won’t necessarily all be formed of the same material.

Coca-Cola is a classic example of mixed packaging, albeit on a larger scale. Their product is still sold in traditional glass bottles with crown corks, but they also sell in aluminium beverage cans which they have done for years, they sell in glass, and they sell in PET plastic – so it’s not always just about all metal, sometimes it’s about choices within a range.

Often when we think of behaviour change around packaging, we’re thinking of global brands and sales in huge numbers. But it’s just as important to consider that a big impact can be driven by smaller businesses making sustainable choices – metal can help achieve this, one lid, jar or tin at a time.

Chris Saunders, Managing Director, Roberts Metal Packaging

‘Plastic-free’ sounds fantastic, doesn’t it?

But don’t get too excited – the fact is that there is no closure that doesn’t have some plastic in the liner. Many brands, designers and consumers are finding this difficult to accept, and we need to encourage clients to understand that reducing plastic is a momentous first step. For many of them, the only realistic one.

Plastic is an essential component in high quality closures on metal packaging because – put simply – as part of a liner it serves as a product barrier. A liner is important because it helps create an airtight seal, therefore avoiding product contamination and preventing both leaks and evaporation.

We could offer plastic free packs without a liner – but with a high risk of evaporation and/or leakage – it probably wouldn’t be a popular choice!

Have you ever used the paper straws sometimes served with milkshake cups? They go soggy halfway through your drink. The same thing applies here – if you wanted to use paper liners in metal pack closures, the product would be absorbed into the porous paper, and consumers would be left with a mess.

Some liners are also designed to cushion, and to create compression when the lid is screwed down – but paper liners would be crushed out of shape within a couple of uses. Be aware that any closures advertised as having paper liners would still include a coating of plastic – it’s just greenwashing if they don’t mention it.

Interestingly, the issue that many clients seem keen to discuss is how to recycle the plastic liners in metal packaging – but the answer is always a lot simpler than they expect. You don’t.

The liner is very small, and if you correctly recycle the metal packaging (which is very important) the liner will be burnt off during the metal recycling process. This way, no additional plastic is added to landfill or oceans, which is one of the main concerns.

Many clients and consumers see zero-plastic packaging as the ultimate end-goal for the environment and circular economy. But plastic recycling doesn’t work in the same way as metal recycling. Metal has a fixed and well-established route back to reprocessing; with plastic, the route is not as well defined and consumer confusion is common. This is likely down to an uncoordinated approach from local authorities and confusing on-pack messaging.

Whilst our liner material (EPE) is recyclable, there is no infrastructure to support the process – and it seems very unlikely that most consumers would remove the liner for a separate waste stream if there was. Rubber and silicone alternatives are prohibitively expensive, make the products smell and would likely run into the same problems with consumers not separating liners for recycling. Waxed paper has also been trialled but less effective in providing a good seal. And even cork is impregnated with neoprene so that has plastic in it too.

For us, the right thing to do moving forwards is to help people understand and appreciate why reduced plastic is a better goal than zero-plastic. Our EPE and other liner materials (if requested by clients) are highly regulated and compliant with EU, REACH and food legislation. They are the best choice for metal closures because they provide the best seal – it’s really that simple. Any further issues clients and consumers have with the use of plastic in closures should be redirected to local councils and recycling centres. Perhaps the next environmental movement should focus on building more available recycling streams for plastics – and how the consumer should behave in sorting recyclable materials for collection.

Our clients can rest assured that we have used the thinnest liners for our closures, using as little plastic as possible to continually maintain the highest standard in finished metal packs.

If you would like to discuss Roberts Metal Packaging material choices and sustainability credentials, the team would be delighted to hear from you:  salesteam@roberts-metpack.co.uk

In this latest blog post, we look at the process of re-branding with Stokes Sauces, an existing client who wanted to change the colour and finish of packaging.
Read more