A decade of success

CanTech International
September/October 2007

Evert van de Weg  reports from Impress' 10th anniversary celebrations in Italy

It's ten years since Impress was born out of a merger between the can making operations of Germany's Schmalbach-Lubeca and France's Pechiney Group.

At that time, Doughty Hanson, a UK-based investment company, became the major shareholder with a 60 per cent stake. Remarkably for an investment company, Doughty Hanson is still the major shareholder ten years on, and Impress is now a group with 8,000 employees and 51 plants in 18 countries. Annual sales now top €1.5 billion and the company produces around 10 billion cans a year.

Anniversary celebrations
To mark its 10th anniversary, Impress held a celebratory event in Italy earlier this year. As part of the event, chief executive Francis Labbé introduced a seminar with the theme 'Metal - Packaging of the 21st century'.

Labbé spoke passionately about the virtues of metal packaging, which he is convinced, has many bright years ahead. "Metal packaging provides safety, convenience, reliability, cost effectiveness and, for food cans, health and microwaveability," he told the invited audience.

Labbé then outlined Impress' contributions to the consolidation and transformation of the metal packaging scene. "We have made various major acquisitions since our inception in 1997," he said. "We acquired Ferembal in 2000, as well as Heinz's can making facilities in the US. In 2003, we bought a Nestlé plant in Denmark; in 2005, the PAK company in Poland, an aluminium fish can making plant in Canada and an Alcan can making plant in the UK. In 2006, we acquired Himpack in Ukraine and a can making facility in Russia. In the same year, we purchased the European operations of US Can in various countries - a major operation which we are still integrating into our own systems. At the end of 2006, we signed an agreement for the construction of a sardine can factory in Morocco and this year we signed an alliance with the ORG Group in China. Of course more is boiling on our fires, but I think we've done our bit in restructuring the metal packaging landscape."

Labbé also pointed to a series of products that Impress has launched in its ten years of existence - including Easy Peel lids, the three-finger can, the Tripod can, the shaped aluminium bowl, a super-convenient and very thin steel Easy Opening end.

Expert views
Following Labbé's introduction, several other expert speakers outlined their views on the future of metal packaging. First of all, Dino Pinelli spoke on behalf of the European Commission. As policy officer in charge of waste management and recycling issues, Pinelli said that in political discussions about packaging, sustainability is playing a dominant role. He added that with the high recycling rates for metal packaging in large areas of the EU, it was clear that metal packaging has a good starting position, but much work remains to be done.

Duncan Hobbs of London-based consultancy Hatch Beddows then provided an insight into possible developments in steel and aluminium. By means of econometric modelling, he gave long-term forecasts of costs and prices for metals and pointed at influencing factors such as growing metal consumption and production in emerging countries like China and India.

Tim Corvin, director of Structure Design & Innovation at brand design consultants SiebertHead, London, then provided the audience with a completely different view, convincing many of the unexplored design potential of metal packaging.

Concluding the session, Francis Labbé pointed to a bright future for metal packaging, provided the industry grabs its chances with the help of the brand owners in a responsible manner.

The future looks bright
Following the seminar, Labbé spoke to members of the press about various issues. He announced that later in the year, the Frauenhofer Institute in Munich would publish a major industry-wide scientific study about the microwaveability of metal packaging.

Labbé told journalists that the Impress board of management often lunched on ready meals prepared in bowl-shaped cans heated in a microwave and that they enjoyed these meals on every occasion.

Moving on to EMPAC, the European Metal Packaging trade organisation, Labbé (a founding member, as well as president) outlined its progress. He stressed how important EMPAC is to safeguarding the metal packaging market in future. He conceded, however, that there is still a lot to be done in restoring the image of metal packaging.

Finally, asked why owner Doughty Hanson wishes to remain the major shareholder in Impress after ten years, Labbé concluded that the investment company must have considerable confidence that there are many more prosperous years ahead for Impress - a favourable conclusion to a 10-year anniversary celebration.

Impress
t: +33 2 4348 5100