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There's never a dull moment in the dynamic Australasian packaging industry, with M&A activity, leadership changes, and product innovation keeping our news desk busy all year long.

From Orora's booming growth over the financial year, to the Australian Government's pledge to make all packaging in the country reusable, compostable or recyclable by 2025, to needles in strawberries and plastic bags out of supermarkets, to the first ever Print21 + PKN LIVE joint event, 2018 was a rollercoaster of a year for the packaging industry... and PKN was there to cover all the news highlights.

See our review of the year that was in the latest issue of PKN magazine.

Food & Drink Business

Tasmanian whisky producer Lark Distilling Co has closed FY26 with fourth quarter net sales of $5 million, up 44 per cent on the prior corresponding period (pcp), taking full year net sales to $18 million, a 15 per cent increase on FY25.

Lupin protein company, Wide Open Agriculture (WOA), has started winding down its German production facility as it shifts to a contract manufacturing model, with the ASX-listed business ending the June quarter with $1.27 million in cash and roughly 2.1 quarters of funding.

Every three years, Australia's food and beverage manufacturing industry gathers at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre for foodpro – and this year Food & Drink Business was there as an exclusive media partner of the foodpro Industry Hub. In two minutes, here's a taste of some of what caught our eye across the show floor – the latest in processing and packaging, automation and robotics, food safety, sustainability and AI, and the people behind it.