• PKN Packaging News November-december 2017 issue is available for download at www.packagingnews.com.au
    PKN Packaging News November-december 2017 issue is available for download at www.packagingnews.com.au
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While the printed copy makes its way to your desk, in the meantime take a look on-screen at this issue's top stories.

‘TIS the season for reflection as another year in packaging draws to a close and, as is our annual custom, the PKN team takes stock of the news highlights for our Headline Makers feature (starting on page 46).

2017 was certainly the year the global industry put itself on show – on home turf we covered Auspack, PacPrint and Foodpro, and abroad Interpack, Drinktec, PackExpo, Japan Pack and Labelexpo – and as a result we’ve seen a plethora of packaging container, material, and machinery innovation roll out across show floors and onto our pages.

Our bumper Packaging Innovation feature (starting on page 20) gives a snapshot of the top trends and technology shaping future directions for our fast-changing industry.

Automation and digitisation are among the biggest driving forces for change in manufacturing, and nowhere has this been better demonstrated than on the trade show floors. We’ve seen the release of automated package delivery drones; collaborative robots; smart equipment engaging in machine-to-machine dialogue; sophisticated molecular tagging for track and trace; interactive packaging platforms that deliver AR/VR experiences; and the opening of what some might call the Pandora’s Box of artificial intelligence, which promises to transform the way factories operate in the future.

In Industry Insight (page 10), we bring you a summary of the PMMI’s Evolution of Automation, an industry research report that highlights just how fast things are shifting in machine automation and the convergence of IT and OT, what hurdles there are to automation adoption, and how manufacturers are equipping themselves for the challenges of a digitised future.

Driving the need for flexibility and speed is the growing online retail market, and our special feature on e-commerce packaging (starting on page 16) takes a look at how the packaging industry is responding to demand for personalised, customised, made-to-fit packaging that delivers delight to the doorstep in double-quick time. My personal favourite is the advent calendar with a difference developed by UK corrugated converter DS Smith. Step aside mini-chocolate advents of old; 24 days of wine or beer tasting in the countdown to Christmas will tick the box on ‘delightful’ for many.

Thanks to social media disseminating on a grand scale consumers’ ‘big reveal’ experiences, online shoppers have high expectations of brand e-tail packaging. A plain cardboard box packed with void fillers won’t cut it anymore. And with Amazon officially opening up shop in Australia any day now, this is a channel we’ll be watching closely in 2018 as we continue to look out for developments across the supply chain that we can wrap up and deliver double-quick to you in a ready-to-read format.

Happy Holidays!

PS While you're paging through, look out for other highlights in this issue, including our interview with the new Tetra Pak Oceania MD Andrew Pooch, and news of RollsPack's big win at the FPLMA awards.

Food & Drink Business

Entries are now open for the annual Melbourne Royal Australian Food Awards. Open to commercial food producers of all sizes, it is one of the largest programs of its kind. 

Victorian brewery, Bodriggy Brewing Co, is the first brewery in the state to achieve carbon-neutral certification and only the second in Australia to do so. The independent Abbotsford-based brewery achieved certification under the federal government’s Climate Active program.

According to Rabobank data, Australian consumers are facing higher chocolate prices heading into Easter, with retail chocolate prices up 8.8 per cent on the previous year as global cocoa prices soar.