As 2025 draws to a close, it is clear the packaging sector has undergone one of its most consequential years in over a decade. Consolidation at the top, restructuring in the middle, and bold innovation at the edges have reshaped the industry’s horizons. At the same time, regulators, brand owners and recyclers have inched closer to a new circular operating model, even as policy clarity remains elusive.
What emerges is a sector moving decisively into its next phase: strategic repositioning.
Here follows my take on the year's major developments. If you'd rather listen than read, Ep124 of the PKN Podcast has it covered. And if you'd like to know which stories were most clicked on our website (many of which feature in the report below), you can find out here.
Global and local M&A: Major shifts at the top
The biggest global packaging deal of the year was the early completion of the transformational merger between Amcor and Berry Global. The all–scrip transaction has created a behemoth with 400 plants, 75,000 employees and operations in 140 countries.
Amcor CEO Peter Konieczny called it “a defining day”, signalling enhanced strength in healthcare, material science, and rigid packaging – now a US$10 billion business for the group. The merger marks the most significant consolidation since Amcor’s acquisition of Bemis six years ago, and positions the combined entity as a global leader in consumer and healthcare packaging.
At home, the proposed $143m takeover of Close the Loop (CtL) by private equity firm Adamantem Capital collapsed after the parties failed to find alignment on commercial terms. CtL subsequently withdrew from several Australian projects – including the closure of its Laverton cardboard recycling site and the shelving of new TonerPlas plants in NSW and Queensland – as it refocuses on scalable, higher–value areas in North America and Europe.
In more positive news, Abbe Group made a landmark move with its acquisition of Oji Fibre Solutions’ Australian operations, adding four packaging plants and regional DCs across Victoria, NSW and Queensland. The deal marks Abbe’s return to Queensland and underscores the remarkable trajectory of the O’Sullivan family business, founded in the early ’90s and now poised for growth backed by automation and renewable energy.
Meanwhile, Pact Group’s delisting was finalised in July, after the Takeovers Panel allowed Chairman Raphael Geminder to proceed despite minority shareholder objections.
But perhaps the most dramatic market development (and the top click of the year on our website) was the voluntary administration of Pro-Pac Packaging, following years of financial strain, declining revenues and a severe loss of a major Middle Eastern customer. Administrators from McGrathNichol are now seeking buyers for all or parts of the business across 25 entities in Australia and New Zealand. The industry has watched this closely: PPG had been a long-standing supplier across flexibles, industrial and specialty packaging.
In contrast, Planet Ark delivered a rare feel-good story in the voluntary administration space, exiting VA just one month after entering it, following unanimous creditor support for its DOCA.
And in one of the year’s most sobering moments, compostable packaging innovator Great Wrap entered VA with debts of around $39 million. Its collapse underscored the risks facing circular start-ups operating in policy grey zones, while highlighting the urgent need for regulatory alignment and predictable market demand. [Read my comment in the latest print issue of PKN here.]
Investment surges: Rebuilding local capability
Despite market headwinds, 2025 was also a year of major capital investment, pointing to renewed confidence in local manufacturing.
The standout project was Suntory Oceania’s $400 million Swanbank beverage filling and packaging facility in Queensland, one of the most advanced beverage plants in the region. Running high-speed Krones and KHS lines capable of 90,000 cans per hour, and powered by solar, biomass and heat recovery, the site sets a benchmark for end-to-end packaging excellence and low-carbon operations.
Ego Pharmaceuticals also announced a decade-long, $156 million expansion of its Victorian operations, including a new Innovation Centre, upgraded warehousing and a state-of-the-art cream filling and packaging line. The investment will double the company’s annual production beyond its 2024 output of 33 million units and supports its significant export growth.
Other notable investments included:
Asahi: $60m canning line at Yatala
CCEP: $75m investment in largest and most efficient canning line in its global network, opened at Richlands
Nestlé: $30m automation upgrade at Campbellfield for KitKat
Jamestrong Packaging: $8m aluminium casting line in Taree to bring slug production onshore
RollsPack: new flexible packaging facility in Huai’an, China
TomKat: establishing Koolpak manufacturing in Thailand after failing to secure QLD support
It was a year that reaffirmed the centrality of packaging manufacturing in Australia’s industrial landscape, even as some companies expanded offshore.
Regulation: A pause, a push, and a stalemate
APCO’s decision not to introduce its proposed Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) fee model in FY27 was one of the most significant regulatory announcements of the year. After broad consultation, industry expressed concern about the lack of regulatory certainty, the potential for duplication, and the need for a fair, sector–specific and proportionate model with reasonable transition time.
While APCO emphasised that this was a pause, not a pivot, the move places pressure squarely back on government to articulate a nationally consistent packaging regulatory framework.
In August, major industry groups – including AFGC, WMRR, ACOR, APPMA and APCO – issued a unified call urging Environment Minister Murray Watt to move decisively on a mandatory, nationally coordinated producer responsibility scheme, including soft plastics.
Meanwhile, on the global stage, the UN plastics treaty negotiations stalled at INC-5.2 in Geneva, ending without a draft text or consensus. Minister Watt reiterated Australia’s commitment to phasing out harmful plastics, improving design and boosting circularity, but practical implementation remains uncertain.
Soft Plastics: The year of structural reset
Nowhere was the intersection of policy, industry leadership and infrastructure more apparent than in the soft plastics sector.
The most consequential milestone was the establishment of Soft Plastic Stewardship Australia (SPSA), which secured eight-year ACCC authorisation to run a unified, national, industry-led scheme.
Infrastructure expansion also gathered pace. iQRenew received $9.1m in joint federal-state funding to boost soft plastic processing capacity at its SPEC facility to 24,000 tonnes per year.
At the same time, Viva Energy produced Australia’s first ISCC+ certified bio-based polymer derived from used cooking oil at its Geelong Refinery – and is progressing advanced recycling feasibility work after narrowing pyrolysis partners from 100 applicants to two finalists. This is critical to establishing food-grade recycled polypropylene at scale.
And APR received EPA Victoria’s approval for APR Chemcycle, a chemical recycling facility that will use pyrolysis technology to convert waste soft plastics into commercial-grade oil.
And Samsara Eco opened its first commercial enzymatic recycling plant, marking a step–change moment. The technology breaks plastics down to monomers, enabling infinite recycling and tackling complex formats such as multi–layer flexibles. A 20,000-tonne nylon plant is already planned for Asia by 2028.
The momentum that eluded Australia in the post-REDcycle vacuum has now returned, driven by coordinated frameworks and maturing technology pathways.
Material innovation: A cross-category leap forward
Across materials, 2025 delivered breakthrough after breakthrough.
Glass
Orora commissioned its new oxygen-fuelled furnace at Gawler, reducing nitrogen oxides by 80 per cent, CO₂ emissions by 20 per cent and energy consumption by 25 per cent. This places it in the global top 10 per cent for energy efficiency. Visy’s next major furnace at Yatala, due in 2026, will produce up to one billion bottles annually using 200,000 tonnes of recycled glass.
Paper
Zipform launched Australia’s most advanced paper bottle to date, boasting over 95 per cent fibre content, no plastic liner, a 2–4gsm aqueous barrier and more than 50 per cent recycled fibre.
Visy unveiled Visycell, a kerbside-recyclable insulation liner engineered to replace EPS across temperature-sensitive supply chains, while Opal and Detpak brought new fibre punnets to market, and Detpak a paper-based grape bag too.
Metal
In a landmark collaboration between Visy, Stone & Wood, Lion, Novelis and Rio Tinto, Australia’s first 83 per cent recycled content aluminium can was produced, up from the local benchmark of 68 per cent.
Direct-to-can digital printing surged ahead. East Coast Canning introduced its BulletProof digitally printed cans with high-spec tactile finishes; Onpack expanded can printing with Hinterkopf technology, including its work with hydration brand Rippl; Orora implemented its world-first inline Velox IDS-NC 500 printing system; and NCI launched digital metal decoration capabilities in Sydney.
Jamestrong’s new aluminium casting line further strengthened domestic aerosol packaging sovereignty.
Rigid Plastics
A major breakthrough came when Pact and Circular Plastics Australia’s rFresh100 HDPE resin achieved US FDA approval for food-contact applications, enabling true bottle-to-bottle HDPE circularity at scale.
Meanwhile, Sydney-based nviro1 unveiled a mono-material PET closure that enables bottles and caps to be recycled together, overcoming decades-old technical barriers.
The year in perspective: A sector repositioned
Looking back at 2025 as a whole, what stands out is how decisively the industry moved into a new phase of maturity.
At the business level, we saw large-scale consolidation and necessary restructuring. At the manufacturing level, we saw serious investment in capability, speed, automation and on-shore resilience. At the regulatory level, we saw a sector ready to act, but held back by a lack of policy certainty. And at the technology and materials level, we witnessed genuine progress in glass, paper, metal and plastics – the building blocks of a more circular economy.
Most importantly, soft plastics re-entered the system with new governance, new transparency and new technology pathways.
If the last three years were about disruption and recovery, 2025 has been about repositioning. The next phase will be all about execution: converting this mix of investment, innovation and intent into measurable circular outcomes at scale.
As we head into 2026, the packaging industry finds itself on far firmer ground than it did just a few years ago – with clearer purpose, renewed capability and a more unified voice.
PKN looks forward to bringing you the news in 2026.
