Amcor’s Flexible Packaging Plant, Huizhou, China

Amcor, a product packaging company based in Australia, opened a new state-of-the-art flexible packaging manufacturing plant in Huizhou, China, to strengthen its ability to cater to the growing customer demand across Asia Pacific in December 2022.

The facility was developed with an investment of approximately $100m and is expected to generate employment for more than 550 people.

Details of the new manufacturing facility

Built on a 590,000ft² area, the new facility manufactures flexible packaging solutions for food and personal care products.

The plant is equipped with China’s first automated packaging production line, which, with high-speed printing presses, laminators, and bag-making machines, can reduce manufacturing cycle times by double digits.

The facility features three laboratories with innovative testing and analytical capabilities. It will draw on expertise from Amcor’s Asia-Pacific Innovation Centre in Jiangyin, China, opened in August 2022 to boost responsible packaging solutions development.

A smart production and operation system is installed in the Huizhou plant that includes light curtains, laser scanners, machine guarding and several quality-control points.

Sustainability features of the new facility

Amcor’s new flexible packaging plant features a climate-controlled production environment and has a number of sustainability features, such as a regenerative thermal oxidisers (RTO) system to alleviate the consumption of energy. RTO is an air pollution control system that controls volatile organic compounds and hazardous air pollutants by converting them into carbon dioxide and water before releasing them into the atmosphere.

Further, the installation of heat-recovery and rainwater harvesting systems will reduce the carbon footprint and environmental impact of the facility. All key process equipment is CE-certified, meeting the European Union health, safety and environmental standards.

The new facility offers traceability throughout the production cycle and low-carbon emission production.

Amcor’s products and services

Amcor offers packaging products across food, beverage, healthcare, home & personal care, and other market segments.

It provides several featured packaging across the globe, such as AmPrima^™ recycle-ready solutions, including AmFiber^™ paper-based and AmFoil^™ aluminium-based solutions, and EcoGuard^™ brand, which integrates a number of sustainable solutions across all materials.

The customised responsible packaging solutions available under the brands are LifeSpan^® performance paper, which is a recyclable, high-barrier paper-based solution with longer shelf life, HeatReady^™ high-temperature resistant packaging, MaxProtect^™ products for ultra-tough environments, StandOut^™ products for superior printing and effects, LiquidSeal^™ products for efficient sealing of liquids, DairySeal^™ solutions to meet the dairy and cheese packaging requirements, GoSmart^™ solutions for convenient delivery of everyday products, PrimeSeal^™ products for all meat, poultry and seafood packaging needs, and HealthCare™ medical and pharma products solutions.

In March 2021, Amcor China collaborated with JD Farm to create next-generation near-field communication (NFC)-enabled packaging to authenticate the quality, safety and origin of products of JD Farm. The product is customised for the company’s Sheep Fat branded millet products, allowing consumers access to the information on the products through the JD Farm App.

Marketing commentary on Amcor

Amcor focuses on producing sustainable packaging solutions that are lighter in weight, recyclable, reusable, and made with recycled content.

Amcor commits to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 under its EnviroAction programme, which commenced in 2008.

In 2022, Amcor generated $15bn in annual sales with a workforce of 44,000 operating across 220 locations in 43 countries.

Amcor, a product packaging company based in Australia, opened a new state-of-the-art flexible packaging manufacturing plant in Huizhou, China, to strengthen its ability to cater to the growing customer demand across Asia Pacific in December 2022.

The facility was developed with an investment of approximately $100m and is expected to generate employment for more than 550 people.