Ball Corporation striving for sustainability in packaging

Hyderabad: US-based $11.8 billion Ball Corporation, a provider of metal packaging for beverages, food, household products, aerospace and other sectors, is driving innovation to achieve sustainability by reducing dependence on plastic and glass for packaging. It is making serious efforts towards making aluminum as a safer alternative to plastic, to address the burgeoning issue of single-use plastic.

The New York Stock Exchange-listed Fortune 300 metal packaging company is the world’s largest metal packaging player, which sold 110 billion containers last year and is present in over 50 countries catering to companies such as AB InBev, Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Red Bull. The company produces aluminium cans, bottles, and cups, which constitute 80 per cent of its business. The company has an aerosol business, which caters to personal care products such as the deodorant sprays. It also caters to the US aerospace industry serving NASA.

Amit Lahoti, VP and GM, Ball Beverage Packaging, India and South-East Asia Region, told Telangana Today, “The beverage cans remain a key focus segment for the company as we replace usage of plastics. Cans offer several functional benefits such as the ease of logistics and shipping and have a lesser carbon footprint. In summer, aluminium cans cool much faster and retain the coolness much longer. This leads to lesser energy consumption. This suits both consumers and retailers. There is also no risk of breakage compared to glass, so it eliminates losses and hazards associated with glass.”

He added, “In India, we have noticed that the marketers are able to print a lot of information on the cans, unlike other forms of packaging. So, cans offer multiple benefits to different stakeholders. Currently, the market in India for aluminum can packaging is very small compared to the potential it has. India is estimated to have one can per person per year compared to one can per person per day in the US. Countries such as Vietnam, Egypt, Russia and Brazil have better penetration than that of India. The penetration is just a fraction of the huge potential aluminium packaging can have in India.”

Emerging trends

Lahoti said, “Owing to Covid, in the last 12 months, hygiene has become important. There is a definite shift to aluminium cans rather than bottles. Aluminum cans are more recyclable and sustainable.”

Also, counterfeit is more prevalent in the spirits category, where there is usage of bottles. “We are working on developing 180 ml can packs, suitable for a single serve. Cans provide safety and address revenue leakage for the government authorities. States such as Rajasthan and UP have amended excise regulations to allow aluminum cans for packaging spirits.”

New categories

The company has been able to look at newer categories in beverage cans. “We are also working with Del Monte Foods and dairy companies such as Nestle. There is also potential to export coconut water in cans to Southeast Asia from India,” he informed.

On material innovation, Lahoti said, “We are trying out different coatings to enhance product quality. We have launched still water in cans. There is also a huge opportunity in the juice products segment. We are looking to expand into different beverage categories. We are also building capabilities in ink innovation for labelling and HD printing on the can. These are capabilities that are localised in India. We also launched a new product, which is an aluminium cup to replace plastic cups used in restaurants and other places.”