Mondi has launched the Hug-IT sleeve to hold and secure 1.5-litre sparkling soft drink multipacks for Coca-Cola HBC in Austria. The product has been manufactured using Advantage SpringPack Plus, 100 percent kraft paper, recognized by Guinness World Records as the strongest paper in the world.
Sep 6, 2023
Mondi has launched a new more sustainable sleeve packaging to replace conventional plastic shrink wrap around and keep secure 1.5-litre sparkling soft drink multipacks produced by Coca-Cola HBC in Austria. Mondi’s Hug-IT keeps six bottles together during transportation and is made of Mondi’s Advantage SpringPack Plus, which has been crowned by Guinness World Records as the strongest paper in the world.
The Hug-IT sleeve has high tensile strength and incomparable stretchability, so it can be trusted to wrap around the six bottles tightly, keeping them upright and held together during transit – from the factory site to the retailer, to the consumer’s home. Hug-IT is an innovative solution, and Advantage SpringPack Plus is currently the only paper on the market offering such unique capabilities, being strong enough to hold the bottle bundles together as the final Hug-IT solution.
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The Hug-IT sleeve will secure 1.5-liter PET multi-packs of the Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite, and Mezzo Mix brands and will be sold in retail outlets throughout Austria.
Advantage SpringPack Plus is 100 percent kraft paper made from wood that is FSC® Certified as being made with responsibly sourced fibers, and is recyclable in existing paper recycling streams: paper has one of the highest recycling rates among packaging materials in Europe (82 percent within the EU2) and is convenient to dispose of for consumers.
The Hug-IT solution has taken three years to complete, from conception through to planning, trialing, and getting the product onto the shelf. Its development involved a number of Mondi’s divisions and cross-segment collaboration, making the most of the company’s expertise in paper packing and converting and creating more sustainable, technically advanced solutions. The sleeves are engineered on automated machinery provided by Krones whose swift installation and close collaboration with Mondi made the process smooth and efficient. Expert teams from Mondi, Coca-Cola HBC, and Krones worked closely together to meet the challenges related to the required strength and stretchability of the paper.
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Mr. Silvia Hanzelova, Sales Director Speciality Kraft Paper at Mondi, stated, “Our approach is paper where possible, plastic when useful – and the shrink wrap solution that is used for bundling bottles across continents and industries provides the ideal opportunity to put that into practice. By producing a paper as strong as this, we are able to replicate what the plastic shrink wrap does, delivering secure and safe transportation of multipacks with our Hug-IT paper sleeves that reduce plastic use.”
Mr. Felix Sprenger, Supply Chain Director at Coca-Cola HBC Austria, said, “The careful use of resources and recyclable materials is one of the most important pillars in our sustainability strategy and plays a central role in the design of the sustainable packaging mix for the Austrian market. With the introduction of our new solution, which is unique in the world to date, we will be able to reduce material use by a further 200 tons of plastic per year in the future. It was a pleasure to work with Mondi and our other partners to jointly walk the talk contributing to a circular economy.”
