T he Evian water brand is regarded asone of the pearls of global food companyDanone, and not just because of its

great location in Evian-les-Bains between theFrench Alps and Lake Leman. The companyfills about 2.2 billion litres of water a year intomore than 1.7bn bottles and sends them toabout 140 countries, which means that about70 bottles of Evian mineral water are consumedevery second.

Even with these impressive figures, thepink and light blue brand has had to workhard to remain innovative in a conventionalmarket segment. This is perhaps summed upbest by an advertising board at the company’ssite, which bears a view of the French Alpsalong with the strapline ‘There are no true

miracles. People need to protect a miracle’.The company’s mineral water takes more

than 15 years to emerge pure, mineral-balanced and untouched. Yet with nearly twobillion bottles produced each year, the Eviansite is the largest natural mineral waterfactory in the world, using about 160 railwaywagons to carry 60 per cent of each day’s pro-duction, with the remainder delivered to portsand airports by trucks.

Considering the logistics at work, it is nowonder that packaging is a priority. The 30-page Danone Packaging Policy is the ‘reference’for the company’s 150 packaging experts in itstwo global R&D centres, four specialisedcentres and 55 local R&D branches.

Frederic Jouin, Danone’s head of R&D for

plastics materials and Danone Research Pack-aging Center (DRPC) director, shares Danone’spackaging conviction: “We feel accountable forone million tonnes of packaging each yearworldwide. It is our responsibility to handlethis in the most responsible and sustainablemanner. Our Packaging policy states our fivemain commitments to span the cycle of ourpackaging: use of sustainable resources, weightoptimisation while keeping the same excellence

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MULTIPACKS

Natural fitOperating on a ‘Glo-cal’ scale, the Danone Packaging Research Centre in Franceis ensuring close links between bottled-water packaging, sustainability andinnovation, as Dominique Huret* discovers on a visit to Evian-les-Bains

When the best packaging is… no packagingIt was four years ago that NMP Systems, a part ofKHS, first presented its ‘Nature MultiPack’solution of bonding cylindrical PET bottlestogether to form multipacks, thanks to small dotsof adhesive. The innovation attracted immediateattention on account of the removal of wrappingfilm and heat-shrinking tunnels.

But removing film is easier said than done,and there are a few prerequisites, explainsChristoph Georg von Aichinger, senior salesdirector for NMP Systems.

The system involved the construction of a novelpiece of equipment plus an innovative adhesivematerial, with the former controlled and driven byservomotors that create single-lane packs of bot-tles with diameters from 60mm to 100mm andheights from 180mm to 400mm.

Two turrets and a transfer star wheel arepositioned in the centre of each lane; the firstturret deals with bottle orientation and the secondwith adhesive application. A vision inspection sys-tem captures the position of each label. As thebottle is indexed onto one of the platforms, it isgripped from above and rotated based oninformation that the vision system sends to thecontroller. This means that the orientation ofevery bottle is controlled by camera, with an

applicator then dispensingadhesive on its sidewall.

The adhesive dots arepositioned near the shoulderand the bottom. One or two lanes of bottles arebrought together into ‘compression cars’. In thesecars, they travel a short distance and the adhesivehas time to solidify, with the finished pack thenrun through a conventional tape handle applicator

or integrated handle application in the NMPmachine.

Running along an oval-shaped track, thecompression cars go to pick up the next fresh bot-tle configuration. Before entering thecompression cars, an infrared camera checkseach bottle for quality. Today the equipmentreaches speeds of 54,000 bottles an hour or amaximum of 200 packs per minute.

Core to the system is the adhesive, whichrequired a lot ofresearch. This hot-melt adhesive needsresistance to extremetemperatures andlogistics but mustalso be easy forconsumers toremove from thebottle withoutdamage.

“On themarketing side, this‘near zero

packaging’ is very appealing, and uses up to85 per cent less packaging material and 67 percent less energy during production than conven-tional shrink film,” explains von Aichinger. “Ingeneral terms, we can say for example that awrapping film for a four pack of 1.25-litre bottles

Above: The Nature Multipacksystem can reach speeds of54,000 bottles an hour.Right: The adhesive required a lotof research, explained seniorsales director Christoph Georgvon Aichinger

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in consumer’s experience, zero plastics tolandfill for our industrial waste, innovation toease life of consumers and engage them tosort and recycle, and lastly co-creation of asecond-life for all plastics.

“Danone’s global objective in terms of pack-aging sustainability is to have 25 per cent ofrecycled PET in all of its bottles by 2020.Today, Danone’s ten biggest water brandstogether reach 10 per cent on average depending

of the markets.”The Evian brand is the ‘best in class’ and

by the end of 2017, each bottle will contain 25per cent rPET. It is three years ahead ofschedule for Evian, but the company’s task isto raise this to 25 per cent.

“Remember, we have brands in Asia,Turkey and Latin America,” added Jouin.

Among Danone’s innovative projectsincludes the NaturALL Bottle Alliance, whichsaw the world’s two largest bottled watercompanies, Danone and Nestlé, join forces in

March with Californian startup Origin Mate-rials. The three companies are seeking todevelop and launch a PET bottle made frombio-based material, which is sustainable andmade from renewable resources. Biomassfeedstocks previously used include cardboardand sawdust.

The Danone Research Packaging Centerlocated in Evian, next to the bottling site, hasa core role in innovation. In this R&D centrefully dedicated to packaging, new design andtechnologies that will be implemented in

drinktec 2017 Munich, 11 – 15 September Hall B6

The factory of the future starts now

We do more.

46 AZ322 06 17 i dd 1 14 06 17 17 11

s

New Evian products embrace plastics. Background image: The town of Evian-les-Bains

is 15g and we can replace that with 1g ofadhesive. From a total cost of ownershipperspective, the cost for a large pack of 2x3 PETbottles is similar to a printed film shrink-pack.”

Packaging minimisation does come withconstraints however, such as the absence ofprinted film for the brand marketer. Toovercome this challenge, says von Aichinger,each bottle can be oriented separately toachieve a bigger brand logo over all visiblebottles.

“The shape of the product itself needs to havetwo connection points where the bottles can bebonded to each other, which could also requirebrand owner adjustments. In addition, packweight and tape handles have to be considered.Finally, this new pack does require some educa-tion of the final customer,” he explains.

As a breakthrough innovation it requires areal commitment from the client, and Danonewas quick to set up a binding agreement withNMP Systems in mid-2014 for its EvianPrestige bottles. Commercialisation followedin mid-2015 with the KHS machine and propri-etary adhesive utilised by means of a rentalscheme.

The technology is also ready for applicationson metal can lines and von Aichinger adds thatNMP Systems is in the negotiation stage for afirst project.

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MULTIPACKS

Danone factories are tested, evaluated, andoptimised. Every single Danone packaginginnovation at one stage or another is checkedor handled by this expert team.

Christine Gehringer, Evian’s Volvic WorldR&D Packaging Director, explains: “Thefactory is next door so it is ideal for the Evianproducts to be tested and to get directlyoperator feedbacks. Every Evian bottle hasbeen created on this site in Evian-les-Bains,but also polymer and resin certifications,patent filing and of course innumerable tests.”

The 2,000sqm building houses a completerange of equipment with two injection moulders,three blowing machines, a thermoformer, afiller, and a capper, as well as shrinking tunneland palletisers. The centre also has equipmentfor stress and transportation tests, and ofcourse a high-tech metrology lab. The wholerange of pre-industrialisation tests is possiblewith flexible and tailor-made equipment.

“Eight years ago, it took us 40 days to get aprototype, but now it takes four days,” enthusesGehringer.

Adds Jouin: “Thanks to CAD and 3D print-ing, we can build a mould and blow a fewbottles in no time. Progress is immense and intune with the speed of today’s innovation.”

Detailing its packaging development processas a collaborative effort by ‘Glo-cal’ (global/local)teams, Danone explains that its experts operatein the fields of Bottle and Caps Design, Modeli-sation and Simulation, and Polymers and Con-sumers Sciences.

“Depending on the project, suppliers, design-ers, startups, and academics might be involvedin order to bring additional competencies,”adds Gehringer.

The ‘No film’ pack for Prestige bottles wasone of two innovations for Evian last year (seesidebar).

Isabelle Sultan, Evian’s global band inno-vation director, explains: “This solution elimi-nates the three micro stresses of consumersrelated to secondary films, which includepunching and tearing the film, filling domesticbins with voluminous amounts of plastics, andunaesthetic half-opened packs.”

It required hundreds of tests in varyingproduction conditions and consumers neededto be educated on what was required todismantle the pack. The French high-enddepartment store Monoprix led the way, beforeother department stores in the country followedsuit and launched the pack.

Delhaize in Belgium was also a pioneer inoffering Evian’s new pack. Since mid-May,Evian’s Prestige No Film Pack is on shelves inthe US, which is viewed as an importantmarket for the product.

“The No-Film solution fits fully with theEvian Prestige product identity. It enhances

the product purity, the elegant bottle designand its innovative and sustainable image,”explains Sultan.

Concludes Christine Gehringer: “Nothingwas left to guessing. The adhesive had to befood compliant, easily peelable so as to leavethe bottle immaculate on the table, and theglue dot small enough in case of ingestion. Thestability and opening of the pack also requiredadjustments to be easily carried and opened.”

But as Frederic Maetz, vice president ofglobal engineering at Danone Waters, said, thecompany is bold and takes risks, because“without risks, innovation cannot be success-ful”.

More information from Danone, 15 rue du Helder, 75439

Paris Cedex 09, France. Tel: 33 1 4435 2020. Email :

danonecorporate@danone.com. Web: danone.com

* Dominique Huret is beverage and packaging expert for independent

consultancy Cape Decision in Belgium

Evian’s ‘No film’pack

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