Tag Archives: food and drink

Navigating changes to food and drink packaging: A guide for investors

Mark Field, director and founder of Prof Consulting Group, outlines what investors need to know about packaging in the food and drink sector

Setting the scene

Food and drink packaging is undergoing major transformation with innovations at each stage of the value chain. By responding to regulatory, consumer, and supply chain challenges, companies are finding new ways to reach customers and help them shop more sustainably. The role of packaging is to keep food and drink intact, safe and fresh along its journey from producer to consumer. It provides a space to communicate information to customers and to represent a brand. Carefully managed, it is a window to showcase a company’s values, but poor execution risks significant brand damage.

Shifts in the regulatory and commercial landscape

Regulation – responding to concerns about environmental pollution and climate breakdown, the regulatory landscape is shifting to place responsibility on producers for the packaging they put into the market.

In Europe, the upcoming PPWR is part of the region’s circular economy plan to value waste and minimise its environmental impact. The new regulation updates existing rules and aims to harmonise how packaging is managed throughout EU countries, making trade smoother. PPWR will require all countries to increase the share of reusable packaging which includes deposit return schemes, targets, economic incentives and minimum percentages of reusable packaging. In addition, 70% of all packaging by weight must be recycled by 2030. For some companies this might mean investing in new packaging equipment to handle new materials, for example, in the transition from plastic to paper. For others it can mean an entirely new way of selling, such as using returnable glass jars instead of plastic pots.

Nations in the UK are considering (England) or have implemented (Wales) deposit return schemes where consumers return packaging to a retail outlet and receive money back. This requires investment into infrastructure such as reverse vending machines. Others are working with digital technology to trace their products through the recycling system starting with the home curb side collection and rewarding customers who participate.

The UK’s plastic packaging tax charges a flat rate per tonne of plastic packaging with less than 30% recycled plastic. Companies must ensure they have accurate information on the packaging they buy to submit data to a government register.

Communication on packaging sustainability must be accurate and not mislead consumers according to the upcoming EU Green Claims Directive and the UK’s existing CMA’s Green Claims Code. One of the goals is to ensure that consumers are empowered to participate in the circular economy and can make informed choices. Consumers and NGOs are alert to greenwashing and don’t hesitate to call out companies who overstep the line.

A new UN treaty to regulate the production and disposal of plastic is expected at the end of 2024. Brands are calling for a limit to the amount of virgin plastic produced and for support on recycling and reuse systems.

Consumers – people expect companies to ensure their packaging is sustainable and research shows they want to participate in the transformation. According to global surveys, recycling packaging is the most popular sustainable behaviour, practiced by 62% of people. Companies can respond to these needs with clear and accurate disposal communication and with innovation in packaging formats.

Supply chains – extracting raw materials places undue pressure on natural resources and creates pollution that worsens climate and nature breakdown. Reducing the extraction of virgin raw materials, such as oil and timber, is urgent. Food and drink companies can limit their contribution to these challenges and take the opportunity to strengthen their resilience in the face of shortages and rising costs. UK and EU packaging leaders are moving from efficiency and lightweighting towards new materials, recyclable and recycled, and reusable packaging formats. For example, alcoholic drinks companies are experimenting with infinitely recyclable aluminium instead of glass, and being lighter, the product has fewer transport emissions.

Risks and opportunities

Companies who are unable to understand or keep pace with regulatory changes face increased costs resulting from levies on non-recyclable packaging, fines for misleading green claims and increased costs of excess packaging. Evidence shows that if customers are disappointed, companies will lose sales.

However, leading companies in the sector are embracing the transformation and innovating across the value chain. For example, with smart packaging technology using freshness tags; using alternative materials to plastic such as seaweed coatings and mushroom fibre cushioning; and using more reusable and refillable packaging. Infrastructure to support circularity is also growing, with refill stations, mobile and fixed reverse vending machines, and scanning and tracking technology increasingly prevalent. Cameras and cloud-based systems can be used to enable traceability and visibility over each process involved in collecting, recycling and cleaning packaging.

Companies that can promote and support convenient sustainable living will succeed in today’s crowded market. Many value-driven brands are entering the market and winning customers on this basis.

What should investors be asking?

Investors who want to understand the sustainability of packaging used by food and drink businesses should be asking management teams the following questions:

How does the business actively prepare for upcoming regulatory change and comply with existing regulations?

Does the business follow industry codes and benchmarks?

How does the business track the competitive landscape and identify gaps and innovations that resonate with consumers?

Does the business understand how customers use and dispose of their packaging?

Does existing packaging have clear recycle/reuse instructions?

Can the business substantiate claims on packaging sustainability?

Does the business know and manage the full life cycle along the value chain from raw material production through to disposal?

Does the business communicate their sustainability status openly e.g. on website linked to a QR code on packaging?

How does the business collaborate with stakeholders in all markets to ensure their packaging is reused/recycled correctly?

Prof Consulting Group helps to lead business to success in the UK and Australian food industry with its team of industry-leading experts and extensive range of services. For more information or to discuss how Prof. Consulting Group can support your business, please visit https://www.profcg.com/contact/

Wales says BOGOF to unhealthy food & drink

GK Associate Director Thea Southwell Reeves analyses the Welsh government’s progress on regulating unhealthy food.

This week, the Welsh government took an important step towards tightening the regulatory environment around high fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) food. The measures include prohibiting retailers from offering promotions such as buy-one-get-one-free and three-for-two offers on unhealthy foods; a ban on free drink refills in restaurants; and preventing retailers from placing HFSS food in certain locations in stores. Worth noting, these regulations are also set to apply online so website entry pages, shopping basket and payment pages will all need to comply.

The consultation is open until midnight on 23 September and is seeking views from industry on the draft regulations and their proposed enforcement approach. If the proposals are approved by the Senedd, the legislation is likely to come into force in 2025.

These proposed changes form part of a broad range of approaches, both voluntary and regulatory, that the Welsh government is said to be considering to encourage the food and retail sector to produce, promote, and ultimately sell, healthier food and drink.

The increased regulation of HFSS foods has been on the table for years and is also being explored by Holyrood and Westminster. A consultation on Scotland’s ambitious HFSS regulations closed in May and the King’s Speech included measures to restrict the advertising of junk food to children, along with the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children. The cost-of-living crisis has derailed anything more ambitious in Westminster… for now.

Industry has, for the most part, been critical of moves to tighten legislation, arguing that they disproportionately impact the small food and drink producers and make selling food complex and costly. However, for businesses that are nimble, the rules represent an opportunity to gain advantage over non-compliant brands or big brands that are slow to adapt. In a similar vein, producers who can emphasise a healthier product range in marketing and brand positioning are set to attract consumers who are looking to reduce their HFSS intake.

GK Strategy is a political advisory firm. We help investors, business leaders and organisations to engage with policymakers and advise on the political, policy and regulatory aspects of M&A processes.

To discuss what the Welsh government’s consultation may mean for you and how you can engage with policy debates in the year ahead, please reach out to Thea@gkstrategy.com.

Is the food and drinks sector being regulated at the worst possible time?

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Is it the right time to regulate the food and drinks sector? GK Associate Daniele Schmidt-Fischer takes a look in our latest GK insights piece.

With Covid fading from the Government’s agenda, ministers are again turning their attention to pre-pandemic legislative proposals. A sector that will be in the limelight will be the food and drinks industry, which will be incentivised to reformulate its products, reduce single-use plastic, and guide the consumer to make healthier choices. Given the regulatory uncertainty of the past few years, the industry should be well-prepared to weather the forthcoming provisions. However, the Government does not make it easy for a sector which is hit by a triple-whopper of pandemic recovery, Brexit-related labour and supply disruptions, and an avalanche of regulatory changes which assimilate the tobacco playbook.

On 1 April, the Government published guidance on the introduction of a tax on plastic packaging from April 2022. This will apply to plastic packaging manufactured in, or imported into the UK, that does not contain at least 30% recycled material. The charge for the tax, which only applies to “finished” plastic and mixed-plastic packaging components (containing mostly plastic by weight), at a rate of £200 per tonne, arises when the component is imported into or produced in the UK.

A few days later, on 6 April, new rules requiring calorie information to be displayed on menus and food labels came into force. The changes – which were approved by Parliament in 2021 – mean it is now a legal requirement for large businesses with more than 250 employees, including cafes, restaurants and takeaways, to display calorific information about non-prepacked food and soft drinks.

On the same day, the UK Department of Health and Social Care published guidance which includes the long awaited details on the forthcoming High in Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) food regulations, including restrictions on volume offers and new rules on placement and promotion. The regulations – Food (Promotion and Placement) (England) Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/1368) – confirmed that from 1 October 2022 provisions regarding the placement and promotion of HFSS products will affect manufacturers selling products direct to consumers and retailers in England with 50 or more employees. Additionally, HFSS products will be banned from tills and aisle bays to reduce impulse buys. The clampdown on store promotions was originally scheduled for April 2022 but a six-month delay was agreed last June to allow businesses more time to adapt. The new guidance has clarified that products which have volume promotions printed on the packet will be subject to a sell-through period of 12 months to October 2023.

There is more information about what constitutes a ‘relevant special offer’ such as a ‘meal deal’ or ‘dine in for two’ promotion, although the guidance states that each individual case will be assessed by enforcement officers. Businesses should carefully assess which products are caught by the restrictions and what changes will be required, for example, changes to store layout and/or website design, and changes to planned marketing and placement etc., in order to comply.

Adding to the above, the Government is due to publish a white paper on its National Food Strategy next month which is part of its recent efforts to build a food system fit for the 21st century. The white paper, which lays out plans for future legislation, is expected to draw heavily from a National Food Strategy review released in July 2021. The report, authored by Leon founder Henry Dimbleby, made a series of recommendations for transforming the food system, including new taxes on sugary and salty foods.

The regulations are part of the Ministerial wider strategy to tackle obesity, published in 2020, and follow last year’s Government’s consultation on the rules. The aim is to reduce excessive consumption of HFSS products that can lead to children becoming overweight and even obese. Further, the Government wants businesses to help people make healthier choices and join the efforts to reduce obesity,

The regulations are meant to curb the rising obesity rates, which the Government highlighted to be “one of the greatest long-term health challenges this country faces”. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, a sceptic of so called ‘nanny-state’ interventions, was said to have become passionate about the issue after his severe bout of Covid. The latest available data found that 36.2% of adults in England are overweight, with the impact of the pandemic on obesity levels still unknown. Accordingly, action remains essential, but critics are likely to argue whether now is the right time to introduce measures that will increase the industry’s costs and, hence, the prices paid by consumers – who are already facing a major cost-of-living crisis.” The Government itself found that the abovementioned regulations could hit businesses across the country by costs of over £1bn a year, while food associations also argue that these proposals are not expected to impact rates of obesity, thus nulling their sole purpose.

Overall, the regulatory ambitions are in good faith. However, during a time of worker shortages and supply disruptions, their timing is far from ideal. They put further pressure on businesses, which are likely to pass it on to the consumer in form of higher prices, all during a time when the public has become a lot more conscious about the cost of living, especially food.