Nypro moves boldly into smart packaging

Nypro, A Jabil, the specialist in design, production, tooling and distribution for the healthcare and packaging industries, has announced its push into the smart packaging arena with the acquisition of Plasticos Castella.

Nypro Smart Packaging solutions enable customers to address brand challenges and explore new opportunities to illuminate and refresh their brands, both enhancing the consumer experience and driving real revenue growth through static, active, interactive and intelligent packages that build brand equity.

Nypro Smart Packaging enables brand owners to truly differentiate their products with enhanced performance and customer value that comes in four forms:

• Static: Plastic containers, caps, closures, housings, assemblies and devices; Decoration capabilities to enhance the brand marks and visuals to convey brand promise, value, and story; barrier solutions to extend shelf life and reduce the use of preservatives.
• Active: Allow brands to embed information onto packaging that can be read by smart phones and other machines
• Interactive: Creates extended protection through engineered materials and substrates that change state when exposed to environmental environments
• Intelligent: Dynamic Interaction with sensors on packaging, business analytics, machine learning, and supply chain integration

Nypro brings Smart Packaging to life through a broad and unique combination of industry-leading capabilities, including:

• Ideation and user experience design
• Engineering design and development
• Systems integration
• Volume production capabilities
• Intelligent Digital Supply Chain operations
• A global footprint
• World-class execution

“Smart Packaging goes beyond product differentiation to enable brand owners to achieve Brand Brilliance,” said Paul Kayser, president of Nypro Packaging. “This fast-emerging field promises to revolutionize the industry by opening new options to create packaging that is not only more practical and consumable, but also more sensory compelling, connected and intelligent. In addition to enhancing the customer experience, Smart Packaging will also help increase revenue and improve ROI for our customers.”
 
Nypro’s acquisition of Plasticos Castella expands these capabilities by combining Plasticos Castella’s state-of-the-art design, engineering and manufacturing facilities in Spain and Hungary with the services of Nypro’s six North American plants. The acquisition enables Nypro Packaging to extend its footprint across the expanse of Europe and also brings deeper capabilities and customers in the food and beverage sector. Founded in 1974, the Spanish firm has strong InMold Labeling capabilities and has built a reputation as a premier molder of high-volume, thin-wall and technical plastic containers and packaging for dozens of the world’s leading food and beverage brands.
 
“Plasticos Castella’s leaders, staff and facilities directly enhance the Nypro Packaging offering, fully and nimbly supporting food, beverage and Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands with global distribution,” said Kayser. “Not only are our locations and customers highly complementary, but our cultures of quality, innovation and responsiveness are also very similar. We are confident that these synergies will ensure a strong win for Nypro, Plasticos Castella and our customers.”
 
Plasticos Castella CEO Emilio Castella added: “Our customers will have the unprecedented opportunity to take advantage of Nypro’s geographic reach and Jabil’s world-class supply chain and design and development capabilities. The combination provides a strong growth platform of global resources, reputation and investment that will bear fruit for our team and customers alike.”
 
Nestle has been working with Plasticos Castella for years and view them as a highly valuable packaging partner. “We are delighted that our opportunities for growth with Plasticos are further expanded through the recent Nypro acquisition. Nypro's global footprint and Smart Packaging expertise will make for an even more powerful partnership in the years to come," said Richard Pinkerton Strategic Buyer – Rigid & Flexible Packaging Business Partner & Value Stream Project Lead Nescafé Dolce Gusto in Zone Europe, Middle East and North Africa.
 
Adding further value to this mix is Radius Product Development, a global product innovation and development firm serving the consumer, packaging and healthcare markets. A vital part of the Jabil family, Radius partners with Nypro and its brand customers to take smart packaging from ideation to commercialization through facilitated end-to-end collaboration. Earlier this year, Jabil also opened its 100,000-square-foot Blue Sky Center in San Jose, Calif., to support ideation, innovation and product development under one roof.
 
Together these assets coupled with Nypro’s extended geographic and sector footprint position Nypro to take a definitive Smart Packaging lead, and analysts who follow the space agree.  “There are several major trends driving growth in markets from CPG to Consumer Health including convenience, self-serve, sustainability, health and safety and shelf life consistency,” said Chris Wilder, analyst, Moor Insights & Strategy. “Nypro is well positioned to support the Smart Packaging conversations that draft off of these trends to bring about powerful new packaging innovations – and that drives an unbeatable combination of both customer value and revenue.”