BillerudKorsnäs announced its acquisition of a minority holding in California-based Vericool, Inc. The Swedish company focuses on offering sustainable packaging materials that are profitable while still reducing the overall environmental impact.
Vericool offers sustainable and compostable packaging for cold chains in the grocery and pharmaceutical markets, including home delivery of food and transportation of biological medicines. Their packaging offers an aleternative to materials such as polystyrene (EPS).
”Within the cold chain segment, for decades, there has been a need to find products that can replace fossil-based packaging solutions. Vericool's market disruptive products are examples of such ones, which goes completely in line with what we work for within BillerudKorsnäs. Together we intend to build tomorrow's sustainable packaging solutions and through an expanded offer with alternatives to polystyrene. We will continue to challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future,” said Anders Persson, Venture Managing Director at BillerudKorsnäs.
This marks the fourth investment for BillerudKorsnäs Venture AB, which invests in innovative, up-and-coming packaging and technology companies. The other three investments are in the following companies:
- Denmark-based EcoXpac, which is co-developing a paper-based bottle with the long term aim to contain the pressure of carbonated drinks
- UK-based Hanhaa, whose system enables the condition and position of parcels to be determined in real-time during the delivery process, regardless of country or transport partner
- Norway-based Kezzler, a global leader in technology for assigning unique digital identities for individual packaging
![“Another key [UDI] benefit, because we're calling that product by the same name across the healthcare supply chain… rich and robust data that we can access around supply consumption and utilization rates. One of the buzz terms we've heard during the COVID-19 crisis was what's my burn rate? How fast am I going through gowns, masks, gloves?” – Mike Schiller, Senior Director at AHRMM](https://img.healthcarepackaging.com/files/base/pmmi/all/image/2020/08/UDI.5f4d326e41d53.png?auto=format&fit=crop&h=146&w=340)
