BillerudKorsnäs, Sweden, announced this past week that it has strengthened its competence in formable packaging through a smaller investment in a 10% stake in the Danish packaging innovation company EcoXpac. The investment forms the foundation for collaboration and is part of BillerudKorsnäs commitment to innovation to solve the packaging challenges of the future.

BillerudKorsnäs stated that it has, in addition to a solid foundation in innovation (including the continuous development of existing materials and solutions), an ambition to take on a number of larger, more fundamental and long-term challenges in the packaging sector. This is done to find solutions and develop entirely new packaging concepts that can challenge plastic, glass, and aluminium. One such concept is to produce a bottle completely made of paper. Through collaboration and by combining the knowledge and experience of BillerudKorsnäs and EcoXpac the aim is to achieve this.

"Innovation is a key factor in further strengthening our business in the long term but also a way for us to challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future. Therefore, it is natural for us to aim high in a number of well-chosen development projects and take on real challenges that can have a big and long term positive impact on our business and our contribution to a more sustainable world. Although the investment in EcoXpac is small in financial terms compared with the size of BillerudKorsnäs, it creates conditions for success for the innovation challenges we now take on," said Magnus Wikström, SVP Technology & Strategic Development at BillerudKorsnäs.

EcoXpac is a company specializing in advanced 3D-forming of fiber-based structures. It was founded in 2005 and is based in Denmark.

"Our knowledge and experience in the area of molded pulp and our entrepreneurial approach combined with the ability of BillerudKorsnäs to bring ideas and innovations to the market forms a strong base for our future cooperation--a base from which we aim to realize projects such as that to create a paper bottle," said Jesper Servé, founder of EcoXpac.