This is the story of a company that set out to bring change into the world. A company that turn flexible packaging waste, which we all suffer from, into a resource that can be recycled and put to good use. It’s the story of a company that dared to dream big, break boundaries, and bring elements from the world of hi-tech to the traditional production hall. This is our story.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that we took a major chance when we entered the field of flexible food packaging,” answered Yanir Aharonson, CEO of POLYSACK, when he was asked what drove the company to dramatically alter its products line. A quick run through the company’s history shows that up until four years ago, POLYSACK focused on a very different field: twist packaging for sweets and shrink labels for bottles. But the level of risk the company took is matched by the level of success, and reviewing POLYSACK’s current activities shows that the risk paid off handsomely. Twist and shrink products account for less than 15% of the company’s activities compared to the company’s food line, intended for lamination, amounting to 85% of its productivity, and continuing to grow at a rate that we’re not familiar with in our industry.
A new product is born
“Up to just a few years ago, we weren’t involved in flexible packaging,” Yanir notes. “We were a traditional company operating in a traditional field. But deep inside we were dying for change, we wanted to find that unique niche where our products could bring about a global revolution. We wanted to make products that we could be proud of, that would contribute to our environment rather than harm it.”
And that’s how Yanir describes the birth of Pack N Cycle, products which employ a specialized technology applying unidirectional stretching known as Machine Direction Orientation. The material is composed entirely of PE instead of the industry’s more common BOPP or BOPET. For the first time ever, the company’s new product makes it possible to produce flexible packaging that can be fully recycled almost anywhere in the world.
Almost every home in Europe has POLYSACK packaged items
“Looking back over the past 4 years of intensive activity, I do feel proud. We definitely bring change to the global discourse in this field. Our product is showing growth at a rate not normally seen in this industry. Currently we account for 40% of the European market share and we’re working with mega organizations for which environment is an issue of utmost importance. Their products are used by many of us, in just about every home. As environmental regulations progress, the solutions we offer become increasingly relevant. We don’t even need the support of regulations which, sadly, are slow to finalize. Our support comes from worldwide public opinion, and the public simply is no longer willing to accept plastic waste pollution.”
Introducing the world of hi-tech into flexible packaging development
Nitai Alush-Aben, one of the owners of the company, together with Yanir drew the entrepreneurial spirit that drove POLYSACK forward. This was done by managements technique that was taken from worlds of programming development and startups. In their past, Nitai and Yanir both worked for several hi-tech organizations, bringing them evident success. “Our secret lies in bringing the standard work methods from hi-tech into POLYSACK. This kind of setup allows accelerating a project’s schedules, and the work aims for the final target but isn’t afraid of changing how it’s achieved while moving ahead. As we advanced into this new field, we structured a development team that worked pretty much round the clock. We set weekly targets, every week we re-evaluated the situation, and then instituted adjustments to the next round of targets.”
The buzz of activity was backed up by POLYSACK’s fast responses to market demands. “We used every option we could to carry out trials and promote the product. For the first two years we flew more than 100 tons of plastic sheets for tests around the world. Anyone familiar with the world of packaging knows how unusual that action is.” But the investment paid off, and in the third year after the new product’s development starting point, 350 tons of sheeting was sold. A year later, that figure skyrocketed to thousands of tons.
If you want it to happen, it will
POLYSACK’s story shows that when you link knowledge, capabilities, a dash of daring, and entrepreneurship, change can occur. “When we started out in this field, word on the street was that we must be a bit crazy. And I really understand why people would think that. We were clueless going into that area of activity but had a dream of making it greener, of changing the world of packaging. The dream’s still there, and it looks more and more like it’s being shared by countless people, whether they’re the end consumer or industrial organizations like us.
“We were also lucky in that we correctly identified a trend towards which the industry was navigating and we addressed it at precisely the right time, when it was most needed. Despite our success, we aren’t resting on our laurels. There’s plenty of hard work ahead in developing new products and finding new applications for our products. The potential for the solution we’re offering is very large, and we are far from fully realizing it. If environmental preservation and structuring a circular sustainable economy are important to you too, contact us and we’ll be happy to join up with you on breaking into new directions.”
