The Metal Pack Pod

In this short but sweet episode of The Metal Pack Pod, we welcome guest Damian Pollok, Head of Product and Application at Koenig & Bauer!

During the episode, Damian enlightens us with the latest product developments at Koenig & Bauer and how they are planned to be shown off at Metpack 2023.

In this latest episode of The Metal Pack Pod, we welcome Robert Nagtzaam onto the show!

Robert speaks with us about Intralox's newly formed Consumer Packaged Goods team and the direction it's heading in, the origins of Intralox and its innovative technology and how Intralox has prepared for Metpack 2023.

Before leading Intralox’s newly formed Global Consumer Packaged Goods team, Robert headed the Intralox Global Canmaking team for 6 years.

Robert holds double bachelor’s and double master’s degrees in both International Business as well as in Law & Finance. He completed his studies at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.

In this episode of The Metal Pack Pod we are joined by Christina Kleinpaß, Head of Project Metpack and Oliver P. Kuhrt, CEO of Messe Essen, as we discuss the return of Metpack on 2-6 May after a 3 year break due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Oliver P. Kuhrt has been CEO of Messe Essen since January 2014. The proven marketing and trade fair expert previously held various executive positions at the Cologne exhibition centre for over ten years and can look back on many years of management experience in the international tourism and luxury hospitality industry.

Christina Kleinpaß, a qualified advertising manager, has been part of the Messe Essen team since 1986. Initially, she worked as a project assistant for various trade and public fairs. From 1994, she was in charge of international B2B trade fairs as a project officer, including METPACK since 2010. In 2015, Christina Kleinpaß finally took over the project management of the world's leading trade fair. She has a great deal of industry know-how and is excellently networked within the metal packaging sector.

For this episode of The Metal Pack Pod, we welcome Luc Brantjes, Tata Steel’s packaging division director of sales, who is also APEAL’s new President.

Elected unanimously by the Board and General Assembly of APEAL, Luc succeeds Viliam Gašpar of U.S. Steel Košice. His role as the 13th President of APEAL has been effective as of 1 January 2023

During the episode, we discuss Luc’s ambitions for the role, and the challenges ahead for the association and the steel industry as a whole.

Joining the podcast is the Global Beverage Segment Manager for PPG Packaging Coatings, Dr. Robyn McMillan. Robyn brings a unique perspective to the packaging coatings business. Joining PPG in 1988 and working as a polymer research chemist for the first half of her career, she brings that scientific expertise to her current role, where she is responsible for growth, strategic planning, and brand owner outreach for the global beverage coatings segment.

During the episode, we discuss the rapid evolution and innovation surrounding 2-piece beverage cans, and dive into Robyn’s thoughts on trends surrounding the metal packaging landscape.

We welcome Ben Grant, Managing Director of INX International Company in Europe, to the show.

Recently we were fortunate to visit INX’s headquarters in the UK, where we were treated to a site visit and learnt about the company’s market leading innovations in the inks sector.

During the conversation Ben informs the metal packager on the key trends in the inks market, and what it means to be a part of INX International Ink Co. (Europe) on its 30th anniversary!

Whilst producing this episode, INX UK was recently awarded a silver medal for a Sustainability assessment conducted by EcoVadis. Founded in 2007, EcoVadis has become the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings. This medal's recipients are recognised as among the top 25% of suppliers rated by the organisation.

On 1 December, INX UK also won International Company of the Year Award at the recent Insider International Trade Awards 2022 - congratulations to the team!

In this latest podcast, we have industry experts Mark Smyth and Simon Jennings, discuss the latest pertinent issues within the industry. During the episode we discuss the Ball plant closures in the US, the advent of digital printing technology and more!

Joining the show is regular guest Mark Smyth. Mark established his company MS Can Solutions in 2019, which is an independent packaging consultancy based in France. Prior to MS Can Solutions, his most recent position was with Ardagh Group as business development and marketing intelligence director, for metal and glass packaging. He is the author of The Future of Metal Packaging and Coatings to 2027, published March 2022.

Our other guest is Simon Jennings of Nomis Consultancy. For 16 years he was employed by Rexam, where he was responsible for over 50 acquisitions, disposals and joint ventures. Since then he has been chairman of Pakistan Aluminium Beverage Company, chairman of GZI Industries and a non-executive director of Hulamin in South Africa.

We welcome Chris McKenzie, chief operations officer and chief marketing officer for SLAC International.

During the conversation Chris shares his views on the latest industry developments including whether the aggressive growth we have seen in the beverage can sector is sustainable, and the on-going challenges to do with inflation and supply chain issues globally.

Chris also shares some more information about the company’s innovations, including the advent of its Digital Mini Line technology, which is taking advantage of the growing trend in digital printing.

Scott Breen from Can Manufacturers Institute updates our listeners on The Global Aluminium Can Sustainability Summit. This event brought together more than 100 leaders from organisations globally across the aluminium beverage can value chain to operationalise the decarbonisation of aluminium produced for can sheet and generate transparent information on recycling and circularity.

Joining the podcast today is popular industry figure, Jack Knight. Jack is certainly a larger than life character, popular with the industry for his zest for life and the inks market.

During the episode, we track Jack’s heritage within the industry and his take on some of the pertinent industry topics surrounding us at present.