'There is no planet B' - HP's Mariona Company on the acquisition of Choose Packaging

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In September 2020, HP introduced its Molded Fiber Advanced Tooling solution which was designed to provide more sustainable packaging products with the help of the company’s 3D printing technology.

Quickly, the company partnered with the likes of PMD and Veritiv, two packaging companies, and also leveraged the solution to meet the packaging needs of its Personal Systems business, including the HP Desktop Mini.

Eighteen months on, the company was ready to reinforce its commitment to ‘disrupting the $10 billion fibre-based sustainable packaging market’ with the acquisition of Choose Packaging. Choose Packaging is the inventor of the only commercially available zero-plastic paper bottle in the world, which features lining [packaging] made from plant-based materials, an outer casing made from 100% recycled newspapers, and labelling made from 100% recycled paper.

This week, the Choose Packaging team – which is set to remain in Edinburgh, Scotland – has been onsite at HP going through an onboarding process. Yet, the Global Head of HP’s Molded Fiber endeavours, Mariona Company [MC], found time to take TCT through HP’s acquisition of Choose, its commitment to sustainable packaging and the long-term vision for the business combination.

TCT: First, can you outline HP’s motivations for the work it is carrying out in the packaging space?

MC: Plastic is one of the best materials. The problem with plastic is the end of life of the plastic. So, what we have discovered through our 3D printing journey is that we do have a technology, our 3D printing tooling technology, that can really improve moulded fibre products. And a couple years ago, I started this journey to really enable our 3D printing technology to be able to print these fibre-based moulds and start producing fibre based products, especially on the secondary packaging. And HP made a big claim that we are going to work on really moving to sustainable packaging for all our products.

From that, we wanted to offer that alternative to the rest of the companies that are really looking into sustainable packaging and that’s how HP Molded Fiber was born. In the last year, we’ve been working with several brands, more on solid foods – egg trays, egg cartons [for example], and what we have learned is that not only can we help primary and secondary packaging of these applications, but there’s all these nascent applications that are moving into packs, containers, bottles that not only carry solid foods, but also liquids. And we wanted to be leading the transformation of this new packaging with the ultimate goal of offering an alternative technology.

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TCT: Can you explain why it made sense, then, to bring together the technology and expertise of HP and Choose Packaging?

MC: Our technology is able to scale the manufacturing process of these bottles and containers to the scalability, productivity, and cost that is required to address the billions and billions market. At the end, there are two very important things. You need to make sure that you can create a product that meets the specs and can protect the liquid, but also you need to bring that product at the scalability and price point that is enough to bring disruption into the market.

HP is bringing technology on the tooling component that now in combination with this barrier [packaging] that is naturally sourced and can enable the production of these bottles, containers, or packs - the industry call them packs - at the volume and the scalability that is needed to bring a disruption and a true alternative. So, I will say HP is not coming here just to address very niche, premium spaces. We are bringing technology, and we aim to really become a new category that is an alternative to all types of packages within the food and beverage space.

TCT: Will the combination with Choose only target the food and beverage spaces?

CM: We’re going to be targeting food and beverage, households and cosmetics. There is a big amount of plastic in the food and beverage space, but households too if you think about detergents and shampoos etc. We are targeting all of these categories that are [currently using] single use plastics and we are offering a technology that is plastic free. We want to make sure that we have a solution that is plastic free, that can be recyclable, and in the case that it ends up in the landfill, it will not damage the planet. That’s why we went into this acquisition. We’ve looked into the technology that they have to make sure it met these principles. And we can say that this is unique and that’s why we are so keen on bringing them on board and working together.

TCT: Choose will be integrated into the HP Personalization & 3D Printing business – what do you think the team here can add to what Choose is already doing?

CM: It will bring the scalability component. We’ve been working with Choose for a while now, so it’s not new, and they have been incorporating our tooling solution for their products, improving the productivity of their lines, as well as the surface finish of their bottles. What we’re bringing to them is the scalability of the moulding process to make sure that we can scale this technology [so] it can be an alternative [and] viable solution.

TCT: And what kind of scales are we talking about here?

CM: It depends if you’re targeting a wine versus if you’re targeting a detergent, but all of these brands are looking at billions. We’re not talking millions, we’re talking billions. With that said, this is a journey, and we need to walk before we run. And the brands understand this.

You start introducing this product into a region, a city, testing, adapting how you're going to position, educating the customers - the customers also need to be educated because [not everyone] understands what sustainability, composability, recyclability means. There's our legal umbrella, that is very country and region dependent. The recycle rules in Germany are different in Spain and different in the UK. So, all these things is a journey that HP is embracing with these brands to really make that change. We will be producing bottles this year and then we will start building plans with them to scale to the ultimate goal. Is this going to be next year? Probably not, it’s going to be a journey, but it’s a commitment that HP is taking to the world with this announcement, and also to the brands that are working with us.

TCT: HP and Choose have both done a lot of work in this area over the last few years – how important is continued innovation within the packaging industry?

CM: It’s absolutely important and I’m seeing a lot of innovation happening, which I’m extremely happy about. This is the first step. The challenge is really big. I’m seeing a lot of innovation on fibre-based products, alternatives to fibre-based products, in the processing of new fibres. I’m seeing other companies also addressing this space – I don’t see them as competitors, this is a big effort – and I’m starting to see innovation on lining, on barriers, on fibre processing, on moulded fibre machinery and equipment. We need this to help drive more sustainable package solution because there’s no planet B. In the end, it’s up to us.

TCT: Finally, can you sum up what your long-term vision is for HP and Choose Packaging?

CM: So, Choose will stay where it is right now in Edinburgh, Scotland. We’re integrating the team. This is a start-up. We love the agility, customer centricity that they have. All the brands reinforce the fact that it’s a plastic-free solution. They also reinforce how agile and customer centric and how quickly they were able to return order specs and adapt. I want to keep that. I really want to make sure we keep Choose as Choose. And then we bring the power of HP to scale that.

In the short-term, I want Choose to keep working with all of these brands [such as Henkel, Accolade Wines and Malibu Rum] to help them enable these new packages and takes them through this product qualification process to be able to produce all the bottles and containers that these brands need. And what I foresee in the future is working these two companies together with, most likely, others in an ecosystem to bring this technology – that will be a combination of slurry, which is fibre moulding capabilities, with our tooling and then barrier capabilities – at scale. That’s how I see it.