Mondi developed a paper sleeve for Coca-Cola HBC Austria’s

Mondi launched a new more sustainable sleeve packaging, created to replace conventional plastic shrink wrap around 1.5 litre sparkling soft drink multipacks produced by Coca-Cola HBC in Austria and keep them secure. Mondi’s Hug-IT, which keeps six bottles together during transportation, is made of Mondi’s Advantage SpringPack Plus.

The Hug-IT sleeve has high tensile strength and stretchability, so it can be trusted to wrap around the six bottles tightly, keeping them upright and held together during transit – from factory site, to retailer, to the consumer’s home. It will secure 1.5-liter PET multi-packs of the Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Mezzo Mix brands and will be sold in retail outlets throughout Austria. Hug-IT is an innovative solution, and Advantage SpringPack Plus is currently the only paper on the market offering such unique capabilities, being strong enough holding the bottle bundles together as final Hug-IT solution.

The Hug-IT solution has taken three years to complete, from conception through to planning, trialling, and getting the product onto shelf. Its development involved a number of Mondi’s divisions and cross-segment collaboration, making the most of the company’s expertise in paper packing and converting and creating more sustainable, technically advanced solutions. The sleeves are engineered on automated machinery provided by Krones.

“With the introduction of our new solution, which is unique in the world to date, we will be able to reduce material use by a further 200 tons of plastic per year in the future, » said Felix Sprenger, Supply Chain Director at Coca-Cola HBC Austria. Silvia Hanzelova, Sales Director Speciality Kraft Paper at Mondi, adds: “By producing a paper as strong as this, we are able to replicate what the plastic shrink wrap does, delivering secure and safe transportation of multipacks with our Hug-IT paper sleeves that reduce plastic use.”