Thanks to its visual and sensory qualities, aluminium has long been a key material in luxury packaging. For Tesem, it is also a key asset in facilitating in the transition towards greater sustainability.
“Of course, brands will have the final say, but we have hardly any doubt about their willingness to reduce the amount of plastics used in their products. From this perspective, aluminium represents a first-rate alternative, thanks to its aesthetic qualities and its endless recyclability,” explains Patrick Bousquel, the newly appointed Marketing and Sales Director of the Catalan group.
Recycling loop with Constellium
However, the aesthetic requirements of the luxury industry are not always compatible with the specificities of recycled aluminium. Actually, a large part of available volumes comes from lower grade food packaging and cannot be not readily used to make high-end packaging components.
To overcome this difficulty and provide a recycled aluminium with the same performance and appearance as virgin metal, Tesem has partnered with Constellium, an aluminium supplier that also has recycling capabilities. As part of this partnership, aluminium scraps not used by Tesem are returned to Constellium to be re-melted and re-rolled so that they can be reused.
“We have built a closed loop between our factory and Constellium. We therefore reuse luxury grade aluminium in our products based on a mass balance calculation. This reduces CO2 emissions by up to 70% compared to virgin aluminium,” says Patrick Bousquel.
The solution is claimed by Tesem as a “low-carbon” aluminium offering.
“Tesem’s approach to aluminium demonstrates our commitment to our customers to meet their needs for beauty packaging combining luxury, innovation and environmental responsibility,” emphasizes
Albert Sala, Tesem Group’s CEO.
Innovation Lab
During Paris Packaging Week, Tesem also unveiled several innovations from its innovation platform based in Torellò, Catalonia. In addition to a series of novelties exclusively showcased to customers, the group has highlighted its FUSE technology which makes it possible to create invisible connections between anodized aluminium parts, even in hidden areas. The solution eliminates the need for glue or additional plastic parts, to create 100% aluminium components. For instance, FUSE can be used to create a mono-material cap, made by fusing two aluminium shells together, forgoing the need for a plastic insert.
Also with the aim to anticipate on the emerging no-low trend regarding plastics in beauty packaging, Tesem showcased its DOTS technology, which is another way to eliminate the plastic insert from the aluminium cap, thanks to micro-sized friction points.
With a turnover of 100 million euros for the entire group in 2023, Tesem Group intends to meet the new challenges of beauty packaging by relying on the complementarity of its know-how in metal with Tesem, in plastic injection and robotic assembly with Novassu, and in the supply of turnkey solutions with Flosty.
