EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 03/22 www.petpla.net 14 Tour Sponsors: Interview with Universal Closures Ltd. Making the best of the worst of times by Ruari McCallion February 3, 2022 We met: Mr Mark Smith, Senior Vice-President Universal Closures Ltd seized the opportunity presented by the reduced level of primary activity during the Covid-19 pandemic to bring forward a number of design innovations – but the impossibility of face-to-face interaction was an inconvenience. Universal Closures, which is based in Tewkesbury, near Gloucester in England’s West Country, is quite a small company but it casts a giant shadow. It specialises in the design and development of closure systems, mostly in HDPE, for plastic bottles ranging in size from 100ml to 5 l. Its client list includes Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, P&G and Nestle. It has over 30 licensees across the world using its designs and works closely with Z-Moulds in Austria, in developing the tooling for the caps involved in complete closure systems. Its main focus has been beverages; over 80% of its revenues have, traditionally, come from that market. But that is likely to change, mainly thanks to its most recent partner, Westfall Technik in the USA. Its primary market is homecare and personal care, which is becoming a commercially attractive area for the company – of which more later. Mark Smith, Senior Vice-President of Universal Closures, made the trip from Tewkesbury to meet PETplanet Insider’s Editor-at-Large, Ruari McCallion, in Salisbury, in the south of England – the first time we have sat down face-to-face since June 2020. It has been an eventful 20 months since then and we started by discussing the impact of Covid-19 on the business. It was good to hear that the pandemic and associated shutdowns, border closures and restrictions have not had an immediate effect on Universal Closures. EU Directives, tethered caps and new GME 30/40 finish and closure standards “We have a business model that has a strong and regular income from royalties,” he said. There have been fluctuations but there has not been any discernible trend, either commercially, by sector or geographically. Sales have remained pretty constant. The impact is more likely to be felt further down the road, because the normal five-year cycle of machinery renewal has been interrupted. A number of changes are arriving in the market, including EU Directives on tethered caps, single-use plastics and incorporation of recycled material, as well as recyclability. The standard for caps and closures is also changing. The 1881 closure systems, which have become common for over 15 years, are being superseded by the new GME 30/40 or 30/41 standard. “Coca-Cola specifically has been working with several of their key partners – UCL being one of them – to develop a replacement finish for 1881, which is known as GME 30/40. They wanted a lighter weight neck finish but also needed to ensure that they didn’t score an own-goal and not have enough space to accommodate the tethered cap that is coming,” Mark explained. The GME 30/40 PET finish is the first international standard that Mark Smith, Senior Vice-President of Universal Closures Ltd, came to visit PETplanet Insider’s Editor-at-Large, Ruari McCallion (photo on the left), at the Salisbury, England offices. Mark noticed an interesting article in PETplanet Insider about Z-Moulds, a long-time partner of Universal Closures.
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