Holland Colours has happily announced a major expansion into the market for additives for plastic packaging, building on the company’s existing strong position in functional colorants.

The move anticipates trends in this rapidly changing market, where brand owners increasingly seek to differentiate on packaging properties such as appearance, energy use during production and end-of-life recyclability, as well as protecting and prolonging the taste and shelf-life of their products.

“Plastics are central to preventing food waste, reducing weight, which is hugely beneficial in terms of lowering emissions during transportation, and increasing consumer convenience and safety. This won’t change, but, clearly, society’s thinking around plastics – and especially the need to recycle and reuse – is evolving. As Holland Colours we have the know-how and capabilities: to partner with our packaging and brand partners in their transition towards more sustainable packaging,” said Eelco van Hamersveld, CTO of Holland Colours.

Holland Colours launched its first colorant product in 1979. Based on a pigment encapsulation technology and a renewably sourced carrier rather than a polymer-based one, this was unique at the time and remains so today. Crucially, this provides the foundation for a full-scale move into additives for plastic. Using the same encapsulation technology and, in many cases, the biobased carrier technology, too, we can create more efficient, low-melting-point additives and functional colorants that disperse better than alternatives.

“This is clearly good news for processors and brand owners,” said Van Hamersveld. “It means they can add functionality in combination with color as required: a one-pack solution. In addition, our unique technique based on a renewable carrier is highly concentrated, which means it can be dosed at low levels, causing less contamination in the recycling stream.”

Holland Colours’ additives range covers all the performance and lifecycle aspects of plastic packaging going forward and consists of the following products:

·  LightGuard: protects contents against UV degradation

·  TasteGuard: protects the taste of bottled water

·  FastHeat: cuts energy requirements and carbon footprint during production

·  TintMask: removes yellowing from rPET so it can be used to make brand-worthy recycled rPET bottles

·  HolcoSlip: protects preforms against scratching during production

Our functional colorants comprise two product lines:

·  Holcomer: protects dairy products from light

·  Sort: increases the recyclability of black products

We will be launching our full range of additives at the upcoming K-Show in Dusseldorf, Germany, from October 16-23. Visitors to the show are welcome to drop by our booth, Hall 8a, D41, to learn more about our additives and functional colorants and discuss their needs and how we can help.

About Holland Colours
Holland Colours develops, produces and commercializes solid and liquid colorants, masterbatches
and additives for coloring rigid and flexible PVC for the building and construction industry, as well as PET and polyolefins for the packaging industry. Next to serving these global markets, we offer color concentrates for coatings, sealants and adhesives and other applications. Our technical experts are always creating new color solutions to give our customers peace of mind based on precise color match and color consistency.

Holland Colours is a Dutch company listed on the Euronext Amsterdam Stock Exchange. With committed employee shareholders and operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, we provide personal local service on a global scale.