Basque Enterprise Europe Network

Title

A Dutch corporate brand of fair-trade chocolate bars is searching for a new sustainable and sturdy paper packaging for their chocolate bars

Reference

TRNL20210520001

Last update

Fri, May, 28, 2021

Deadline

Sat, May, 28, 2022

Abstract

Dutch company is a socially responsible company that makes chocolate. Their mission is to change the cocoa industry which is characterized by low incomes of cocoa farmers and weak governance, exacerbating poverty and a variety of environmental and social issues such as modern slavery and illegal child labour. They are looking for companies that share their vision and have ideas for sustainable but also sturdy paper packaging for chocolate bars. A technical cooperation agreement will be provided.

Description

The Dutch company is a leader in fair-trade chocolate in the Netherlands. Their main concern is the welfare of the cocoa farmers and their families, which goes hand in hand with being aware of the need to protect the environment. They believe every company has a responsibility to take better care of our planet, ideally not only limiting its negative impact but positively contributing to better business practices.

The company decided to have their chocolate bags, the ones that are not in direct contact with the chocolate, made of paper. When plastic packaging waste is not recycled, it is incinerated (with energy recovery) together with other waste. In the Netherlands, packaging waste is no longer landfilled. But there are still countries with landfill sites and where the collection and processing of plastic waste is not well organized. They also see plastic waste ending up in the ocean, where it poses a great danger to the ecosystem. Because of this negative impact on the environment, the company decided to go for paper. They also think the look and feel of paper packaging fits well with their brand and vision. But paper has always a memory and will wrinkle when you handle it. It is also more vulnerable than plastic and will tear easily, on the production line or on the shelf in stores, resulting in waste and a damaged appearance.

At this moment the company is looking for companies that share their vision and help them with solutions for offering chocolate bars in sustainable but also sturdy paper packaging. The Dutch company is interested in innovative ideas that can help them in offering a paper packaging that is fully recyclable, sturdy (a minimum of wrinkles and no tearing) and runs efficiently over the production line. The selected potential partner can be offered:
•An assignment to realize a prototype or pilot.
•Possibility to test their prototype over the production line at our co-manufacturer .
•Probability of a follow-up order, scaling up or lasting cooperation.
A technical cooperation agreement will be provided, in the case of a new collaboration.

IMPORTANT: This Technology Request refers to an innovation challenge published on the internet platform. If an organization expresses interest before closing date, it will be guided towards this open innovation platform. Interested participants can browse free through other submissions and engage in discussions. All submissions will get feedback by the company on this open platform. The challenge opens on June 7th and closes on July 12th, 2021 Mind that posts on this platform are not confidential. Beside open discussions on the platform, sharing of confidential information will be made possible on demand. After that, the firm will select the SME's with whom they would like to cooperate in the development of a solution. Once the challenge is closed, Expressions of Interest for this technology request will be treated in the traditional way.

Technology Keywords

Packaging for materials

Keyword Codes:

02005004

Current Stage of Development

Intellectual Property Rights

IPR Comments:

Exploitation of RTD Results

Organisation/Company Type

Organisation/Company Size

Organisation Comments

The potential partner has expertise in developing eco and technical packaging technology and or packaging materials. The company works with a sourcing policy. New partners will be validated with the rules below: - Slave-free The Dutch company was founded to end modern slavery in the cocoa industry. As a brand, they are committed to slave free supply chains. All their packaging must meet this requirement. This means the supplier is responsible for supplying products aligned with their vision and mission. - Country of origin They want to know the country of origin where the materials composing the end product are sourced and manufactured. Additionally, they look at the country where the end product is being produced. To make sure the supply chain is slave free, they check if there are any known issues with slavery according to the Global Slavery Index. - Recycling The company wants to have a fully recyclable packaging, ideally made of a mono-material. However, functionality (packaging is there to protect the product) and appearance (how does it fit the brand) also play a role here.

Detailed Market Application Codes (VEIC)

MA Keyword

Other consumer products

MA Keyword Codes:

07004008

Application Domain Description:

Collaboration Type

Comments:

Type of partner sought: SME’s and research and innovation organizations. The Dutch company requires partners with ideas’s and or solutions for a sturdy flexible and sustainable paper packaging for chocolate bars.

Suitable SME's and organizations are invited to share their ideas and to propose their expertise. After being selected, the new partner will be proposed to participate in the development of the new paper packaging for their chocolate bars. A technical cooperation agreement will be provided to the new partners.

Additional info about TT Profile

Preferred countries for diffusion