With ten years in the plastics and packaging industries and experience in pivotal roles at Plantic Technologies in Europe and Aus­tralia, Dr Frank Glatz is well placed to lead start-up Ausralian bioplastics com­pany Biograde Limited.

The company’s head quarters, business development and application development operations are in Melbourne, Australia while man­ufacturing and product development is in Nanjing, China.

“As a newly formed company, all aspects of our rapidly developing operations have to be estab­lished,” Glatz tells Packaging Magazine.
 
“Our main markets are China, Europe and USA, and we are currently working with several leading global packaging and consumer goods companies.

Man­aging this complexity, and the inter-cul­tural dimensions of the business, creates a very stimulating environment and pro­vides plenty of challenges.”

Glatz says he was always very inter­ested in science and technology, but in order to get a job in Germany, he studied and received his PhD at the Staudinger Institute, in Freiburg, Germany where polymer science was founded.

“Early in my career, I moved to Japan and then Australia and worked in plastics manu­facturing,” Glatz recalls.

“It was a natu­ral progression to go into packaging, which is the main user industry of plas­tics materials.” According to Frank Glatz, helping Biograde to win the exclusive supply con­tract of biodegradable packaging to the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games was an international achievement and a very proud moment.
 
“Another international achievement that I’m proud of was establishing Plantic Technologies’ Europe business,” he says.

"It was a real start from zero and a significant chal­lenge. The bioplastics industry was at its beginning then. So, I had to educate potential customers about the technol­ogy and explain why sustainability is a vital aspect of the packaging industry."
 
"Representing a young Australian com­pany with no profile in Europe wasn’t easy.”

Despite these challenges, Glatz con­vinced Nestle to change its largest Euro­pean confectionery packaging applica­tion over from PVC to a bio based packaging material within 15 months and launched it into the UK market.

“I worked with five teams in three coun­tries to achieve this outcome and the win was significant for the company and for me,” he enthuses.

“This success was instrumental to winning the first new bioplastics business with Carrefour, Europe's largest retailer, Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury, Albert Heijn and other European leaders.”

Glatz argues that as packaging becomes more global, adding value to your offering will be vital.

“Growth in the number of semi finished goods and finished goods that will be imported will take business out of the local industry,” he predicts.

“The best cost position will not be achievable for Australian pack­aging industry, so innovative technology and streamlined service will be impor­tant to remaining competitive."
 
"The Aus­tralian packaging industry has to focus on global niches or regional niches to prosper. Sustainable packaging could be a natural niche for Australian industry.”

“Biograde made the critical shift away from oil based raw materials to renew­able resources."
 
"I see this as a vital step towards achieving sustainability in pack­aging. As the bioplastics packaging industry is still in its infancy, it is tough to compete with the petrochemical incum­bent materials, which have been opti­mised over the last 50 years.”

“Key technological advances will be required to achieve the performance levels of these petrochemical materials in some aspects,” Glatz maintains.
 
“Achieving top packaging performance levels with our renewable materials will be a critical requirement for their suc­cess.”

Glatz also believes that to make the Australian packaging industry a global leader in sustainable packaging, an attractive industry framework, condi­tions and strategic industry policies will be required.

“I see these moves in coun­tries like Germany, Scandinavia and China happening,” he points out.

“The USA state of California has also taken a lead position. In Germany, compostable packaging has been exempted of the very high packaging fees."
 
"This exemption has created a lot of solid business opportuni­ties and investments.”

“Reflecting on the Australian situa­tion, as evidenced by the current plastic bag debate, can we be confident that we will achieve an alignment towards a strategic direction of benefit to all stake­holders, including the nation’s packag­ing industry?"

"Comparing our situation in Australia with what is going on in other leading countries, I wonder if we are moving fast enough, and in the right direction.”  

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