Soap Box Blog: It ain’t so grim up north!

The plant is the biggest soft-drinks facility in Europe and, as you would expect from the company, an extremely efficiently run site. The new lines will help the company save some 400 tonnes of CO2 a year by reducing the number of lorries it needs to ship material to the site.

It’s an impressive bit of kit. But what amazed me more was the sheer volume of product being processed. Indeed, the firm is planning to install a new canning line to meet demand as the current lines that pass 2,000 330ml cans a minute are at full stretch.

Coca-Cola, it seems, is as popular as it’s ever been. And the firm is not the only one that appears to be bucking the recession. Tesco yesterday announced that pre-tax profit had risen by 1.5% in the six months to 29 August.

The packaging sector seems to be upbeat, too. Walking the aisles at last week’s PPMA Show, and the previous week’s Labelexpo, the exhibitors I spoke to said that while the beginning of the year had been difficult a corner had been turned and things seemed to be on the up.

Visitors to the shows were expressing interest in new products and there had been a number of strong leads, which are undoubtedly being followed up as you read this.

So, is the recession over? According to the CBI, modest growth will see the UK leave recession in the second half of the year, but, and this is the key bit, demand in 2010 will remain fragile.

Around a year ago, it appeared to be the case that firms were looking to “get through 2009″ and then see what happens. As 2009 comes to a close, it’s clear things are better than they were, but the good times are still some way off.

Firms have restructured in a bid to better position themselves for when an upturn does come, but the next few months could be crucial. It seems that what packaging firms want for Christmas is, well, a good Christmas trading.

Simeon Goldstein is News Editor on Packaging News.

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