Logoplaste: Investing in a circular economy for plastics

The investment: In 2021, we acquired 60 per cent of Logoplaste, a global manufacturer of rigid plastic packaging, for an enterprise value of €1.4 billion.

Logoplaste may not be a household name, but its products are in millions of homes. From 69 sites across 18 countries, the company produces more than 10 billion containers annually to hold some of the world’s best known-household consumer products. Ketchup. Yogurt and milk. Shampoo and dish soap. Pharmaceuticals. For Logoplaste, the ubiquity of its products comes with a responsibility to make plastic packaging more sustainable. It was a pioneer in that effort, starting with the first plant it opened, in Portugal, almost 50 years ago. That’s when founder Marcel de Botton decided to embed container-making inside a client’s plant.

Logoplaste dubbed its production process Wall-to-Wall because its packaging is manufactured, inspected and filled at client site, creating a seamless operation that increases efficiencies and keeps costs down. The process doesn’t just benefit the global consumer-products companies that Logoplaste serves. There’s a broader environmental benefit, too. The majority of Logoplaste’s containers don’t have to be packed and shipped to another site. That eliminates unnecessary secondary packaging and emissions related to transporting empty containers. Sharing manufacturing space with the customer also helps to reduce the overall environmental impact of a product and keeps inventory levels down. Logoplaste’s manufacturing process avoids 15,000 tons of CO2 a year—about the same as 8,500 London-New York flights.

Logoplaste’s emphasis on complete packaging solutions—from conceptualization through design and engineering to implementation—has enabled it to post robust annual growth of around 10% and to expand beyond early markets in Portugal and Brazil across Europe and into North America and Asia.

Plastic packaging remains one of the best ways to safeguard the longevity and security of goods that are critical to consumer health and wellbeing. The benefits of plastic packaging don’t negate the need to reduce the use single-use plastics and to divert as much plastic waste as possible from our land and oceans. We were drawn to Logoplaste because of its history of innovation in those areas, and because of its founders’ commitment to making plastic packaging as sustainable as possible. Logoplaste’s founding family continues to own 40% of the company.

Logoplaste was among the first companies to align itself with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a global charity working to create a circular economy for products including plastics. As part of its commitment, Logoplaste has set ambitious targets for itself, including having at least 30% recycled content across its packaging portfolio by 2025. It’s also working towards making 100% of its products either reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025. Logoplaste aims to get there through market-specific solutions to reducing plastic waste. For example, it has worked with Brazil’s dairy sector to create a closed-loop recycling market for milk containers in that country. And in early 2022, Logoplaste bolstered its recycling expertise by acquiring two European companies that transform post-consumer plastic bales into food-grade recycled flakes and pellets.

Logoplaste also envisions a longer-term future in which plastics facilities could make a net positive impact on the environment by consuming more CO2 than they emit. We want to help them realize those ambitions. It’s another way Ontario Teachers’ is investing to make a mark.

“We are a leading plastic packaging converter with the most sustainable business model in the industry, from packaging innovation to industrialization, we help reduce CO2 emissions, simplify supply chain, eliminate secondary packaging and transport of empty bottles. Our mission is to relentlessly push boundaries, to go beyond our clients’ expectations, and to transform rigid plastic packaging’s impact on the planet into a net positive for the environment. Having OTPP’s support is key to bring our sustainability vision to an even higher level.”

 Gerardo Chiaia, CEO
Logoplaste