Amcor has been a leader in opening plants in the emerging markets of Eastern Europe, Russia and China. These developments have been supported by large multinational customers and include a dedicated plant in Poland for PepsiCo’s snack food products. The emerging markets remain high growth markets for food and beverage applications.

The Flexibles Healthcare business also has opportunities for expansion in emerging markets. This will involve manufacturing for the local markets, as well as sourcing products for export globally.

Amcor has been a first mover into the key emerging markets of Russia, China, Eastern Europe and South East Asia. Consumers in these markets are moving to higher value brands and Amcor, as the technology leader, is well positioned to offer the value-add features these brands require.

The operations in Russia and Poland recently underwent a $37 million upgrade, increasing capacity for specialty applications.

Amcor has a 40% investment in the Hong Kong publicly listed company, AMVIG, which has around 20% of the Chinese tobacco packaging market. The industry in China is continuing to consolidate and there are opportunities to further increase market share.

The custom PET segment, which comprises hot-fill containers for isotonic beverages, juices, iced teas and functional waters, continues to deliver strong volume growth. This is driven by the development of new product segments as consumers move to more health-orientated beverages as well as the ongoing conversion of glass containers to PET packaging.

Amcor is the technology leader with patented developments in bottle design and ongoing advancements in light-weighting of the containers. Over the past three years, approximately $250 million has been invested into this segment, including a new world-class plant in the US with capacity of over one billion units per year.

Since opening the wine bottle plant in South Australia in 2002, production has increased to 400 million bottles per year. This is expected to reach 600 million bottles with the addition of a new $150 million furnace.

Wine bottle volume growth in Australia has averaged approximately 5% per annum through a combination of increased exports of filled bottles and higher domestic demand.

Amcor has a low cost manufacturing facility, ideally located in the major wine filling region of Australia. The business has developed an excellent reputation for quality and service and is supported by long term customer supply agreements.