It is fair to say that 2020 has so far been a remarkable year and certainly one that no-one will forget in a hurry! As we await the year end results for Packaging Automation, we have taken some time to review the year so far.
For the team at Packaging Automation, Covid-19 has, of course, had an impact but so too have food safety / security and the move to towards more automated processes and the trend for sustainable solutions continues to gain ground with the move to mono materials featuring high on the list of priorities for many. And in addition to that, the team at PAL continue to innovate using new technology to maximum effect for the benefit of all.
Classed as essential workers we’re proud to have remained fully operational through the pandemic lockdown delivering vital support to both the NHS and the food sector with very little disruption to our team who are accustomed to agile working and flexing as necessary.
With incidents of panic buying and hoarding and the public told to stay home, packaged and frozen food sales increased dramatically, with many manufacturers boosting production by 50%, which was very much reflected in client requests and machinery orders.
Quarantine restrictions to prevent the spread of Covid-19 coupled with the UK immigration bill means the restricted movement of people continues to impact the food sector and packaging automation becomes increasingly important to speed up and deliver efficient processes.
Sustainability is still a priority for both consumers and manufacturers and the PAL Test Kitchen has been busier than ever testing and developing new packaging ideas. Whilst many are keen to explore new alternatives the biggest change in 2020 has been the move to mono materials for recycling purposes.
Technological developments continue to take centre stage at PAL with the first ever Virtual Open Day scheduled for September 2020 when we will demo our Virtual Reality Technology. We also invested in a 3D printer which quickly went into production to enabling us to improve the quality of production with little or no wasted material and the improved speed of manufacture also means that we have more capacity too.
In other news, we will be announcing very soon some further exciting developments with a very special launch planned for 2021.