”A shared space where we explore the future of packaging”
At Emballator’s Innovation Center, Mats Jeppsson leads a team exploring the future of packaging — testing new materials, concepts, and designs.
Mats Jeppsson is not in the business of guessing the future of packaging. He tests it. As Innovation Manager at Emballator, he leads a small team in Ljungby, Sweden, tasked with exploring the future of packaging and how it can be sustainably produced at scale.
“What are the packaging materials of the future, and how do we make them work in real life? That’s what we’re here to find out,” he says.
A mini factory for future packaging
Emballator Innovation Center opened in 2022, but the work began long before. As plastics came under pressure and EU regulations tightened, Emballator chose to invest in a dedicated hub for innovation rather than treat it as an add-on.
Emballator Innovation Center is built like a factory in miniature. “We can blow mould, injection mould, make containers, bottles, tubes and closures – almost everything our larger plastics sites do, but on a smaller scale,” Mats explains. This lets the team run fast trials and produce real prototypes in plastics, fibre and paper, ready for performance testing.
Alongside the pilot lines sits a mechanical lab, a thermal lab and a barrier and chemical lab. Here, the team tests strength, durability, recyclability and barrier performance, including resistance to oxygen, water, chemicals and oils. “We’re not material inventors,” Mats says. “We’re application experts. We verify what new materials can actually do and where they make sense.”
Customer-driven innovation
Each Emballator business unit has its own R&D. The Innovation Center is the specialist partner on top: a group-wide resource able to go deeper, wider and further ahead in time.
“Our starting point is often a challenge, not a product brief,” Mats explains. “A customer might say, ‘Our consumers struggle with this type of packaging, can you help us?’ That’s when we’re at our best.”
The team also works from a broader, human perspective. Together with in-house designer Brendon Vermillion, they explore questions such as: How will we wash our hair in ten years? How will we shop for food or paint our homes?“ If you remove today’s packaging from the picture and focus on behaviour, new possibilities emerge,” Mats says. “Then we can trace our way back to the right packaging solution.”
Collaboration is central. Start-ups, universities, suppliers and brand owners are invited to Ljungby to test materials and concepts, with Emballator providing processing and analysis. “It’s our way of building valuable partnerships,” Mats notes. “It becomes a workshop and a shared space where we explore the future of packaging. When we find an idea that works, our factories can scale it.”
PPWR sets the brief
Regulation, especially the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), is accelerating change. Exact details are still evolving, but for Mats that only heightens the urgency.
“Sustainability used to be a nice feature,” he says. “Now it’s the starting point for everything we do. We assume high recyclability, lower climate impact, future compliance and start our design from there.”
If we’re not innovating, we’re stagnating
The team evaluates recycled plastics for purity, barrier performance,toxicity and long-term recyclability, with cosmetics and food packaging now generating the most activity. But uncertainty remains. “No one knows exactly where PPWR will land,” Mats says. “Will monomaterials be the only answer? We prepare for different scenarios so we can support customers with compliant, high-performing solutions, whatever the legislation requires.”
“What is certain”, he adds,“is that innovation must accelerate”. “Many packaging formats have looked the same for 20 or 30 years.That’s no longer possible. If we’re not innovating, we’re stagnating. Our role is to make sure Emballator, and our partners, are ready for whatever comes next.”
