Novelis Inc., a sustainable solutions provider in aluminum rolling and recycling, announced the opening of its Customer Solution Center (CSC) for the beverage packaging market in São José dos Campos, Brazil. The center will focus on advancing aluminum beverage can innovation and sustainability solutions in response to growing market demand. The São José dos Campos facility is part of the company’s growing global network of CSCs.

In a facility designed for collaboration, the new CSC will serve as an “innovation hub” for beverage can makers, brand owners, other industry suppliers and scientific partners. Novelis states that bringing these parties together will inspire ideas and accelerate innovation that will address real-world challenges and advance the adoption of aluminum as the material-of-choice for beverage packaging. The 3,000-sq.-m.  facility features modern laboratories, training rooms and collaboration spaces to encourage creativity.

“The beverage business is in growth mode and aluminum is quickly becoming the material of choice for beverage can packaging, so we need to be prepared for increased demand as consumers recognize the many drawbacks of other, less sustainable packaging materials,” says Greg Schlicht, senior vice president, global can sales at Novelis.

Some of the market trends the company notices driving the need for innovation spaces are:

• Consumers desire more sustainable packaging—According to Novelis, today’s consumers are driving a shift toward aluminum as the environmentally friendly choice for beverage can packaging.
• The beverage market is expanding—Consumers are demanding more varieties of packaged beverages, including water, energy drinks, soda, beer, wine, hard seltzers and other RTD alcoholic beverages. As the market grows, the need for sustainable aluminum packaging increases, further driving the need for capacity and innovation.
• Interest in specialty cans is growing—Options are catching the eye of consumers. Different packaging options in terms of function and appearance are resulting in new specialty shapes, sizes and surface finishes.