Varden is a technology company focussed on finding sustainable solutions to modern packaging problems. Varden’s core technologies all rely on the use of variable density moulded pulp fibre to create sustainable, beautiful and organically shaped packaging for discerning global consumers
Coffee
Varden is a technology company focussed on finding sustainable solutions to modern packaging problems. Varden’s core technologies all rely on the use of variable density moulded pulp fibre to create sustainable, beautiful and organically shaped packaging for discerning global consumers
Confectionery
Varden started by looking at secondary packaging for the gifting market, and particularly confectionery.
Gift packs are conventionally tin, or multiple-material blister packs.
Thermo-formed pulp allows for organic packs to be created, with true shelf stand-out, that are also 100% recyclable.
The Varden process allows for in-line decoration of the pulp, during the moulding process, so that the finished pack is decorated in thee dimensions, in the same way as an embossed tin, or thermoformed plastic box.
Different design concepts are shown below. Recent line-speed developments by Varden mean that these designs could now be produced at commercial scale and cost.
Alcohol
Secondary packaging for alcohol gifting is an important market, that has typically not paid attention to sustainability, with Veueve Clicquot the only brand to date that has started to break from the status quo with a number of sustainable packs in market.
Varden has created a number of designs for secondary packaging of alcohol, that emphasise the organic shapes possible with decorated pulp thermoforming and the Varden process. Those alcohols made from a grain base, and particularly whisky (becaue of the longer fibre length of malted barley) are able to have these packs produced with spent grain fibre from the distillery actually making up a component of the pack.
Personal Care
Personal care is a category that typically has a large amount of plastic blister packs, which are not sustainably made. An early pulp pack that we made to demonstrate the flexibility of the Varden pulp forming and decoration process was one for Gillette, as a gifting multipack, to hold different products.
Multiple shaped base parts meant that different products could be placed in the pack, whilst combinations of print and pulp colour gave multiple variations for different gifting occasions, without re-tooling
Technology
Varden is a technology and Intellectual Property start-up.
Its main assets are the patents it holds, and the experience and know-how of its principals. The core technology of high-speed pulp deformation and decoration was proven out in New Zealand with the Fisher and Paykel Research and Development lab.
Subsequent development has been done in Melbourne and Taipei, although the company uses a number of “Best of Breed” partners globally such as Flint in the USA to supply inks, and other partners globally to supply films, and pulp fibre as required.
Varden continues to develop complementary and overlapping I.P to build out a raft of I.P in this space, and which places it at the forefront of new-tech sustainable packaging.
Sustainability
Varden is committed to the large-scale commercialisation of sustainable packaging. All of the technology developed so far relies on the use of thermoformed pulp fibre. This is a relatively old technology, and has been bypassed by other developments in packaging but it is ripe for a renaissance for the following reasons.
Pulp fibre is intrinsically renewable. It may contain recycled fibres, and it can certainly be recycled or composted with no complex recycling processes involved.
Fibre can come from a range of sustainable sources, not only from sustainable forestry. Varden has experimented with cocoa husk fibre and sugar bagasse to make confectionery boxes, and also spent barley grains from whisky manufacture to make whisky boxes.
Critically, paper pulp is seen and understood by the consumer to be sustainable, so adoption is fast, and mind-share is easy to gain Pulp thermoforming has in the past required a high-energy input, but the Varden process addresses this so that the energy required to make the packaging is much less. With political and legal change sweeping across the world and driving and enforcing sustainable packaging, sustainable pulp fibre will again come into its own
Contact
Varden is based in Melbourne Australia, and is a privately held company with Venture Finance backing. Partnership or investment opportunities should be addressed as follows:
c/o SY Group
PO Box 495
South Yarra
Victoria 3141
Australia