Actualité

Berny is committed to reuse, and will be at Prod&Pack for the second year running in 2023, taking part in the Re-Use Packaging Line. An important moment for Olivier de Kerimel, the company's co-founder, for whom it's very important to show "concrete examples" to visiting industrialists.

Olivier, tell us about Berny...

At Berny, we operate a re-use solution aimed primarily at the retail and food industries. Our positioning is to design the appropriate packaging and operate the associated reuse loop for our customers. We design stainless steel packaging that we deliver to production sites, so that their products can be packaged in this packaging and delivered to stores. The consumer then buys the product with a deposit applied to it, which he or she collects once the product has been returned. For our part, we take care of the return flow, washing the trays and sending them back to our customers.

Industrial customers you'll be able to meet at the Prod&Pack show...

Absolutely. What's interesting for us is to meet them, to see where they are in their transition to reuse, if there are any new challenges we hadn't thought of. From the outset, we've been talking to many of them to ensure that our solution is as compatible as possible with their challenges.

You'll be present on the Re-Use Packaging Line at Prod&Pack 2023. Can you describe your role on this line?

We'll be providing the tray that will run along the line. We're going to show that a tray can be compatible with a packaging line that ticks all the boxes in terms of reuse constraints.
There will be a disposable tray and a reusable tray, and we'll be demonstrating that the packaging line can accept both trays, so that manufacturers can make the transition quite easily.

"The first edition of Prod&Pack raised our profile".

You were already present on the Re-Use Packaging Line in 2021, how did you assess this?

We started our activity in 2021, so the first edition of Prod&Pack brought us notoriety and enabled us to establish our positioning, also to get across the message we wanted: "We make the new packaging of tomorrow and we don't just make packaging, we also operate it."

Do you think it's important for a trade show like Prod&Pack to focus on recycling?

It's very important to show manufacturers and all those who come to the show something concrete, and not to stop at theory. It's important to show them that reuse is happening, and that solutions exist. It's very concrete and it's happening now.

Finally, where does Berny's commitment to reuse come from?

My partner Claire Nijdam and I created Berny out of a genuine conviction. We wanted to create a company that would make it as easy as possible for manufacturers to switch to deposits. There's a big challenge around this subject, with gigantic potential. Initially, we hadn't identified the foodservice sector, but these are like food manufacturers, and we have the means to respond to their requests to switch to deposits. Last time, at the 2021 edition of Prod&Pack, we met with central kitchens, and this provided food for thought about the solution we could offer.