As an international wholesaler, METRO has been committed to acting responsibly for many years in the face of global climate challenges. A critical aspect of this commitment concerns the development of packaging for own-brand products. The fundamental goals are to improve the customer experience, increase process efficiency and simultaneously reduce the environmental impact over the entire product life cycle.
Transparent and credible reporting is crucial for developing and rolling out sustainable packaging. For this reason, METRO has recently published its Packaging & Plastic Report 2023.
METRO can point to above-average successes in the area of plastic phase-out. The original target of saving 2,000 tonnes of plastic packaging for own-brand products by September 2023 has been exceeded and currently stands at 2,303 tonnes.
For EPS (Expanded Polystyrene), also known as Styrofoam, work is actively underway to eliminate EPS from packaging for outdoor furniture and barbecue items. In other categories, the biggest challenge is finding available alternative materials on the market that provide equally good characteristics.
The avoidance of PVC in own-brand packaging promises to be a good signal. In the non-food and near-food categories, PVC has been entirely replaced by PET (polyethylene terephthalate) or PP (polypropylene). Currently, the rate of PVC elimination is 84.7 percent.
It aims to achieve 100 percent FSC/PEFC certification of paper, cardboard, and wood or to have min. With 70 percent of recycled material used for its own-brand packaging, METRO has onboarded more countries. Currently, 18 countries have agreed on common goals and are working together on corresponding initiatives and solutions.
Since 2018, METRO has been working on reporting plastics and packaging, strictly following the applicable European directives and laws. In particular, data quality and availability are constantly improving and form the basis for successes and practical examples presented in the report.
As part of its sCore strategy, METRO increasingly focuses on customers from the HoReCa sector (hotels, restaurants, caterers) and expands its multichannel model. One of the measures planned by 2030 is to increase the share of own-brand products to less than 35 percent. Wholesale packaging tailored to professional customers plays an essential role in the wholesale transformation next to a focused assortment and own-brand products themselves.
