AUSTRALIA – Malmö-based sustainable catering firm Duni Group has recently acquired the Australian reusable coffee cup company Huskee for an undisclosed sum.
Huskee, founded in New South Wales in 2017, manufactures reusable coffee cups from coffee husk waste – the discarded outer layer of coffee beans.
In addition to its e-commerce business, Huskee operates HuskeeSwap, a cup exchange program for consumers and corporate businesses, and Huskee Loop, an end-of-life recycling program.
Duni Group’s acquisition of Huskee is part of its strategy to strengthen its global food and beverage packaging business, with a specific focus on growth in the Asia Pacific market.
This acquisition marks Duni Group’s third deal in the last three months. In February 2024, the group completed the acquisition of the New Zealand-based sustainable on-the-go packaging business, Decent Packaging, which generates combined annual sales of approximately SEK 200 million (US$18.9 million).
Both Huskee and Decent Packaging will operate within Duni Group’s Food Packaging Solutions segment, BioPak Group.
In March 2024, Duni Group also increased its stake in the German reusable startup Relevo from 24.51% to 50.02%, aiming to enhance its food packaging business and offer circular solutions to customers.
Relevo, based in Munich, provides tech-enabled system solutions for reusables to catering and restaurant businesses. Following this transaction, Relevo will be consolidated into Duni’s food packaging solutions business area.
Duni President and CEO Robert Dackeskog expressed the company’s commitment to sustainability: “We want to give more than we take from the planet.
Duni Group therefore aims to join forces with Relevo to provide solutions that leave behind as little waste as possible.
This means that we want to care not only for the start-of-life of a product but also for the end-of-life of a product, by providing software to secure low emissions and promote rotable solutions.”
In addition to these acquisitions, Duni Group also partnered with UK-based Notpla in the same month to introduce an innovative plastic-free packaging range called Alga.
This range utilizes technology crafted from cardboard and Notpla’s renewable seaweed coating, recognized as truly plastic-free and compliant with the pending EU directive on single-use plastics.
The Alga product line offers a sustainable alternative to traditional plastic packaging, effectively preventing moisture and oil from seeping through, making it suitable for a wide variety of food types.
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