Spearhead on Sustainable Packaging Innovations and the Future of Packaging

Spearhead, a global packaging and sustainable innovation company, has grown to $40m in revenues in the beverage/packaging industry in its five young years.  

Heather Fritzsche, CEO/co-founder, The Spearhead Group, touches on what’s propelled this growth; talks about some Spearhead technologies, including interesting concepts developed for the “spirits” sector. And she makes some predictions about what the future will look like for packaging.

Waste360: How does your manufacturing process work?

Fritzsche: Our proprietary process is called Physical Brand Enhancements (PBE). PBE embraces a brand’s image through customized packaging. This encompasses an array of primary and secondary packaging needs such as custom glass and ceramic bottles, closures, medallions, labels, cartons, wood boxes, rigid boxes, shippers, and more.

Our processes come from a strong understanding of manufacturing. Everything that we design and develop starts with understanding the substrate/raw materials used to ensure production feasibility, timing, and price.

In some cases, we are the manufacturer of textiles, rigid boxes, and wood boxes. In other areas, we have the Spearhead Pioneer Program, our carefully selected group of innovators from around the globe.

Waste360: Who are your clients?

Fritzsche: Spearhead is primarily in the beverage/spirits space and supplies to brands such as Crown Royal, Ciroc, Buchanan’s, Don Julio, Rabbit Hole, Templeton Rye, Smooth Ambler, Pinhook Bourbon, and Subtle Spirits, Four Walls.

Waste360: Tell us about the Bottle2Bag technology that you are working on.

Fritzsche: Spearhead produces mass quantities of textile bags. While the bags are reusable, many are made from polyester, a plastic-based material. We want to work toward getting material technology out in the market that is using upcycled single-use plastic bottles.

With Bottle2Bag, we are using plastic bottle waste as a new material for bag production. The process we’ve been working on produces bags that are very size- and color-consistent, so they are usable for brands with strict standards and guidelines. This isn’t what people are already used to, which is frequently a very “handicraft” upcycling that creates inconsistencies. By creating a better solution for making quality bags, the products become more accessible and allow us to produce more using recycled single-use plastic bottles. This mirrors our commitment to eliminate single-use plastic from landfills.

Waste360: What is Spearhead Project Earth?

Fritzsche: Spearhead Project Earth is a non-profit foundation funded by The Spearhead Group with the mission to remove plastic from international waterways. We see it as our responsibility as a packaging company to not only eliminate plastic from our packaging but to clean up single-use plastic waste.

Many are not aware of the impact of single-use plastics on our environment. It takes hundreds of years for a single-use plastic water bottle to decompose, so this is a problem that will remain for many generations. Plastic not only contributes to unsightly shorelines and carbon emissions, but also creates microplastics. These microplastics seep into our oceans, fish, and eventually into our bodies. We believe that it is the responsibility of all packaging suppliers to seek ways to eliminate plastic for the health of our planet and communities.

Waste360: What other products have you worked on?

Fritzsche: For one example, we worked with the Don Julio brand to create the collaborative Tequila Don Julio x Barry’s Cocktail Kit with a proprietary pressure fit solution. When Don Julio approached Spearhead about this new collaborative project, they were looking for a solution in the cocktails-to-go market. Each kit is built for a 375ml bottle of Don Julio Tequila, 2 Vita Coco Coconut Waters, 2 Don Julio glasses, a bottle of agave nectar and a packet of cayenne pepper. Working together with our Spearhead Luxury Packaging — China, we engineered and developed an innovative solution that would not only combine these elements, but also eliminate plastic thermoforms in the packaging and increase packaging sustainability.

Our China packaging engineers coordinated with the technical team in the U.S. and Mexico, creating prototype after prototype and testing those on our own lab equipment until we got the most minimal amount of materials.

Another example is the Buchanan's 2022 Spring Gift Set, which also uses our patent pending Pressure Fit System. In collaboration with Buchanan's and through the Spearhead R&D process, our team engineered a unique method for holding components in place within packaging without the use of plastic thermoforms. This is done by utilizing top and bottom pressure to hold the products in place. This Pressure Fit System goes beyond eliminating plastic usage; it also reduces the need to have large spaces between the components packaged. This means that even glass components can be packaged within a few millimeters apart or less. Having components in a package so close to each other not only creates a unique visual effect, but it also substantially reduces overall material wastage.

Waste360: How have you collaborated with schools to try and advance new ideas in sustainable packaging?

Fritzsche: Our collaboration with Istituto Europeo di Design launched in May 2019 with an initial program that required the students to develop a spirits brands and any Physical Brand Enhancement to support them. This year, Spearhead sponsored our third luxury packaging design challenge, the PBE Awards, with Istituto Europeo di Design based out of Turin, Italy. The students worked with the “Less is More” theme which challenged them to create a Value-Added Gift Pack (VAP) engineered to use the least amount of CrownBoard Prestige lightweight paper by our strategic material Pioneer Billerud. Spearhead has found that working with bright and upcoming students results in a tremendous amount of new and unique ideas.

Spearhead also has an ongoing co-op program with Drexel University in Philadelphia. The program allows Drexel students to have the opportunity to participate in product development, brainstorming 3-D print new prototypes, design and laser cut multiple substrates, and provide real-time innovative solutions from a fresh new perspective.

Waste360: How have you grown your company to $40 million in revenue in five years? What was key to accomplishing this?

Fritzsche: Spearhead has experienced rapid success since launch – but it didn’t happen overnight. For more than two decades, we have been building relationships and searching for more efficient, creative solutions to complex problems commonly faced in the industry.

Spearhead’s key differentiator is that we are an immersive partner in the Physical Brand Enhancement process. Our team is driven, passionate, and has the experience to work side by side with stakeholders throughout the production lifecycle. Our team of professionals has helped create a new definition for innovation by reimagining the manufacturing process in a way that streamlines productivity, increases efficiency, and reduces production line rework.

We saw a future where packaging is reduced. This is why we focused on PBE, which enhances a brand while reducing waste. This has resonated a lot with our client base. Oftentimes, clients that come to us are used to accepting the status quo from their packaging partners; we strive to offer them something different.

Waste360: What do you envision packaging will look like in the future?

Fritzsche: We see that future packaging, especially Value-Added Packaging, will eliminate all plastic, something that we’ve been doing since 2019. Lightweight materials, using sustainable substrates, and the type of ink used will also be important when considering sustainability.

Packaging will have a smaller overall footprint while still commanding consumer attention. Packs will offer reusability whenever feasible. Smart labels will be used to educate consumers on how to recycle. Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) will be conducted on all components to measure total environmental impact.

Waste360: What else is in store for sustainable packaging whether driven by policy, consumer demand, or whatever else?

Fritzsche: Consumers are looking for more environmentally-friendly packaging, done right, and lower expenses. Consumers don’t want to have to pay more, but they want to do what is right for the environment. We believe the future of packaging in the U.S. will look more like what’s seen in the European market, where there are strict government regulations that include costs for companies and put out packaging to cover the cost of municipalities to deal with this.

Waste360: How can brands and packaging manufacturers stay ahead of the curve as these evolutions happen?

Fritzsche: Become a part of the solution; educate yourselves on what sustainability means; work to incorporate sustainability from the design phase; suggest new material options available. and be a part of associations that are driving innovation in this area.

Waste360: Is there a little history leading up to the launch of your company?

Fritzsche: We have a fun story that people do love to hear! Spearhead’s co-founders had worked together for 20 years before starting Spearhead at a British company that made promotional products. In the second decade at that company, they started seeing alarm bells that, for a lot of reasons, including sustainability, the promotional products industry could likely be looking at major declines in the future. 

The industry was not only consolidating to a narrower supply base, but as companies were correctly starting to focus more on sustainability – the free “tchotchkes” were likely to get discontinued. Since the previous company planned to continue its focus on promotional products, Spearhead co-founders decided to strike out on their own to focus on supply chain and primary/secondary packaging to make a real impact.

Waste360: What can you say of your planned global expansion?

Fritzsche: I’d say to keep your eye out for some exciting news in a few months. We can reveal that we are focusing on opportunities to sustainably reduce transportation emissions by rethinking production locations based on where the goods are needed. We’re also exceptionally focused on making opportunities for more diverse entrepreneurs and business owners, so you will be seeing some exciting developments there also. 

Waste360: The beverage industry appears to be doing little to slow down its manufacture of single-use plastics. What’s going on with that? And how is the spirits industry, specifically, doing on the sustainability front?

Fritzsche: We can’t speak too much about plastic bottle waste, because we don’t work with them. But yes, the indication is that consumers are still asking for more and more of it. Until regulations prevent it, or consumers start asking for it, we don’t think anything will slow down the production of plastic bottles.

As for the spirits industry – the industry is working hard to make carbon-neutral distilling, glass production, and printing. There is also a ton of work being done for water conservation. In addition, there are a few programs starting with “forever bottles” that are refillable with a pouch system, and a few exciting systems that are bringing in a keg-style refillable, zero-waste dispensing system for spirits to the bar/restaurant environment, which would drastically reduce the amount of glass waste from the bar/restaurant sector.