Superior tube solutions Sonoco Alcore

SuPERIoR TuBE SoLuTIoNS

Sonoco Alcore, a recognised leader in its sector, provides high-quality, value-creating tube and core solutions for a variety of industries. Romana Moares spoke to Sales Manager Frederic Piau about the factors that make the company stand out in a highly competitive marketplace and its plans for the future against the ever-increasing focus on environmentally-friendly solutions.

Sonoco Alcore is part of the international group Sonoco Products Company, one of the largest diversified global providers of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging and displays and packaging supply chain services.

Sonoco Alcore has become a recognised leader in the tube and core sector, operating a large number of tubes and cores plants as well as paperboard mills in Europe. With its wide-ranging knowledge and capabilities, Sonoco Alcore serves customers in various markets, including paper, man-made fibre, transport packaging, construction and more.

light, resistant and recyclable

The company has a strong footprint, particularly in the construction industry where its products are used for a variety of large projects. Sonoco Alcore offers a full range of rain-resistant cardboard forms for all types of forms including round and specialised shapes of all diameters and lengths.

All the forms use the company’s patented RainGuard® technology, allowing the customers to use them on building sites in the harshest weather conditions without sacrificing the quality of the finished concrete form. Sonotube® fibre forms have an increased moisture barrier and added strength, for perfect columns in a broad range of environmental conditions. The reduced thickness of Sonotube® fibre forms makes them approximately 35 per cent lighter and consequently much easier to carry, manipulate and set up. In many cases, no crane is needed to erect the tube.

The tubes come in various shapes and dimensions – round and square, with dilatation joints, and with sharp or cut corners to suit individual customer needs. “Innovation is one of our strengths. In addition to our standard sizes, we can also design special sizes in square or rectangular shapes to respond to specific requirements. Architects sometimes care less about dimensions but we can fulfill any bespoke requirements.”

Green direction

Focus on sustainability and environmental protection lies at the core of Sonoco Alcore’s values. The company has established metrics to measure progress towards reduction of energy consumption, greenhouse gases and other types of air emissions, water usage and waste products. In addition, Sonoco Alcore maintains an on-going commitment to social responsibility and its economic goals.

Sonotube fibre forms are 100 per cent recyclable. They can be sorted with other paper and cardboard packaging elements and

removed at very low additional cost. To help protect the environment, Sonotube fibre form products are manufactured from core board rather than from more complex laminates containing aluminium.

“What distinguishes us from competitors is the fact that we are using only recyclable board. Most of other companies use Tetra Paks, which, despite their better water resistance properties, have the disadvantage of not being recyclable. With a growing focus on sustainability and an increasing number of construction companies doing green projects with less noise, water and waste recyclability, this feature makes our products very attractive.”

Sonoco Alcore also offers a number of supplementary products for use with its Sonotube forms, such as its Sonaplon ‘Shorting System’ which is used to hold the form straight and secure during the construction progress. In addition, the company’s ‘honeycomb board solution’ allows customers to create a void between concrete walls or underneath a concrete slab and its Concrete Reservation Box is used to make passage ways within concrete slabs and walls for wiring and access purposes. With a thickness of 3.5mm, it’s lightweight, easy to modify on site, does not adhere to concrete and is 100 per cent recyclable.

Bright prospects

Mr Piau explains that Sonoco Alcore tubes are produced in several factories in Europe, the main being the French plant near Grenoble, with additional facilities in locations including Germany, Poland and Greece.

“Demand for different shapes and sizes varies by different markets,” he says. “Some countries, such as Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece, are using only round tubes, while in northern countries the more expensive square and rectangular shapes are in demand, in addition to the most common round shape. In terms of sales, Germany is the driving market, but we don’t have a big market share there as yet. However, we are doing pretty well in France and, in fact, in most countries in Europe, and expect the demand to further increase.”

Given the fact the Sonoco Alcore tubes seem to tick all the right boxes in terms of current and future market considerations – premium quality, environmentally conscious practices as well as significant savings due to lower waste removal costs – this is not so surprising. Mr Piau confirms that overall prospects look good, and – in line with the positive market outlooks – the company plans to continue to grow organically but would also consider acquisitions and joint ventures should the right opportunities arise. n