AVERY Dennison has announced an expansion of AD Stretch, its accelerator initiative designed to invest in innovation from industry start-ups, into Europe, Middle East & North Africa (EMENA) and North America.
The company kicked off the programme with its first cohort in Latin America and Asia Pacific earlier this year and revealed that, following a ‘positive response and high engagement’ from the start-up community, the material science corporation will be engaging with the next cohort of innovators to further enable ‘disruption and evolution’ in labels and packaging.
“Innovation doesn’t occur in a vacuum, so it’s imperative that we invest in a process that facilitates collaboration, pool our resources and use our scale to support our industry’s entrepreneurial capabilities,” explained Hassan Rmaile, senior VP & general manager, label & graphic materials EMENA and global innovation. “AD Stretch is still in its infancy, but already we’re seeing tangible results from our first cohort and hope to see the same as we partner with innovators in EMENA and North America.”
The second cohort will be invited to respond to six challenge statements that sit under three themes: Making Consumer Packaged Goods Smarter, Materials 2.0, and Thinking Green.
“We’ve made considerable strides across sustainability and usability over the past five years but we want to see more results in a shorter time frame,” added Jeroen Diderich, senior VP & general manager, label and graphic materials North America. “The agility of a start-up, powered by our financial resources, technical capabilities and supply chain infrastructure will enable us to innovate at a far greater pace and accelerate the commercialisation of solutions to market – and crucially make an impact – far quicker. Time is of the essence now.”
The programme is run in partnership with venture studio Highline Beta. Following a period of review and consultation, applicants will be narrowed down to 10 finalists that will go on to execute a pilot project.
