Sealed Air and Ecovative complete agreement to accelerate commercialization of new sustainable packaging material

Sealed Air Corporation (NYSE: SEE) and Ecovative Design LLC completed an agreement to accelerate the production, sales and distribution of Ecovative’s EcoCradle® Mushroom® Packaging, a new technology for environmentally responsible packaging materials made from agricultural byproducts and mycelium, or “mushroom roots”.
As part of the agreement, Sealed Air will be the exclusive licensee of Ecovative’s mycelium based material technology in North America for protective packaging applications.  Since January, Sealed Air and Ecovative have been developing together plans for sales and marketing as well as the augmentation of production capabilities.  Sealed Air plans to begin offering the new products immediately.
“We have been pleased with our relationship with Sealed Air and have seen how their sales network, strong packaging design capabilities, and world-class supply chain will help us further our vision and broaden our impact, providing an innovative and effective alternative to petrochemical based packaging at a much larger scale,” said Eben Bayer, CEO of Ecovative.
“We are excited to be the exclusive provider of Ecovative’s technology for protective packaging applications. The Ecovative Design team has created a fundamental material technology, using the unique properties of mycelium, to provide solutions to protective packaging.  And we have seen their success in manipulating these materials’ properties to produce varying density, strength, texture, and appearance to meet different performance needs of a variety of customer applications,” said Ryan Flanagan, President of Sealed Air’s Protective Packaging business.
“The agreement also furthers our SmartLife™ commitment to sustainability and providing solutions that reduce waste throughout the supply chain.  This technology turns an agricultural waste material into a packaging solution that meets our customers’ performance needs and protects against their products being damage during shipping.  Furthermore, it broadens our product portfolio for molded shapes and potentially other applications,” Flanagan added.
Sealed Air’s Protective Packaging business delivers an extensive portfolio of protective, industrial and display packaging systems to meet diverse application requirements across a broad range of industries.  Sealed Air operates Packaging Design Centers globally and delivers a compelling value proposition that comes from a total solution approach that positively benefits multiple areas of customer operations – ultimately driving efficiencies and business value from the plant floor to their customers’ doorsteps.
Details of the transaction were not disclosed.  Sealed Air does not expect the transaction to be material to its consolidated financial position or results of operations.

Source: http://www.ecovativedesign.com