Andreas Lundgren,
Sales and Marketing Manager

Driven by Endurance

"I love sports that challenge you to go further than you think you can, like running and cycling. Endurance is also something I associate with our product, Nature by Rottneros – Rottneros Packaging’s sustainable packaging that extends the shelf life of food without compromising on quality."

Since March 1, 2025, Andreas Lundgren has been fully engaged in getting to know both the team and the technology behind Nature by Rottneros. All product and quality development takes place in Sunne – this is also where the technology is shaped before being transferred to the factory in Poland, which will begin production in the spring of 2025.

"It’s been exciting to see the production and the products on site. The team is highly competent, and it feels truly inspiring and fun to be part of this journey. And of course, it's always satisfying to remove a bit more plastic from the world," he says.

Curious About Customers’ Manufacturing Processes

Andreas Lundgren is a packaging designer by training, with previous experience at Å&R Carton and FreeFormPackaging, where he sold both machinery solutions and paper laminates for formable paper packaging. Andreas calls himself a tech nerd and is eager to learn about customers’ different manufacturing processes:

"Our goal is to find solutions for how our trays can fit into their existing production lines," he says. "We want to get our fantastic product to market and help food producers become more sustainable as quickly as possible."

Two Market Approaches – Standard or Customized

Andreas will focus on selling Nature by Rottneros in Scandinavia and Northern Europe, while Alessandra Zanetti continues to cover Southern Europe. According to Andreas, their offering comes in two main forms:

"On one hand, we have a standard product range that can replace the most common sizes of competing plastic trays. In this case, customers can have their new packaging on the market within a few months. Our current focus is building up that portfolio. The second option is a customized solution, developed in close dialogue with the customer."

But it's also about raising awareness of the EU's new regulation, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), and the demands it places on single-use packaging. Here, Rottneros Packaging actually benefits from industry-wide efforts.

"We need to work together to demonstrate that fiber-based trays can and should replace plastic ones. Of course, we firmly believe our trays are the best – and we’re going to prove it."

Diverse Interpretations of EU Regulations Pose Challenges

An important part of the dialogue with customers is increasing understanding of the new EU regulation – PPWR. It sets stricter requirements for everything from packaging design to recycling, and Andreas believes varying interpretations will pose challenges:

"Different EU countries have vastly different technical and logistical conditions for handling recycling. What is practically recyclable? What counts as recycled content? These things will be interpreted differently depending on what's realistic nationally," he explains.

In Sweden, the system for handling fiber and plastic combinations is relatively strong, whereas Southern Europe requires different solutions.

"A major advantage of our packaging is that the plastic layer can easily be separated from the fiber after use. That enables a higher overall recycling rate. But we also need to understand how this recycling will work in, for example, Germany and Italy – so we can identify which markets are most relevant for us and what advantages to highlight," Andreas concludes.