Recorp enters Australia with 550m-can capacity, 85% recycled aluminium push

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New Zealand-owned aluminium beverage can manufacturer Recorp has entered the Australian market, offering beverage companies access to multiple can formats from its South Auckland manufacturing facility. The company is positioning flexible production, lower minimum order quantities (MOQs) and high recycled aluminium content as key advantages as it targets Australian beverage brands.

Recorp will serve Australian customers from its 16,000-square-metre plant in Manukau, South Auckland. The facility, which opened in November 2024 following an investment of NZD 115 million (USD 89.54 million), has annual manufacturing capacity of around 550 million cans.

The production line can run at up to 1,850 cans per minute and includes eight bodymakers, dual decorators and equipment designed to enable relatively fast changes between different can heights and diameters.

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Multiple can formats for Australian beverage brands

Recorp’s Australian offering includes 250ml Slim and 330ml Sleek and Classic cans in 330ml, 375ml, 440ml, and 500ml formats. The Classic range can also be manufactured with either 200- or 202-diameter ends.

The company said the plant’s manufacturing flexibility allows it to accept lower MOQs and shorten lead times. This could help smaller beverage producers, as well as larger companies testing new products, limit their initial inventory commitments. Recorp has not disclosed its minimum order volumes.

Founder and Chairman Rob Fyfe mentioned that the flexibility was incorporated into the facility from the beginning.

“The plant is set up in a way that lowers minimum order quantities, allowing brands to trial new products without the same level of upfront investment,” he said.

That would reinforce the “small and medium-sized brands as they grow and gives larger businesses more scope to test new beverage concepts.”

Fyfe, a former CEO of Air New Zealand, founded Recorp with backing from private New Zealand investors. CEO Bruce Parton, also a former Air New Zealand executive, is leading the company’s expansion across the Australasian market.

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ReCan85 adds recycled aluminium proposition

Alongside its manufacturing flexibility, Recorp is introducing ReCan85, a beverage can manufactured with 85 per cent recycled aluminium.

The company describes the product as being among the highest recycled-content beverage cans available in Australasia, compared with what it identifies as an international industry average of around 60–65 per cent.

The recycled material includes post-consumer aluminium recovered from used beverage cans. Under Recorp’s New Zealand supply model, collected cans are processed offshore before the recovered aluminium returns to its Auckland facility for use in new can production.

The move comes as recycled content becomes an increasingly important consideration in beverage packaging. Australian manufacturer Visy, for instance, began an 18-month trial in 2025 involving an aluminium beverage can containing an average of 83 per cent recycled content.

Recorp targets wider beverage conversion to aluminium

Parton stated that Recorp’s broader objective is to increase aluminium’s share of the single-serve beverage market, particularly in categories currently dominated by plastic and glass bottles.

Although the Australian expansion has been described as a “launch”, Recorp has not announced an Australian manufacturing facility. For now, Australian beverage brands will be supplied through the company’s New Zealand production and customer service operation.

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