Tosca says reusable packaging is emerging as a critical part of Europe’s supply chain infrastructure, as businesses respond to cost volatility, labour shortages and evolving packaging regulation.
European supply chains are facing increasing pressure from rising costs, labour shortages and evolving regulation. Tosca says these forces are driving a fundamental shift in how companies view packaging – from disposable consumables to reusable infrastructure assets.
Single-use packaging waste remains high, while material price volatility continues to impact operating costs. At the same time, 76 % of supply chain and logistics leaders report workforce shortages.
Regulation is adding further urgency. Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes and the EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) are placing greater emphasis on waste prevention, reuse, durability and lifecycle performance. As these frameworks evolve, businesses face increasing cost exposure and complexity when relying on single-use packaging.
“Packaging has long been treated as a consumable cost, but that model is becoming harder to sustain,” said Laurent Le Mercier, EMEA President at Tosca. “With regulation tightening alongside cost and labour pressures, reusable packaging is becoming core infrastructure. It enables businesses to reduce waste at source while improving cost predictability and operational resilience.”
Moving beyond single-use
Single-use packaging relies on continuous material inputs, manual handling and repeated disposal. In a volatile cost environment, these dependencies are becoming structural risks.
Reusable plastic packaging offers a different operating model. Durable assets circulate across multiple cycles, shifting organisations from cost-per-unit to predictable cost-per-use, while reducing exposure to raw material volatility and ongoing waste costs.
Pooling enables this at scale. Through managed networks, assets are collected, inspected, cleaned, repaired and redeployed, embedding packaging as a service within day-to-day operations rather than a one-off purchase.
Standardisation supports consistency across the supply chain – enabling automation, improving load stability and reducing handling complexity, damage and variability.
Supporting compliance and resilience
As regulatory requirements become more stringent, packaging decisions are increasingly linked to compliance as well as cost.
PPWR introduces new expectations around reuse targets, durability and traceability, while EPR schemes are evolving to reflect lifecycle performance and material impact. For businesses relying on single-use systems, this creates ongoing exposure to rising fees, reporting complexity and potential redesign.
Reusable packaging and pooling systems help address these requirements by reducing waste at source, supporting traceability and enabling controlled, repeatable use across multiple cycles.
In parallel, improved handling consistency and standardisation can reduce operational risk, including workplace injuries and product damage, while supporting more efficient transport and storage.
A structural shift in packaging strategy
With cost pressures persisting and regulatory scrutiny increasing, packaging is becoming a strategic decision rather than a tactical one.
Reusable packaging offers a route to stabilise costs, reduce risk and meet evolving regulatory expectations within a single system – positioning it as a core component of more resilient, future-ready supply chains.
To explore how these structural challenges are reshaping European supply chains, Tosca has launched a whitepaper, The Business Case for Reusable Transport Packaging, which explore these trends in detail.
Download the whitepaper here.
Led by Purchase Capital, the round fuels Ryl Tea’s next chapter following 157 % year-over-year growth, a multi-year licensing partnership with The Hershey Company, and the build-out of a DSD footprint in the US
The Ryl Company, parent company of fast-growing iced tea brand, Ryl Tea, announced the close of a Series C growth equity round of $20 million, led by Purchase Capital through its Ryl Growth Partners SPV. The investment will support the company’s next phase of growth, including continued retail and Direct Store Delivery (DSD) expansion, the build-out of its innovation pipeline, and team investments across operations, sales, and brand in the US.
The round comes as Ryl Tea has emerged as one of the fastest-growing brands in ready-to-drink tea, while the broader category enters what industry observers are beginning to call its “Modern Tea” moment; the next chapter of the better-for-you beverage movement that has already reshaped soda, energy, and hydration.
Over the past several years, a new generation of beverage brands have rewritten the rules of legacy beverage categories by meeting Gen-Z and Millennial consumers where their preferences have already moved: toward zero sugar, functional benefits, and culturally relevant brands. Retail data suggests that tea, one of America’s largest and most universally loved beverage categories, is having its turn now.
According to Circana, Ryl Tea grew 157 %, while the rest of the more than $4.5 billion canned and bottled tea category declined 1.8 % over the same period.1 For the first time, the absolute dollar growth of emerging tea brands is outpacing the absolute dollar decline of the legacy category. The company believes the divergence – the same inflection signal that preceded the Modern Soda and Modern Energy breakouts – signals growing consumer demand for a more modern approach to tea, particularly among younger shoppers.
The shopper opportunity is significant. Ready-to-drink tea already enjoys roughly 81 % household penetration2, but the category’s shopper base has historically skewed Gen-X and Boomer. Ryl Tea over-indexes with female Gen-Z and Millennial consumers, bringing incremental shoppers into a category that has been largely under-served by modern brands.
The funding follows a period of significant momentum for Ryl, which has spent the past 24 months establishing a national DSD footprint, placing the brand among a small group of emerging beverage companies with the route-to-market infrastructure to compete at scale. The company also recently announced a multi-year licensing partnership with The Hershey Company to launch the first zero-sugar Jolly Rancher-inspired iced tea products, pairing one of America’s most iconic flavour brands with Ryl’s modern, zero-sugar formulation.
1Source: Circana, LLC; Total US – MULO+ with Conv, Dollar Sales & Dollar Sales % Change v YA, 52 WE May 17, 2026
2Source: Data Provider, Numerator; Latest 52 Weeks Ending 03.29.2026l Category: Ready to Drink Tea
Ingredients identified by GlobalData’s AI Palette platform are already appearing in new product innovation, tempting consumers with niche flavours, health benefits, and premium offerings.
GlobalData’s AI Palette innovation and consumer insights platform has analysed the data from thousands of flavours and ingredients, pinpointing six that are set to drive new product development in the alcoholic beverages industry in 2025.
Leveraging the world’s largest consumer data lake, with a staggering 61 billion global data points collected in real-time from social media, e-commerce, and foodservice menus, the AI platform delivers powerful insights into emerging flavours and ingredients, as well as category opportunities.
Alice Popple-Connelly, Consumer Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The alcoholic drinks sector is currently navigating significant challenges, including a global trend toward reduced alcohol consumption driven by health concerns, fierce competition from alternative beverage categories, and the ongoing impact of universal tariffs on U.S. imports.
“Tempting drinkers with cutting edge innovation or core brand enhancements based upon new flavours and ingredients is essential for category growth. For example, ingredient innovation will help brewers maintain their “cross-generational appeal”, especially with Gen Z consumers, and compete with other beverage categories in key consumption occasions such as on-premise and at-home.”
GlobalData’s latest report ‘Emerging Flavours & Ingredients in Alcoholic Beverages’, uses findings from AI Palette’s Foresight Engine, to identify one standout ingredient for each of six key markets analysed, that is suitable for alcoholic beverages innovation. These include, White Pepper in India, Tahini in the UK, and Valencia Orange in the US.
Each of the six selected ingredients is classified as having “high growth” and “high engagement” based upon consumers interactions with them across social media, retail and restaurant industry sites over recent years – as measured during the review period in March 2025. The report places each ingredient into an ingredient family, provides suggestions on ingredient pairings, and reviews how brands can leverage these ingredients in alcoholic drinks and capitalise on their benefits.
The six emerging flavours and ingredients identified in the report:
Tahini
Is a creamy paste with a slightly bitter undertone made from ground sesame seeds. Common in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and North African cuisines. One promising opportunity for tahini lies in the rapidly growing UK stout segment, which is expected to achieve a 14.2 % CAGR from 2020 to 2029, according to GlobalData. Rogue Ales & Spirits has innovatively incorporated the flavours of tahini into ist 2022 Santa’s Private Reserve stout, in collaboration with Honey Mama’s.
Flavour Profile: Nutty, Woody, Bitter
Ingredient Pairings: Chocolate, Tangerine, Honey
Ingredient Benefits: Strong nutritional profile, Creates a creamy texture, Subtle neutral colouring
Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa)
Is a plant known for its red calyces, which are often used in herbal teas, health drinks, tonics, jams, jellies, yoghurt, lozenges and candies. In recent years, roselle juice has become more popular in functional drinks aimed at hydration, digestion and heart health. It is more widely consumed in the Middle East & Africa as well as the Asia & Australasian markets. In the latter, it’s ‘floral’ flavour ranks among the top five flavours within spirits, making it the highest-ranking region for this flavour in the alcoholic beverages sector, according to GlobalData’s Q1 2024 consumer survey.
Flavour Profile: Floral, Fruity, Herbal
Ingredient Pairings: Lime, Lemon, Ginger
Ingredient Benefits: Health functionality, Younger generation appeal, Attractive colour
Valencia Orange
Is a summer variety of Citrus sinensis, which includes other cultivars such as Cara Cara, blood and navel oranges. The inclusion of Valencia oranges in alcoholic beverages, is both appealing and growing in demand in the United States, where consumers express a preference for sweet flavours in wines, beer and cider.
Flavour Profile: Tangy, Sweet, Bitter
Ingredient Pairings: Cranberry, Honey, Vanilla
Ingredient Benefits: Nutritional benefits, Regional authenticity, Versatility with other flavours
Olive (Olea Europaea)
Is a small fruit native to the Mediterranean region, prized for its rich flavour and versatility. The inclusion of olives as in ingredient and flavour in alcoholic beverages is up and coming due to its unique taste profile, with South Africa emerging as a key market, reflecting growing consumer demand for natural and healthy products.
Flavour Profile: Bitter, Nutty, Earthy
Ingredient Pairings: Rosemary, Orange, Lemon
Ingredient Benefits: Unique and distinct flavour, Rich in healthy fats, Digestive health
White Pepper
Often used as a conceptual flavour descriptor rather than a physical ingredient in alcoholic beverages, white pepper is widely utilised in culinary traditions worldwide. The appeal of flavours that white pepper can facilitate in alcohol, such as spicy and woody, are appealing to consumers and demand for them is high in the MENA and Asia pacific regions.
Flavour Profile: Earthy, Fiery, Woody
Ingredient Pairings: Peach, Caramel, Agave
Ingredient Benefits: Subtle and versatile colour, Intensify other flavours, Anti-inflammatory properties
Finger Lime
Finger lime (Citrus Australasica) is a unique citrus fruit native to the rainforests of eastern Australia, known for its vibrant flavour and distinctive texture. Citrus flavours already holds a strong position in the alcoholic beverage market as an ingredient in spirits such as gin and vodka, making finger lime a promising option in high consuming spirits markets like the UK, and in Australasia where the fruit is produced.
Flavour Profile: Citrus, Floral, Bitter
Ingredient Pairings: Peach, Caramel, Agave
Ingredient Benefits: Premiumisation, Versatile flavour, Novelty
Popple-Connelly adds: “GlobalData’s AI Palette innovation and consumer insights platform provides key global insights into which ingredients and flavours are emerging in real time, serving as a powerful foundation for brand innovation. Leveraging these emerging ingredients and conceptual flavours allow alcoholic drink brands to target novel, experiential and health-conscious consumers thereby gaining a competitive edge. Each ingredient identified by the platform presents a unique opportunity for innovation across various alcoholic drink categories, empowering brands to confidently explore new possibilities.”
