New Zealand owned aluminium can maker Recorp has expanded into Australia, offering beverage brands access to a range of standard and speciality can formats manufactured at its South Auckland facility.

Positioning itself as a flexible supply partner, Recorp is targeting the Australian market with lower minimum order quantities, shorter lead times and high recycled content aluminium as its primary points of difference.

The supplier will serve Australian customers directly from its 16,000 square metre plant in Manukau, South Auckland. Opened in November 2024 following a 115 million New Zealand dollar investment, the site has an annual capacity of approximately 550 million units.

The production line operates at speeds up to 1,850 cans per minute, utilising eight bodymakers and dual decorators engineered for rapid changeovers between can heights and diameters. For Australian beverage companies, the product portfolio includes 250ml Slim, 330ml Sleek, and Classic formats in 330ml, 375ml, 440ml and 500ml volumes, with Classic options available in 200 or 202 end sizes. This setup aims to support boutique drink producers, craft brewers, and major brands running limited product trials without high upfront inventory costs.

Alongside its entry into Australia, Recorp is promoting ReCan85, an aluminium beverage can containing 85% recycled content, significantly higher than the international industry average of 60 to 65%.

The format incorporates post consumer recycled aluminium recovered from used beverage cans. Under Recorp’s current loop, collected used cans are processed offshore before the remelted aluminium sheet is returned to its Auckland facility for body making. Recorp enters an increasingly competitive Australian market where domestic packaging giants are also pushing recycled content thresholds, such as Visy, which launched an 18 month trial at its Yatala plant in Queensland for cans made with 83% recycled content.

Founded by former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe alongside private investors, Recorp is led by CEO Bruce Parton. The company’s long term commercial goal is to convert single serve beverage packaging market share from glass and plastic over to infinitely recyclable aluminium. While marketed as an Australian expansion, Recorp has not announced plans for a domestic Australian can making plant, operating instead as a cross Tasman exporter from its New Zealand manufacturing base.