As we reflect on 2025, we are celebrating more than just another successful year; we are marking 30 years of Caps & Closures in the packaging industry. From a family-founded business in 1995 to an innovation-led manufacturer with a growing global footprint, this has been a milestone year defined by award-winning products, sustainable design, and a deepening commitment to circular packaging.

At the heart of this story is our belief that plastics, when thoughtfully designed, manufactured and recovered, are an essential part of a more sustainable future. That philosophy has shaped every decision we have made in 2025, from new tethered caps that help prevent litter and increase recyclability to materials that keep valuable resources in circulation.

30 Years as a Family-Owned Innovator

What continues to set Caps & Closures apart is our status as one of Australia’s remaining family-owned packaging manufacturers. For three decades, we have combined innovation with family values such as long-term thinking, accountability and care for our people and partners.

In 2024, the next generation of the Holmes family formally stepped into key roles: Mitchell leading our international expansion from Ohio, United States, and Lachlan joining the Australian sales and operations team. Throughout 2025, their contributions have helped us deepen relationships with customers, explore new markets and embed our 30-year legacy into future-focused projects.

Our 30th year has been a moment to look back with pride and look forward with renewed responsibility, as we continue to build a business that can be handed down to future generations.

Key Milestones and Awards in 2025

EzyPour on the World Stage

WPO President Mrs. Luciana Pellegrino (left), Caps & Closures’ Managing Director Brendon Holmes (right)

EzyPour, developed with Thankyou to transform the refill experience, has had a standout year. In January 2025, the cap received two WorldStar Packaging Awards in the Health & Personal Care and Household categories, recognising its ability to combine precise, drip-controlled pouring with user-friendly ergonomics and sustainability.

That achievement was later celebrated in Milan, where Caps & Closures accepted the awards at the WorldStar ceremony held during IPACK-IMA 2025. EzyPour was recognised among the world’s best for its combination of functionality, intentional design, and its contribution to more sustainable refill systems.

TetherSafe: An Australia-First Tethered Cap

Mitchell Holmes, Lachlan Holmes, Brendon Holmes and Bruce Langlands

2025 has also been the breakout year for TetherSafe, our next-generation tethered cap. Introduced as an environmentally responsible closure that keeps the cap attached to the bottle from filling line to recycling, TetherSafe is designed to reduce cap loss, improve recyclability and support circular packaging goals.

TetherSafe was recognised as a finalist in five categories at the 2025 Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards (PIDA). The categories include Food, Beverage, Health, Beauty & Wellness, Domestic & Household, and Sustainable Packaging Design. This achievement highlights TetherSafe’s versatility across a range of product types.

It then went on to win across four PIDA categories, including a Gold Award for Sustainable Packaging (Minimise Litter), underlining its role in preventing loose caps and supporting responsible plastic use.

Beyond awards, TetherSafe has been profiled in industry media as an innovative, sustainable packaging solution that combines user-friendly functionality with emerging regulatory expectations around tethered caps.

Leading the Shift to Tethered, Circular Packaging

Globally, tethered caps are rapidly becoming the new standard. In Europe, the Single-Use Plastics Directive now requires many plastic beverage containers up to three litres to have caps that remain attached to improve recycling rates.

TetherSafe places Australian brands at the forefront of a global shift toward sustainability. By ensuring caps remain connected through their entire lifecycle, from opening to disposal, TetherSafe:

• Helps ensure that caps are recycled alongside bottles, preventing them from becoming litter.
• Maintains high performance in tamper evidence and consumer safety.
• Provides an intuitive and ergonomic experience that promotes accessibility.
• Utilises a mono-material design that facilitates straightforward recyclability.

This focus on “recycling it whole”, where the entire pack is designed to move together through the recovery system, is central to how we see the future of plastic packaging.

Expanding Our Sustainable Materials Toolbox

While TetherSafe has been the headline launch, our broader sustainability platform has continued to mature in 2025.

Black-CF

Our NIR-detectable black masterbatch continues to address a long-standing challenge in recycling black plastics. Unlike traditional carbon black pigments that confuse optical sorters, Black-CF enables black plastics to be correctly identified, sorted and recovered, supporting circular economy targets and stricter recyclability requirements.

Oysterlean

Derived from refined seashell waste, Oysterlean replaces a portion of fossil-based plastic with a renewable, stable feedstock, offering brands a way to lower the carbon footprint of their packaging while maintaining performance.

marLENE

Developed with Martogg, marLENE incorporates post-consumer recycled HDPE into new packaging, supporting national and global targets for recycled content without compromising food-contact safety.

Together with solutions such as fully recyclable closures, liner systems and 100% recyclable induction foil options, these technologies allow us to design packaging systems that start and end with sustainability in mind – from resin choice through to end-of-life recovery.

Strategic Partnerships and Global Reach

Collaboration continues to be at the core of our success.

Our ongoing partnership with Thankyou has taken EzyPour from a pioneering refill concept in Australia to an internationally recognised case study in how thoughtful cap design can support both brand purpose and consumer convenience.

We have collaborated with brand owners and packaging partners in the food, beverage, health, and wellness sectors to implement TetherSafe and our material technologies in alignment with their sustainability strategies. The successful launch of Australia’s first tethered-TE cap demonstrates what can be achieved when innovation is treated as a collaborative effort.

At the same time, our Ohio-based team has continued to build relationships in North America, taking award-winning Australian closure design to a broader global audience and reinforcing our reputation as a partner that can support multi-region growth.

Investing in People, Capacity and Reliability

Our 30th year has also been about ensuring we have the capacity and capability to support our customers for the next 30. The moulding capacity added through the commissioning of 11 new machines, planned in 2024, has begun to translate into greater flexibility, responsiveness and headroom for future growth across our cap, closure and speciality product ranges.

Behind every new product and every award is a team of designers, engineers, toolmakers, operators, quality specialists and support staff who are constantly refining processes, optimising energy use and safeguarding quality. Their creativity and persistence have enabled us to navigate rising input costs, evolving regulations, and ongoing supply chain complexity while maintaining our standards.

Looking Ahead to 2026

As we close out 2025, we are excited by what lies ahead. TetherSafe is still at the beginning of its journey, with opportunities across beverages, health and wellness, food, household and beyond as tethered solutions become more widely expected.

EzyPour’s success on the world stage reinforces our belief that user-centric design and sustainable materials can, and should, go hand in hand. And with several new innovations under development, we remain committed to pushing the boundaries of what closures and components can do for brands, consumers and the planet.

We Thank You!

To our customers, thank you for trusting us with your brands and giving us the opportunity to innovate alongside you.
To our partners, thank you for collaborating with us to deliver solutions that move the whole industry forward.
To our team, thank you for the ingenuity, care and resilience you bring to Caps & Closures every day.

Thirty years on, Caps & Closures remains more than a manufacturer. It is a family, a community and a partner in building a more sustainable, circular future for packaging. As we step into 2026, we look forward to continuing this journey with you.

Explore the innovations behind our 2025 story

Interested in the products featured in this article? Discover how our award-winning solutions can support your next project:

• EzyPour – Refill-ready precision pouring for a cleaner, easier user experience
• TetherSafe – Next-generation tethered, tamper-evident caps that stay with the bottle
• Black-CF – Non-carbon black masterbatch designed for true recyclability
• Oysterlean – Bio-renewable resin that reduces reliance on fossil-based plastics
• marLENE – Recycled HDPE that keeps valuable resources in circulation
• 100% Recyclable Induction Foil – Closures designed for complete pack recyclability

Talk to our team today about integrating these technologies into your packaging.