Masterbatch

What is Masterbatch?

Masterbatch is a concentrated mixture of pigments, chemicals and /or additives encapsulated within a carrier resin, designed for use in plastic manufacturing. It provides a convenient and efficient way to impart colour or enhance the properties of plastic products. By incorporating masterbatch in their extrusion process, plastic manufacturers can achieve consistent colour quality and add functional attributes such as UV resistance, flame retardancy, or improved strength. This process not only simplifies production but also ensures uniformity and as a result reduces the likelihood of defects during the production run. Masterbatch is extensively utilized across various industries, including packaging, consumer goods, textiles, medical and agricultural.

Key Applications

SAPY specialises in premium-grade white, colour, black and additive masterbatches for a variety of plastic applications including sheet/film extrusion, blow moulding, injection moulding, tape extrusion (raffia), coating, multifilament spinning, spun bond and other non-wovens.

Food Grade

It is the primary concern of SAPY that all masterbatch suitable for use in plastic food packaging (indirect contact with food) is manufactured, handled and packaged in its Colour Department to the very highest standards to ensure product integrity and quality. In order to achieve this, SAPY is committed to the development, establishment, implementation, maintenance and continual improvement of an effective Food Safety Management System that shall be appropriate to the role of SAPY as a raw material supplier to the plastic food-packaging industry.


Following extensive recapitalization and expansion of its masterbatch manufacturing plant, in 2017 SAPY embarked on a comprehensive, and occasionally challenging exercise, to certify its systems against ISO 22000:2005 Food Safety Management Systems standard. This was in addition to ISO 9001:2008, already in place since 2012, and since updated to ISO 9001:2015. This FSMS certification was achieved by SAPY in 2018, making SAPY one of the only two masterbatch manufacturers in South Africa to achieve this high global standard at that time. SAPY’s systems have since been certified against the current standard ISO 22000:2018, as an ongoing demonstration of good manufacturing practices and continuous improvement.