Sheetplant

Neil Osment on Retail Ready Packaging

After 23 years working for Linpac, Thames Case and SCA, Neil Osment now runs his own consultancy business, helping small and medium sized businesses with strategy and personal development and then assisting them with practical actions to boost their business performance. Neil spends half of his time working with SWMAS (South-West Manufacturing Advisory Service) delivering their Strategic Management Programme. For the remainder of the time he operates as a non-executive director for several SMEs.

On the second day of the conference, Neil picked up the theme of Retail Ready Packaging, beginning by pointing out that SRP/RRP packaging now accounted for 41% of the corrugated market.

The average shopper now spends less time in-store, but shops more frequently. People expect more choice, which has resulted in the proliferation of SKU’s (stock keeping units), with up to 30.000 SKU’s per store now being commonplace. There is therefore less time for an individual item to register in the consciousness, which explains the motivation behind the collaboration in recent years between the major retailers and their suppliers. It also accounts for the advent of new ways of attempting to attract the attention of the shopper, such as BOGOF promotions, digital TV screens, trolley adverts, eye-catching displays, and even adverts projected onto the floor of the store.

Increasingly, brand owners are expected to provide expensive in-store merchandising units and displays, and there is pressure on packaging suppliers to provide tape systems and 1 and 2-piece die-cut systems. The trend is towards easy to open, smaller, dual purpose packs with more use of white liners and more colour/varnish. There is also increased demand for microflute and for various types of tape applications.

The demand for variety gives opportunities for smaller suppliers of, for example specialist food products, which in turn fuels the demand for innovative, eye-catching methods of packaging - the ideal climate for the entrepreneurial packaging supplier to thrive.

The role of taping systems in RRP

Bryan Allen of Sigma Squared Solutions explained that the advent of RRP has brought with it the demand for easier, cleaner opening of shelf-ready packs. Conventional systems leave evidence of fibre tear that is unsightly and destructive to print finishes. The Wellpack taping system addresses these problems by scoring the board on the display side, giving a cleaner finish to the visible edges after ripping.

There is more to the Wellpack portfolio, with a range of taping systems available for applications such as packs designed for the delivery of goods ordered on line. Sealing systems are readily available, as are combination tapes offering the ability to re-seal the pack for the return of unwanted goods. Reinforcing tapes can be applied in hand-hold applications, and there are interesting developments in RFID tagging applied via a tape based carrier.