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Should packaging machinery manufacturers and suppliers take more interest in consumer trends?

Thought you might be interested to see what I opened the PPMA show debate with yesterday. Panellists were from Enercon, Pago and Heinz, and we had a lively debate for an hour about the difficulties faced by machinery suppliers, especially ones manufacturing components or elements  rather than complete lines, in developing relationships with brand owners and bringing their consumer innovations and ideas through. Interested in your insights (Martin)

Welcome to this debate, conducted on behalf of The Packaging Society, the UK’s leading organization for packaging professionals. My name is Martin Hardwidge and I run MHA Marketing Communications, a marketing agency focused on the Packaging Industry, and I have been for three years the Chairman of the East Midlands Packaging Society, stepping down this Spring. The question at hand is:

Do machine designers take into account consumer insight based flexibility for development and growth? It has always been perceived wisdom that the ‘customer always knows best’, yet this has often led to machinery being specified that is un-adaptable and unable to accommodate the market trends. Should manufacturers take more interest in the markets and provide technical solutions that adapt quickly to changing needs or should they just do what the client says?

Brands. Hugely important to those who own them, compete with them and supply them. Marketers talk about the value of the brand, quite separately to the value of the physical assets of the Company:

In the UK, Coca-Cola broke through the billion pound turnover barrier in 2010, the first grocery brand to do so, but that’s just sales figures, some have estimated the Brand Equity value of Coca-Cola, for example, to be between $39 and $67 billion, which represents the extra that the consumer will pay for the brand compared to its rivals.

Mega-millions of pounds are spent in the development and reinforcement of the brand equity to encourage consumer purchase. In the store, however, the prime communicator of the brand, the key motivator to purchase at that point, is the packaging. Faced with the sea of colour on the retailer’s shelf, the packaging, we know, has to translate the values of the brand into a proposition that the consumer will want to pick up and purchase. Some of that packaging is iconic in its own right. The jar of Marmite, the Coca-cola bottle, dare I say it, the tin of Heinz beans.

If this debate was taking place with a group of packaging materials manufacturers or converters, then there would be no question. Packaging manufacturers are looking to introduce innovation and add value, and  they are continually looking for new ways to present a variation on their product theme. The brand owners are for their part continually looking for opportunities that will develop their brand, add value and increase their market share.

This of course presents issues further up the line. How much of this ambition for a brand comes through to the machinery manufacturer, how much of what a machinery manufacturer can do gets through to the brand owner? How realistic is it to look to the possible future development of a brand, a future that is inevitably uncertain beyond a relatively short timespan, when specifying or supplying machinery? Yet, we also know that there would be no brand packaging without the machine to do it. There would be no Muller Fruit Corner without the unique machinery idea to create the pack that built the brand, for example.

Should machinery manufacturers take more of a lead when machines are being specified? Is it time to build more flexible, adaptable machinery to reflect consumer demand? In the UK, we are aware that the manufacturing base is reducing. Does that mean that UK brands will be driven by overseas capabilities? Is future-proofing and flexibility, in machinery terms, realistic when economic forces are driving costs down and every sale is made against fierce competition? What should machinery manufacturers offer, both in equipment and approach and is there a role for The Packaging Society in this?

This is interesting: DuPont make great products, everyone in the industry knows that. There is a premium to pay for purchasing premium products, we all know that too. How much of a premium is too much, there’s the question. It’s all about brand equity and all that jazz. Or is it? DuPont have come up with a calculator that tries to tell you whether its worth buying their products or not. I wonder how their sales people feel about that?! (Martin)

DuPont Packaging has launched the first in a series of online modeling tools based on its extensive suite of predictive models. The new online tool enables brand owners and packaging converters to evaluate the total cost of flexible packaging that relies on sealing solutions to help protect the contents.

DuPont™ SaVE (Sealant Value Estimator) calculates the total value in use of sealant alternatives, taking into consideration gains from productivity and losses due to inefficiencies and waste from packaging failures that result from ineffective sealants. The new modeling tool was launched at PACK EXPO, Sept. 26-28, 2011, in Las Vegas, Nev., and is available online at sealant-value-estimator.dupont.com.

Read more: DuPont Packaging Asks: ‘Are You Paying Too Much for Your Packaging?’ – Press Release – Digital Journal.

Actually, the amazing statistic in this report is that Amcor now account for nearly a quarter of all flexible packaging sales in Europe, with the rest nowhere, really. And 5.5 BILLION square metres of converted film goes on confectionery – that’s a hell of a lot of kit-kats! (kit-kats are named after a size of oil painting popular in the 17th century, you know) Martin

The flexible packaging market is on the up with the converted materials sector recovering strongly in value terms in 2010, according to a report.

via Flexibles sector enjoying a strong recovery, report claims.

If you want to look at the page on PCI’s website for the report itself, it’s here:

http://www.pcifilms.com/main.asp?selection=Market%20Studies&subsel=Flexible%20Packaging%20Market%20Reports&marker=53

Good man!

The London 2012 Olympic Games will be a great opportunity to communicate and educate the consumer about the importance of recycling packaging, according to Closed Loop Recycling managing director Chris Dow.

via Dow: London 2012 will be a positive recycling story.

I picked this up from Food and Drink Technology mag. Scientists have discovered a natural preservative that they say is capable of destroying bacteria, including E.coli and listeria, and could spell the end for rotting food.There would also be no need to refrigerate produce treated with the preservative, called bisin. This isn’t directly a packaging story, but if it comes to fruition will have a massive effect on the industry. Imagine – no need for barrier packaging, no need to refrigerate. The only packaging needed will be to stop the product getting dirty or contaminated. This has huge implications for the food industry, and for packaging. Wine will stay fresh long after it’s opened (what, more than the hour it takes for me to drink it?), ready meals long after a normal sell-by date, dairy products etc.

My immediate reaction is that the real impact will be in developing countries, where so much food goes to waste before it can be consumed.

Hope this is all true – the researchers at the University of Minnesota say that products containing bisin could be on shelf within three years. They say that there is no impairment of quality, as they are just adding in a natural ingredient. I shall be watching this one with great interest. (Martin)

Envicura, the environmental consultancy from PCI, has released an authoritative report, Flexible Packaging In The UK Municipal Waste Stream 2011, that details the place of flexible packaging within municipal waste in the UK, provides detail of the ways in which all kinds of packaging are treated and and compares the way that the UK handles packaging waste with the rest of Europe. It explores flexible packaging materials and their life cycle in procurement, production, waste collection and treatment, and will support materials planning and decision making throughout the flexible packaging chain; forming an important resource for flexible packaging manufacturers and converters, packer/fillers and waste management companies.

The 170-page report provides a valuable set of benchmarks, the ‘Five Cornerstones’ for considerations of sustainability and biodiversity in the context of flexible packaging, and also provides a good overview of the European and UK laws and directives that have led to the UK’s current regulatory standards. Envicura also explores the variations in household waste collection that leads to adjacent Council areas requiring segregation of waste into anything from three up to six separate receptacles.

The study also reveals that the key driver behind the UK’s improved recycling rates is export, with 37% of packaging waste volume now being sent to countries such as India and China. Plastic bags account for around 90% of flexible waste recycling, with 95% of that going abroad.

A thorough exploration of the collection and treatment of both pre- and post-consumer waste explains how flexible packaging waste compares to other types of packaging waste and municipal waste treatment in general, provides an insight into the challenges and opportunities in flexible waste management and makes predictions about both future volumes and waste management strategies. A detailed explanation of the principles and processes involved in all the major methods of packaging waste treatment is developed into predictions of the future profile of UK waste management facilities.

Packaging is accountable for around 20% of municipal waste, and with flexible packaging making up approximately 13% of packaging waste, flexible packaging is about 3% of total municipal waste. A small fraction of the total that draws a disproportionate amount of criticism on environmental grounds because it is difficult or impossible to recycle. The report reveals that over 80% of flexible packaging waste currently goes to landfill.

Commenting on the report, author Steve Hillam says:

‘Despite the small proportion of the municipal waste stream accounted for by flexible packaging, so much of it is landfilled that it demonstrates a real need for new materials and new waste management methods’

Particularly important for flexible packaging film producers, converters and users and those involved in the handling of post consumer waste – food manufacturers, retailers, waste management companies and local authorities, the report is available from Envicura or PCI Films Consulting in Northamptonshire. More information is available from their website www.envicura.com or www.pcifilms.com.

David Wilson of The Engineer with a bit of an insight into the chemicals in tap water and why he won’t be giving up on the bottled version. For what its worth, I have always stuck with tap water even though the water here tastes pretty vile at times, though I may be revisiting that theory after seeing that some of the samples were taken about fifteen miles from my home…(Martin)

The tap water where I live tastes horrid. While it might be good for washing clothes and watering the garden, drinking it is not an option — at least not one that I would consider. So each time I visit the local Stop and Save, I pick up one or two large plastic containers containing five litres of spring water from Scotland.I realise, of course, that purchasing bottled water from a store is possibly one of the most environmentally unfriendly things that any consumer could do. Aside from the energy required to manufacture the containers themselves, there’s the added cost of bottling and transporting the water all the way from Scotland to my local store. Not to mention the cost of recycling the plastic once the water has been consumed.

via Still on the bottle | Opinion | The Engineer.

Europe produced/consumed 3.4 million tonnes of plastic bags in 2008, the last year full figures are available, which boils down to some 500 bags per person. Someone’s using mine then, because that would mean that my family was using 40 or 50 a week, which is patently nonsense. The argument has finally moved away from worrying about whether the plastic bags are environmentally unfriendly in Carbon terms (they aren’t, given that you have to get your shopping home somehow!), and now it’s all about marine pollution.

Nobody is in favour of pollution in the form of litter, but this is becoming a sacred cow for the green movement. We already know that a reusable jute bag needs to be used over 130 times before it is more ‘friendly’ than 130 single use plastic bags. The single use plastic bag is light, strong and hygienic, not to mention very, very cheap. It has been a brilliant packaging innovation, and it would be a great shame if it were sacrificed for the vast majority of (inland) Europeans because people around the Med are thoughtless and the various national authorities can’t get their collective waste disposal acts together (Martin).

Not sure I agree with the toothbrush heads one (follow the link). Who wants toothbrushes packaged in anything that might not be hygienic? And I don’t see why an individually wrapped prune is any worse or better than an individually wrapped sweet, but hey ho, people do love their publicity! (Martin)

An American company which individually wrapped its prunes has beaten 100 others to earn the dubious title of worst packaging on New Zealand shelves.The Unpackit Packaging Awards received 9000 public votes on products which had non-recyclable, poorly labelled or frustratingly fiddly packaging.Sunsweet Ones, imported from the United States, claimed the award because of its non-recyclable wrappers for each piece of fruit, with further layers of non-labelled or non-recycled plastic.

via Prunes win NZ’s worst packaging title – Business – NZ Herald News.

Follow the link below for a piece in Packaging News by the wonderful Jane Bickerstaffe, talking pure sense as usual. People simply don’t appreciate the important role packaging plays, and don’t have the figures to put it all into a context (Martin)

Heating our homes uses nine times more carbon than packaging. But, asks Incpen director Jane Bickerstaffe, does the public understand that?It comes as no surprise to Incpen that, according to a new study, most people don’t understand the climate change impacts of their own behaviour and lifestyle.How could they when, instead of setting out the real issues,  politicians and the media constantly tell them that carrier bags and packaging are bad for the environment, and recycling is really important for saving the world?

via Jane Bickerstaffe: Is the public ‘carbon capable’?.