Welcome to the PAC Global Leadership Awards Innovation Trends update brought to you in partnership with UK packaging innovation consultancy, ThePackHub. We have hand selected five packaging innovation highlights that we think are deserving of mention and will pique your interest. Look for more of these in the coming weeks!
Beer brand Corona will become the first global player to trial six-pack rings that are 100% plastic-free. Standard plastic six-pack rings are made from a photodegradable form of PE that, if not recycled can enter our oceans and result in smaller pieces of microplastics causing damage to marine life. The new six-pack rings will be first tested in the Mexico market, with another pilot taking place in the UK. Corona’s dominant pack format is glass bottles but the inclusion of the plastic-free six-pack rings will be a welcome addition where used. The plastic-free rings are made from plant-based fibres with a mix of by-product waste. If left in the environment, they will break down into organic matter.
Personalisation has been one of the main beneficiaries of the digital print for packaging revolution with several executions that exploit the technology to deliver unique and meaningful pack executions. Coca Cola got the ball rolling with their multinational Share A Coke campaign that showed what could be done with a well-managed campaign. Unilever have also been part of the party with personalised campaigns for Marmite as well as Vaseline. The multinational consumer goods company has again worked with UK leading personalised gifting and fulfilment company Intervino with an introduction of personalised Dove Body Cream for the Christmas gifting season. Shoppers can go online and choose a name to go on 75ml jars.
Parkside Flexibles has been on the compostable packaging development trail yet again with the introduction of a new offering for the Alara organic muesli brand. They have developed a sustainable liner for the brand’s muesli carton boxes. A high barrier paper laminate will replace Alara’s existing oil based PET/PE inner liner. The cellulose film is made using bio-based materials and is suitable for both home and industrial composting as well as being 100% recyclable. It can be composted at home as well as collected at kerbside as part of household food waste. Parkside’s compostable laminates have the same durability and impermeability just like conventional plastic packaging. It is available in several options including white, matte, clear, metallised and kraft. Alara is sold in the UK in Ocado, Wholefoods Markets and Sainsbury’s.
Technology and sustainability combine to great effect to deliver a reusable cup for the ubiquitous Costa coffee chain. The Clever Cup solution has come to market thanks to cup material recycling from Burneside, Cumbria paper business James Cropper. The reusable coffee cup is the first to offer contactless payment, which will speed up transaction times as well as further encourage the use of reusable cups. James Cropper’s CupCycling facility is the world’s first ever facility dedicated to transforming cups into luxury papers and sustainable packaging. Each cup is protected in cardboard that contains waste fibre from one takeaway coffee cup.
Sydney based Rawson Print Co has made possible a new personalised pack range for confectionery brand Cadbury. The introduction of digital print technology in recent years has given creative minds the opportunity to engage with shoppers and consumers. Many of the executions tend to focus on the printing of a name on a pack to deliver a personalised experience. The initiative from Rawson will be available in Kmart retail outlets in 200 Kmart stores around Australia. Shoppers will be able to have their names (or those of loved ones) printed on 550g gift packs of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk. Customers can purchase the blank gift boxes in Kmart and use Rawson supplied Afinia desktop digital label printers. Store staff print the labels with names of up to nine characters. Kmart anticipates ‘hundreds of thousands’ of sales from the Christmas-based promotion.
These innovations are a selection of the 2,900 articles uploaded to ThePackHub’s Innovation Zone database. If you’d like to know more please let us know. Until next time.