Corrugated rising to the challenge of an evolving retail sector

At the recent industry summit organised by The European Federation of Corrugated Board Manufacturers (FEFCO), speakers from the food and retail sectors, which included Nestlé's European procurement manager Alison Coudene, and Paul Earnshaw, Tesco's packaging manager, echoed the importance of corrugated partners working with them to understand their future needs in an evolving retail world.

The corrugated industry is also embracing new trends such as customisation that bring an extra marketing dimension to packaging - print-on-demand is offering retailers and brand-owners cost-effective, personalised promotional campaigns to boost sales.
Eye-catching, innovative shelf ready packaging (SRP) is already being developed that not only enhances visibility on shelf, but provides in-store logistics benefits as well. A collaboration between two corrugated companies resulted in new-style SRP as part of a successful rebranding exercise by Taylors of Harrogate for its lifestyle range of coffees.

Taylors' packaging buyer Matt Hunt says that because each variant of corrugated SRP carries two or three additional colours for the text and graphics, the product's easily identifiable outer packaging is having a direct benefit by making them easier to identify and handle back of store, long before it comes under consumer scrutiny.

Another corrugated technology beneficiary is MillerCoors, which has a novel pack design made from corrugated board incorporating a water-resistant inner lining. This enables a corrugated board take-home pack for bottled beers to become an attractive coolbox when the consumer adds ice or water.

Corrugated innovation is not just confined to transit and display packaging for goods. Other inventive uses of this flexible and recyclable material include an affordable virtual reality headset made solely of board and created by Google, a cathedral built of corrugated in Christchurch, New Zealand, refoldable furniture, and eco-cradles for sleeping babies.

It is this inherent versatility that is enhancing corrugated's popularity among shoppers, as a recent YouGov poll* commissioned by CPI demonstrated - 57% of consumers saying they preferred their grocery and food packaging in paper-based material.

CPI's director of packaging affairs, Andy Barnetson, believes that corrugated is helping bring exciting and diverse products to market in a variety of ways that will help maintain its position as the number one packaging material.

He comments: "UK corrugated packaging companies need to keep pace with a challenging retail landscape and are investing significantly in equipment to meet demand for innovation. Whether in transit, back of store or on-shelf, the versatility of corrugated is helping brand-owners' goods stand out and enticing customers to buy their products."

The Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI) is the leading trade association representing the UK's Paper-based Industries, comprising recovered paper merchants, paper and board manufacturers and converters, corrugated packaging producers, and makers of soft tissue papers. The organisation represents an industry with an aggregate annual turnover of £6.5 billion, 25,000 direct and more than 100,000 indirect employees.

www.paper.org.uk

*Poll taken by YouGov on 28th-29th May 2014. Total sample size was 2,289 adults - the survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all GB adults (aged 18+).