Who’s the emboss?

Embossing has long been considered a luxury option, but it is also a differentiator of price and a sustainable option. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to embossing experts to find out more about this technique that is becoming increasingly popular.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of receiving a heavyweight embossed invitation, you’ll know the sensory joy that the raised and often gilded technique brings. Brands know that customers like to feel special, so production techniques such as embossing are a welcome way to add value to a product that needs to stand out on crowded shelves.

What about the cost though? Is it feasible to add a stamping process when packaging prices are already squeezed? How else can you get luxury without the price tag?

The Federation of European Screen Printers Associations (FESPA) comprises 37 associations that represent the screen printing, digital printing and textile printing community. Founded in 1962, FESPA organises a large number of international trade fairs, exhibitions and conferences for the expansion and promotion of the global print industry. FESPA UK represents members with a market worth more than £2 billion.

Peter Kiddell, director of FESPA UK, says: “We represent producers of printed products – used in point-of-sale media, industrial applications, garments and textiles, and short-run packaging – and companies that supply products and services to imaging specialists. Some of our members use embossing, and we’ve seen some amazing designs on a variety of substrates. FESPA UK is all about people and developing relationships between them and the companies they work for: we make connections, we work together and we help each other.”

Affordable luxury

Elliott Packaging, a trusted and respected packaging supplier, is a member of FESPA UK. It has been developing and manufacturing a wide range of high-quality carrier bags, paper bags and coated bags for more than 20 years. Hannah Nancollas, sales manager, says: “Our reputation has been built on highly competitive prices, quick lead times and excellent customer care. We are always available to give advice on printing techniques for our wide range of bags, including matt-laminated bags with traditional string handles and laminated carrier bags. We offer embossing but we have found that we are not producing them very often. These are super luxury and our prices are not as competitive as volume manufacturers in Turkey or China, so we are finding that clients will import these sorts of things.”

A “super luxury” image works in a brand’s favour when it offers embossed packaging, whether it is for a product’s own packaging – such as embossed labels on glass jars – or the outer product packaging – such as laminated paper bags or boxes.

Beauty brand Elemis has chosen embossing for its product labels and packaging to support and promote its position as a leading luxury British spa and skincare brand used by over 6.5 million people each year. Keen to ensure its customers feel as special when they buy an Elemis product as they do when they use it, the company is dedicated to creating packaging that represents the brand’s dedication to luxury as well as its relationship between natural ingredients and scientific advances.

In practice, this means that the Elemis packaging is environmentally responsible and desirable for consumers that love beauty products. Working with packaging manufacturing partner Maxipos, Nicola Ghent, marketing manager at Elemis, says that the most important factors in choosing who to work with is “reliability, innovation and quality”. Maxipos, a brand-focused manufacturer of packaging, marketing and point-of-sale goods for the beauty industry, achieved all three, with the company making more than 100,000 printed cartons for Elemis, many of which featured the brand’s famous silver embossing.

“Maxipos provided a highly competitive solution for our packaging requirements, but also what made them stand out from other suppliers was their service,” Ghent says. “We often have short lead times so we rely on our suppliers to be able to react quickly and make sure our delivery dates are not missed. We know what we want, as the Elemis packaging is a big part of the whole experience for our customers, so working with a trusted supplier is imperative. Their quality control needs to be totally reliable.”

Texture trends

Danish company Dreyer Kliche is known in Europe as being an innovative die supplier that provides a wide range of solutions for labels and packaging. Its portfolio includes high-quality foiling and embossing dies, for which the company has a strong reputation.

Conni Dreyer, CEO and daughter of company founder Jorgen Dreyer, says: “All the multilevel embossing dies from Dreyer Kliche are produced using state-of-the-art CNC technology. Our teams are highly experienced in producing multilevel embossing dies and we can always meet our customers’ exact specifications. We are noticing that customers are requesting more texture, so instead of going with something that is already embossed or traditionally embossed, they want to make a picture themselves and combine it with the embossing on their packaging.

“It’s all about making packaging unique, making a brand stand out, offering something that’s eye-catching and exclusive to their brand. Embossing can really do that when you think outside the box. We do the tooling, and then we help with the design if required. We’re finding that customers want lots of creative input to really make sure their idea stands out, even when they have strong ideas of what they want.

“We also love to show customers what it is possible to achieve with embossing. They’re usually impressed with the potential and how it can help to represent their product.”

Keen to be green

Paperfoam in the Netherlands offers an affordable embossing option without the restrictive price tag. The packaging company has come up with an exciting new way to emboss its bio-based material, making it green and luxury – a combination not easily found. The company uses its patented injection-moulding technology on eco-friendly, low-carbon, recyclable and home-compostable packaging material that is made from renewable and locally sourced starch and fibre.

Paperfoam’s latest brand is RedFrog, which is marketed as offering “the most sustainable, eye-catching egg cartons on the market”. Specifically made for the protection of eggs, this biodegradable, ultra-lightweight packaging can be embossed to deliver a product with unique shelf appeal. Mark Geerts, CEO, says: “Paperfoam is made of starch and fibres and produced using an injection-moulding process. What we’ve created with RedFrog is a smart way to emboss the egg cartons without a great deal of extra expense: it’s just an insert into the mould. What’s really cool is that you can easily change the embossed text by just changing the insert, so it’s really simple to change the embossed message for promotions or different branding.

“You can even make the embossing a different colour to the rest of the product. It’s the same tray, the same mould and the same production process, yet you can get different text, colours and branding.”

Geerts says that embossing has long been viewed as a luxury and as an expensive addition to packaging, but it is enjoying a revival due to innovative techniques offered by RedFrog. “Embossing doesn’t just have to be the cherry on the top. It can be used for technical information, as we do for a huge multinational electrical company’s modem packaging. Customers really respond to it because it’s integrated into the packaging and it makes for really easy recycling. There’s no separate label with the technical info, for example, so the consumer doesn’t have to sort it before recycling – and they usually don’t anyway. It’s all the same material, which is totally compostable, even if it’s put in landfill. There are environmental benefits, technical benefits and financial benefits. What’s not to like?”

With embossing already enjoying a positive reputation for luxury, finding new ways to emboss without unnecessary cost will mean more customers and better looking products and packaging.