Chakravarthi AVPS highlights consumer trends in packaging industry
Chakravarthi, chief executive officer and managing director, Ecobliss India, says, packaging is growing. And in emerging markets like India the growth is double or more than the national GDP.
25 Dec 2012 | 2960 Views | By Rushikesh Aravkar
Today, packaging aims to perform in all three dimensions of sustainability: people (social), profit (economy) and planet (environment).
The primary objective of packaging is protecting the product. Apart from this basic function, a good package should be cost-efficient, provide value to generate revenue, should be user-friendly in terms of handling, enlightening the user about the product. Paper and paperboard-based packaging fulfills all this checklist. And can form a good package.
Packaging innovations
Product packaging is considered as the silent salesman. An innovative package has an ability to attract the attention of a customer and boost product sales. This is complemented by the packaging material which provides a tactile experience to the customer.
Paperboard packaging provides opportunities for new designs, shapes, surfaces and finishes and at the same time it offers brand owners the flexibility to design packaging that will entice consumers to select the product.
How to cash in
Creation of wealth is a top priority in any industry. Besides adding value to a product and preserving the quality, packaging serves the need to create and preserve the wealth created by other industries.
Products such as water, milk, biscuits, medicines, processed and semi-processed foods, fruits and vegetables, edible oils, electronic goods, machinery etc demand packaging to increase their shelf-life and ensure usability till they reach the end-user.
With the “on-the-move” lifestyle which is being adapted, the key in packaging is to promote the demand for freshly packaged goods.
Convertors should be ready to cater to e-market packaging with active and intelligent features embedded in them. Packaging development tailored to meet the needs of online retailing is essential.
Considering the consumption pattern, combination and hybrid packs provide an attractive as well as an economical proposition. This is an evolving market especially in the cosmetics segment.
In addition, food industry will be the major contributor with aseptic and micro ovenable packs on the raise. The necessity of having folding cartons in food packaging with special packaging needed for baked products, dairy, ready meals, frozen food, and dry food is increasing day by day.
Labels - 15% growth
In the label industry, solvent free silicone release coatings triggered growth of paper labels. Today the label industry is growing more than 15% per annum. The self-adhesive paper label stock provide the perfect ground for innovative designs as well as for elaborate and sophisticated print techniques such as embossing, hot-foil blocking, silk-screening and varnishing. Across the range, the result is cleaner, precise and upmarket quality.
Blister packaging
In case of high visible blister packaging, the usage of plastic is always more than 90%. But with increasing demand to attract customers at the shelf, the importance of suitable graphics and product presentation is on rise. Therefore the use of paperboard has increased – be it a face seal blister card or a fold-over blister card pack.
Cold seal blister products are used in segments like pharmaceutical, electrical electronics, automobile, FMCG, food and agriculture, textiles and apparels, cosmetics and healthcare and so on.
Ecobliss, the blister pack manufacturing company, has expanded the product range of blister types like heat seal blister products, tear resistant blister cards, Ecostrong tamper proof blister products and other high visibility packaging.
Green message
Paperboard is the only 'cradle to cradle' packaging material. It's a myth, that paper companies are creating ecological imbalance. Paper is actually one of the most sustainable products on the planet.
Virgin grades of paperboard are made from a renewable resource—trees. But many other materials deplete their resource every year. In reality the industry grows more than three times as many trees than it harvests. The challenge for the paperboard based packaging industry is to highlight to consumers that trees are a renewable crop, like corn or potatoes, and they are not causing great damage to the ecological balance of the globe.
Paper is a completely renewable resource. If you really care about the environment, save energy by turning off your computer tonight. Or notusing your computer every time you are not working.
We must be proud to declare ourselves as print and paper technologists.