Packs and Closures

It is rare nowadays to reach for your favourite packet of biscuits on a supermarket shelf only to find an empty corrugated box. Over the past few years, retail-ready packaging (RRP) has revolutionised the way stores are stocked and goods displayed.

However, consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of adding more packaging to the shop floor and retailers are beginning to recognise this; current signatories to the Courtauld Commitment, which aims for an “absolute packaging reduction” by 2010, represent 92% of the UK grocery market.

 The introduction of the two-deep shelving system, where shelves are always stocked with at least one RRP case at any time, has had a major impact, according to DS Smith design solutions manager Peter Redfearn. “Generally the packs are getting smaller because of infrastructure issues,” he says.

Redfearn explains that prior to the two-deep shelving system, shelves were stocked and restocked with a single case, each filling approximately 75% of the depth of the shelf. Following the change to the half-shelf system, retailers now require fewer products per RRP case so that two cases can be placed on a shelf at one time.

Consequently the amount of material being used for RRP has increased. There are even examples of high-quality, colour-printed corrugated transit packs being wasted as products are repacked into the smaller formats now required by the stores.

Retailer requirements
The problem stems from the supermarkets’ reluctance to commit to a standard requirement for RRP. Guidelines outlining a general set of standards for RRP have been laid out by Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) to help the industry, but varying shelf sizes and changing retailer demands mean transit packs sometimes have to be repacked.

This is making major manufacturing companies hesitant to change their transit pack production lines in case the supermarkets change their requirements again. As a result, contract packers are being called upon to repack primary packs from their existing transit packs into smaller collations or product counts of retail-ready packs.

“As RRP grows it’s starting to change the investment plans of pack fillers,” explains Redfearn. “I do see that as an interim short-term scenario, and by short-term, it could be two to three years. It depends where they are in their investment plan.”

Steve Whitehouse, commercial director of Bradford-based contract packer Mailway, agrees that the problem stems from the retailers’ failure to standardise their requirements. “I think what’s happening at the moment is the supermarkets won’t standardise because they are competing businesses, and that’s the problem.

“The manufacturers will always try to meet their requirements as closely and as quickly as possible and I know that the retailers won’t commit to staying in one format for the next 10 years,” he says.

Here to stay
RRP now accounts for as much as 15% of Mailway’s business. But Whitehouse says it is difficult to predict where RRP is heading in the future.

In line with the current climate for packaging reduction, many manufacturers are trying to simplify the process, but ultimately they will have to acquiesce to the demands of the retailers.

ECR recognises the need to tackle the environmental issues surrounding RRP and has set up a working group in response to the increasing media attention on packaging waste. Matthew Bartram, supply chain manager at Mars, and Asda’s RRP development manager, Brian Gibbs, will co-chair the group, which aims to create a set of environmental guidelines to complement the existing ECR blue book on RRP.

“We felt there was a need to bring some expertise together and provide some guidance for the whole industry,” explains Bartram. The group hopes to raise awareness of the excellent facilities supermarkets already have in place to recycle corrugated board. In addition, it plans to map out the total waste stream in the supply chain, from manufacturer to retailer, to gauge where waste is generated.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap) also has plans for a programme addressing RRP, an area it has yet to investigate.

However, reducing the amount of material used in RRP may be easier said than done when the underlying dichotomy of the packs themselves is considered. The supermarkets, led by Tesco, have championed the use of RRP as part of the efficient running of stores and the supply chain. But there is also a point-of-sale promotional advantage offered by well-designed RRP.

Originally just a transit pack that could take a product right onto the shelves, marketers now recognise the importance of the appearance of RRP. As Redfearn explains: “I think initially functionality was the main reason to use RRP. However, you can have the most functional RRP, but if it doesn’t mimic or reflect the primary pack, it’s failing in its duty,” he says.

Alternatives to RRP are also under development and they could show where the true value of RRP lies: as a labour saver in the supply chain or as an on-shelf promotional tool. Paper manufacturer Stora Enso is about to mix things up with the launch of its Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) adhesives technology (see below). CDM holds products together using epoxy glue that loses its adhesive properties when an electric current is passed through it. The company has received significant interest in the technology from those within the RRP market.

Stora Enso uses a drinks can example to illustrate the effectiveness of this system: 24 cans could be stuck together for transit without any extra material. Lars Sandberg, packaging design manager at Stora Enso, argues that existing RRP uses lots of packaging, which can hide the product, whereas this technology allows the entire can to be on display. “From a display point of view it’s important to take all the packaging away,” he argues.

“It’s absolutely possible to build display products, but what we think is important is to reduce the amount of packaging on the shelf.”

Automatic opening
Stora Enso is also developing a RRP case that automatically separates when the case is put onto the supermarket shelf. “Just put the case on the shelf and that will trigger the pack to release,” says Sandberg. “You don’t even have to press a button.”

CDM works best with strong, rigid packs rather than flexible packaging which doesn’t have a defined shape. The lack of bulky secondary packaging also has benefits when transporting the products. But it is “never going to be big wins,” explains Sandberg, who adds that 6-10% of a typical delivery lorry’s load consists of outer packaging.

RRP looks like it’s here to stay. Tesco aims to increase the amount of products it stocks in RRP from the current 58%. And where Tesco leads, others are likely to follow. What form these new packs will take remains to be seen, even more so now that new technologies like CDM are in development; the promotional emphasis for on-shelf display could shift back to the primary pack.

However, corrugated is still set to figure highly in the RRP story, according to Paul Gavin, Smurfit Kappa’s UK sales and marketing director, who argues that the industry has always had to minimise material to keep costs down and remain competitive. “I believe that the amount of packaging used has already reduced in recent years due to the improvement in liner performance and design,” he says.
“As the environmental ‘green rush’ continues, I believe that the general public will understand more about the recyclable qualities of paper and board and see the value of a recycled and recyclable secondary pack that is used to protect lighter-weight primary packs.”

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CDM EXPLAINED
Controlled Delamination Material (CDM) at its simplest form works like a normal glue. An epoxy glue holds togeher two pieces of a pack, or two pieces of different packs, because it is an ion conductive material, but it falls apart when a small electric current is passed through the glue joint.

The electrical current is carried through the adhesive and causes it to become differently charged to the material of the substrates it is sticking together. This causes the adhesion to weaken so that the substrates can be separated.

Paper manufacturer Stora Enso conceived the idea nine years ago when looking at cost structures in retail, but it was not until four years ago that the company started to investigate it in detail.

The paper giant has developed the technology, which was first used to attach weapons to US military aircraft, in conjunction with various academic institutions including the Royal Institute of Stockholm and the Acreo Institute, also in Sweden.

An epoxy-based laminate will be used for the first product that is to be tested in Sweden. However, the company already has plans to change this to hot-melt glue, which is easier to use, more accurate and can be applied using existing technologies.

The principles of controlled delamination could also be applied directly to conductive materials such as metal so that packs of cans, for example, can be held together without the need for a separate adhesive. Where the material is not conductive, an electronic circuit could be printed on the pack where the packs need to be stuck together so that the CDM material can be applied just there and then detached when necessary.

Stora Enso has received interest from brand owners in sectors including FMCG, furniture and electronics.