Supply chain

It has been known as shop-ready packaging, shelf-ready packaging, and now the industry seems to have settled on retail-ready packaging. But regardless of the term, the high-quality printed die-cut board outer is having a huge impact on the corrugated market.

In the first quarter of 2007, die-cut production accounted for 31% of total corrugated production in companies that offer die-cutting, according to the Confederation of Paper Industries (CPI), up from 29.8% for the same period last year.

Increased demand for RRP is the main cause for this spike, but it has generated concerns over a shortage of die-cut capacity and price increases.

According to one source, delivery times for die-cut corrugated have extended to two to three weeks, compared with the two to three days for straightforward corrugated board. “This is going to get worse before it gets better,” he warns.

However, CPI corrugated sector manager Andrew Barnetson contests this view. “It’s not a problem,” he says. “The growth in RRP has been seen and expected for some time.”

One thing both sides agree on, though, is that demand for RRP continues to grow. But what are the benefits to manufacturers of producing a more complicated box?

Smurfit Kappa’s UK sales and marketing director, Paul Gavin, explains: “Customers can no longer supply the retailers with a ‘normal’ FEFCO 0201 box – they either have to make it shelf-ready or they change the style totally.”

Gavin notes a trend towards two-piece die-cut cases with a hood. Despite the increased cost of die-cutting and printing, many customers have chosen to make this investment. “Our customers are now using the secondary packaging to reflect the primary packaging, enhancing their brand and increasing their sales,” he says.

The design of RRP has also changed over the years. Supermarkets initially requested that transit boxes be easily turned into display packs through the use of perforations. Tesco was the first retailer to widely use RRP, closely followed by Asda. It chose to introduce the packaging to stores quickly and then adapt it as issues arose. Both retailers were keen to get the concept in place, so placed greater emphasis on reconciling design with practicality.

Product identification
Printed white liner was originally used only on the outside of the box, with a brown inner. But more and more brands are now choosing to use white liner for the inner and outer. Peter Redfearn, design solutions manager at DS Smith Corrugated, predicts that many manufacturers will print inside and out too, citing the example of Unilever, which plans to use this approach for its spreads.

“The supermarkets now realise how important text and print is in easily identifying the product,” says Redfearn. “More emphasis is placed on putting more identification on the box.”

Branding the box plays an important role for the shelf stacker as well as the customer. It can be difficult to find certain products in dimly lit back-stores, and the problem is even greater for staff who don’t speak English.

According to Redfearn, there is an industry-wide move to agree on symbols to illustrate how to open, display and collapse retail-ready packs so they are ready for disposal.

Suppliers are faced with the problem that not all shelf sizes are the same. So while one retailer may require a product in packs of six, another may order it in packs of eight, resulting in products being repackaged into appropriate boxes for each customer.

The introduction of RRP on a wider scale may initially raise environmental concerns, but supermarkets have a well-established infrastructure to recycle this added material.

It looks like RRP is now here to stay, as Gavin says: “The reality is the packaging has always been there, but now we see the packaging on the shelf.”