The practical pack

18 January 2016



The practical pack


The practical pack

As convenience continues to be a core driver across the food sector, brand-owners must choose from the innumerable options delivered by packaging design, form factors and material science in order to keep people buying. Dave Howell reports.

With the abundance of choice on offer to consumers, it is rule number one that brands must innovate to stand out on the shelf and attract buyers. But the growth of the convenience food sector - generally attributed to changes in lifestyles and working habits, which have seen consumers increasingly eating on the move - means brands must look beyond the visual appeal of packaging to the functional appeal. Brands have to consider how their products are packaged to enable consumption away from the home.
Growth in the convenience food sector has gone hand-in-hand with the expansion of food and drink within manufacturing. According to the latest data and trends report from FoodDrinkEurope, food and drink across the EU now accounts for 14.6% of the manufacturing industry.

Scouting the sector
"The industry remains stable, resilient and robust, even in times of economic downturn," states the report. "It is one of the very few manufacturing sectors to produce above its 2008 output level. The turnover of the EU food and drink industry surpasses €1 trillion, with the sector generating a value added of €206 billion."


Brands clearly need to look closely at how they manage the marketing of their convenience food lines, as the communication of several key pieces of information grows in importance. According to market researcher Food for Thought (FFT), core drivers of food sector marketing include health, premiumisation and provenance. "Consumers are increasingly looking for premium ready meals, which offer a quality dining experience without leaving the house," FFT comments.


Sun Branding Solutions' packaging technology director Gillian Garside-Wight adds that shelf life is an important part of the convenience trend. "In terms of keeping products fresher for longer, the most significant advances are currently taking place in portion control and dual-packaged salad bags," she says. "It's simple, really: if half of the product remains unopened, it's going to keep for longer. It's a useful way to give consumers the option to eat now or eat later. There's a health element at work, too: consumers are less likely to overeat if the packaging is flexible and relates to a more realistic portion size."


Also in response to the 'fresh convenience' demand, cans have seen some interesting changes over the past year. These include the introduction of the transparent Klear Can from Milacron, which enables customers to see their food and assess its quality and freshness. The Straight Wall Plastic Can from Silgan is microwaveable and recloseable for on-the-go freshness, and is compatible with most canning systems.


Chris Peach, head of packaging and design at Marketing Sciences told Packaging Today: "When buying many food products, consumers want to see what they buy, whether it is a sandwich, ready meal, a portion of fish or a chicken breast. A window or transparent lid gives consumers reassurance that the product they are choosing is able to meet their needs exactly; but manufacturers also need to take into account the size and positioning of the window, to ensure it presents their product in the best way possible."


For packaging development and brand alignment, this means the need for a more in-depth understanding of how packaging design in the food sector has to change.


"There's a parallel path between brands striving to engage consumers on a more personal level and consumers' expectations for packaging to deliver that experience," explains David Luttenberger, global packaging director at Mintel. "Brands and manufacturers are innovating packaging to keep global consumers engaged and to develop brand loyalty - which is becoming more intangible, in an age when consumers have more choices than ever across all packaged goods."


Moving forward, the convenience food sector will demand more engaging form factors that deliver a number of key advantages, including longer shelf life, convenient portion control and high levels of recyclability, as consumers continue to become more environmentally conscious.

How people eat


Brands have known for decades that they must ensure their food products speak to end customers. Great packaging design remains an integral component of that conversation.


The consumption of chilled food has grown steadily over the last decade, in reaction to time-poor consumers. Converters and their brand partners are turning to modified atmosphere packaging to offer more choice of foodstuff and, of course, to extend shelf life - a key component in the long-term advocacy that brands have been cultivating for the last decade.


Placing foodstuff into pouches has also seen an expansion, as brands exploit the flexible substrate technologies that are now available. Nomva, an organic fruit drink producer, is one company bringing the pouch to consumers in place of PET bottles. Bold graphics and the leverage of high-pressure processing could see this new form factor becoming popular with young health-conscious consumers.


Another example of how packaging technology is enabling brands to leverage their markets is seen in the Emmi Group. Based in Lucerne, Switzerland, the company relies on in-mould labelling and thin-walled injection techniques from Sonoco to produce its 50 varieties of yogurt. "Group sales performed according to plan; in Switzerland, we even exceeded our expectations," Emmi CEO Urs Riedener comments on the results of the technique. "The encouraging growth in our domestic market is a clear sign that we are steering our product portfolio in the right direction, and that we have set our priorities well."

Function in form


A key driver currently felt by all brands is the need to meet the demands of consumers looking for the practical application of packaging design. The Millennial group is often pointed to as a yardstick against which packaging design is measured, and with a propensity towards design plus a work/leisure profile with convenience eating at its core, brands can learn a great deal from how this group of consumers behaves towards new packaging design.


The World Packaging Organisation says: "It is difficult to ignore lifestyle trends that are today impacting upon consumer purchasing decisions. For the packaging industry, these trends are positive, encouraging innovation and the expansion of chilled cabinet selections in supermarkets. Consumers are becoming increasingly demanding and short of time, seeking out convenience food solutions that represent an advance on more traditional processed foods. The expectations of food quality are rising, and growing awareness of health and other issues present new challenges to retailers, packers and packaging suppliers alike."


Food packaging design has had to react to consumer lifestyle changes for several years. However, brands are seeing the trend for more convenience food at home and when on the move expanding at an increasing rate. Active and intelligent packaging continues to be a focus for brands, and for their design and converting partners.


Trends such as more lightweighting across the paper and board sectors have been accelerating for some time. Other materials such as metal, glass, plastic, wood and other hybrid materials will continue to see innovation and development, as brands are forced to look again at the environmental aspects of their packaging alongside the functional aspects that speak directly to consumers across all food sectors - but none more so than with convenience foods.


Major supermarket brands are also reacting to changing attitudes: Tesco, for instance, has extended the shelf life of its fresh produce by two days, in a bid to reduce the seven million tons of food thrown away each year. Matt Simister, commercial director of fresh food and commodities at Tesco commented: "For millions of our customers, this move will mean having up to an extra two days in which to enjoy some of the most popular fruit and vegetables."


New technologies


"The global fresh food packaging market is projected to reach $95.91 billion by 2020, at a CAGR of 3.38% from 2015 to 2020," reports market research firm MarketsandMarkets. The demand for fresh food packaging has increased exponentially in recent times, mainly due to increasing health concerns, an emphasis on the quality of products and services, and the convenience of packaged fresh food." The outlook for the fresh food market has further launched new technologies in packaging, with a focus on practicality and functionality.


HH Global, the global marketing services company, has launched Lidd, a patent-pending peelable lidding film solution for ready meals. Eradicating the need for cardboard sleeves, Lidd delivers major cost savings for brand-owners while maintaining brand identity, and offers a reduction in the environmental impact of food packaging. Lidd's two-layer laminated film construction reduces packaging weight by over 45% and packaging costs by at least 10%, claims Tony Massey, chief marketing officer at HH Global. The company said that they are currently looking for brands to use their innovation across the ready meal market.


Metal packaging that be used in a microwave might seem impossible, but it is precisely what the Ardagh Group and a group of students at the Dutch University of Twente have developed. Marcel Zbinden, global category head for speciality cheese at Emmi, commented, "Convenience and quick preparation have become more important trends." The ready-to-eat All In One Fondü that incorporates the microwaveable metal dish "has simplified the preparation of this popular dish, and is a perfect combination for a quick, easy and delicious cheese fondue at any time".


Winner of the Worldstar award in the super lightweight squeezable PET packaging category, the NinhoFruti packaging was a breakthrough in the Brazilian yoghurt market, from conversion technology to consumer experience. Attained through a partnership between Plastipak and Nestle´, the strawberry-shaped packaging combines injection moulding technology and blow moulding to create a squeezable bottle with a lightweight preform of 2.3g. For the two-stage high-productivity process, a regular and steady production is needed, with low variation in neck dimension.


Marketing Sciences' Peach commented: "Increasingly, 'on the go' is not just about lunch, but breakfast too. Quaker and Kellogg are two brands that have used packaging to support product innovations and broaden usage from the breakfast table to something that can be consumed on the go, thus maintaining relevance in the face of shifting eating habits. Robinsons' Squash'd is a fantastic example of a brand using packaging innovation to exploit new usage occasions and extend the brand from one traditionally consumed in the home to one that can be used anywhere."


There is little doubt that the convenience food sector will continue to see the largest growth as consumers continue to be time-poor and seek convenience with the foods they consume. Brands need to listen to their customers and actively develop solutions to the pressure points in their lives. Food is still an important component of modern life. Brands and their packaging design partners need to respond with new form factors and material science advances, yet remain environmentally aware.

 

 



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