Sector proofing

Two users and three print machine builders as well as two converters “moderated” by an immoderate journalist gave rise to an unusual encounter. Acimga, along with the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio and the two “groups” of Assografici, Giflex and Gipea, in fact organized the first of a series of sector supply chain encounters, to help further augment the exchange of information and knowhow in the sector. This is what was said.

Last December 3, Acimga promoted in Milan an extraordinary “inter sector” encounter  brimming with contents, still echoed in conversation in the days that followed. The debate broached what the market demands from packaging printers and converters are and how the latter are responding, the befuddlements and misunderstanding between customer and supplier, what needs to be done to improve the quality of relations along with the final product.

The odd sentence grasped from comments made from either side of the speakers’ table helps give an idea of the event:«If you refuse to tell me more about the product my packaging is supposed to contain how can I offer you adequate solutions?...»;«How can it be that with all the technology available, the printer is not able to guarantee me a decent product display and continues to present the color proofs on substrates different to the “real” ones?...». And yet again: «We state that the environment is a priority and then we offer portions of sliced meats in 35 g trays, where the pack might even cost more than its contents…»; «How can you continue to work for customers who ask for all-round quality and who end up trying to beat down the price as if we were in a fish market?»; «Is your worry about the safety of the packaging purely a precautionary measure or is it because there are in fact a large amount of sub-standard packs in circulation?»; «The quality and safety of the pack are indispensible for protecting our most precious asset: the brand. If we lose face we might just as well close down…».
Questions and declarations that are simple and direct, sincere and provocatory, followed on from each other animating a special format: two-and-a-half hours packed with information and reflections, where the representatives of the packaging chain met face to face in Assografici’s new centre city HQ in piazza Castello, the very heart of Milan.

Customers and suppliers
The encounter was organized by Acimga with the aid of the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio that “provided” two key associate members - Rita Gaimarri, Mondelez Italia, and Oriana Savonitti, Illy Caffé - to start up a discussion on major themes for producers and printers (Giorgio Bottini, Goglio, and  Alberto Palaveri, Sacchital), as well as print and converting machine builders (Marco Calcagni, Omet, Arturo Bergamaschino, Cerutti Packaging Equipment, Aldo Peretti, Uteco).
From the audience materials-, inks-, adhesives and various technology producers also had their say, making the event even more interactive, while onstage the moderator (our director, Stefano Lavorini) not only strove to sum up and re-order the food for thought offered by the various contributions, he also strove to stimulate the debate, trying to bring the unsaid to light and to avoid the risk of the discussion getting bogged down in futile clichés and customary speak.
With the morning over, before the fish tartar prepared by talented chef Fabrizio Sansoni, everyone was convinced and happy: “consuming” an hour or two in one of the most convulsive periods of the year was proven to be worthwhile, those assembled  (including several entrepreneurs) commented, and indeed any additional sector supply chain meeting might be productive. Not overlooking the fact that in the breaks it is easy to meet up with customers and even suppliers, and being able to dialogue with big brand packaging heads is not an opportunity to be huffed at.

The packaging of ones wishes: the end users speak out
Display plus: what the customer needs. At the bar, at the newspaper kiosk, at the gas station… the situations where the product is made to “pop out” of its surroundings are countless and require adequate display design with ad hoc planning and execution. The phenomenon is called display plus, and it was illustrated at the December conference by Rita Gaimarri, customization manager at Mondelez Italia (formerly Kraft Food, snacking division). Its importance can be summed up with a few numbers: this type of presentation accounts for one fourth of tailored solution sales by Mondelez in Europe, half of volumes displayed and 80% of the multinational’s chocolates and biscuits. This is why Mondelez has developed guidelines for this type of solution, with the (now achieved) goal of maximizing efficiency and minimizing production costs, in addition to reducing time to market by 30%.
This type of display, the manager explained, is, as a rule, a converted paper product that must feature, as indispensable requirements, resistance, visual appeal and economy. Its cornerstone is modularity (the modules, few and simple, can be used for all product types and tailored with ad hoc graphics), along with standard measurements (¼, 1/6 and 1/8 of a pallet) and simplified graphics and any other elements requiring time and production costs. Furthermore, during the design phase, ease of assembly is crucial, to the benefit of the copacker and, in the last analysis, the entire production/display chain.
In such a way, Mondelez has given up on platicizing by standardizing colors on different supports and using brilliant inks even in flexographic printing (identified as the most economical technology). The concern asks the converter for a (real) sample before starting the printing process, with various requirements: guaranteed impact, precise definition of detail, ease of disposal (easily separable materials and components), maximum gloss and brilliance without resorting to plasticization or adopting UV printing, maximum color resistance…

Safety, an industry business. Illy introduces two new free standing flexible packaging solutions, one cubical and another cylindrical, for its quality coffee products in order to reduce materials consumption, focusing on the characteristics, risks and guarantees that packaging should always offer the end consumer anyway, in concert with the whole supply chain.
The subject was addressed by Oriana Savonitti, a young and extremely talented manager of the Italian multinational, who at the conference held by Acimga and Istituto Italiano Imballaggio gave an account of the regulations governing safety, with two suggestions for enhancing technical competencies and avoiding reducing prevention to a series of analyses, but rather working as suggested by the supporting guidelines of EU regulation 10/2011: in addition to the general guidelines of 21/2/2014, also those on migration testing, soon to be approved, those on migration models and above all - the expert insists - on information flows through the supply chain (28/11/2013). They prevent known risks (set-off, to name a common example) and help all contributors to the production of packaging do their part appropriately.

The consumer, a known quantity
All that was needed to complete the chain was the consumer, in whose name many words and good intentions are spent, this too on the subject of packaging. And indeed, as the selfsame Marco Sachet mentioned in delineating the profile and the expectations (no easy task), which among the many expressions of consumerism might be deemed truly representative and available? the Istituto Italiano Imballaggio, Sachet states, has committed itself to build a bridge that connects the industrial segment to the goods purchasing public, its natural objective and “end”, subject to which its new information and education website www.wearepackagingfans.com is dedicated. And, at the same time, hhe reminds that consumers, it’s well known, have numerous “profiles” that marketers are constantly re-defining, but this doesn’t mean that their expectations for packaging are received by manufacturers.
The growing importance of singles is thus known, along with their need for small portions and advanced personalization, as well as the fact that the elderly - a growing section of the market - wish for products and communication that cater specifically to them, but also ones that take into consideration the decline of a series of vital functions (strength, vision, concentration and memory); that active people are increasingly busy, men and women both, in all areas of life, requiring “advanced” modes of service: ready meals, products for on the go (in- and outside the home), smart electric appliances…
We also know - Sachet comments - that the ratio of container volume to the quantity contained is tending to “deteriorate” (single portions, proportionally, require more material), generating more waste to be disposed of and thus requiring eco-compatible solutions. Shrinking budgets also contribute to the push for smaller portions, even though they are proportionally more costly than larger ones - and that’s just one of the many contradictions of the market.
Finally, Sachet continues, let’s not forget that packaging should be pretty, or rather attractive (the function of “silent sales rep” is now more important than ever!) and above all fitting to its contents. This too can conflict with other characteristics of the ideal packaging solution, for example its sustainability, leading to overpackaging. In short, there’s much work to be done.