Wednesday, April 11, 2007 · Number 6

FEATURE: In-Mold Labeling Grabbing Canadian Hardware Shoppers

For the last 25 years, In-Mold Labeling (IML) has been a popular labeling solution in Europe, but has just started to make significant headway in North America. IML offers visibility and graphics that far surpass other methods, particularly in the home repair and food industries.

With IML, a printed polypropylene label is placed in an open mold and held in the desired position by vacuum ports, electrostatic attraction and other means. The mold closes and molten plastic resin is injected into the mold where it envelops the label and makes that label an integral part of the container. One of the advantages of IML is that brand owners can increase the in-store visibility of a brand without increasing the size of the package or the number of packages on the shelf.

Nancy Dingman, business manager of specialty products at Home Hardware Paint and Home Products Division, has experienced firsthand the benefits of IML. Recently, the Paint and Home Products Division which is based in Burford, Ontario, and churns out a staggering $60 million dollars worth of private label products for Home Hardware stores across Canada, switched the packaging of E-Z Roll Stucco™ and Dry Wall Compound™ lines to one-gallon containers from IPL Packaging [www.ipl-packaging.com], a North American leader in the design and manufacture of innovative packaging.

Home Hardware had already been utilizing IPL containers for these two products, as well as its latex paints, cleaning products, and driveway sealer. The new packaging featured IML technology, which would allow Home Hardware to produce enhanced graphics.

The decision to switch was made easier by the fact that IPL was the first company to produce IML packaging in the U.S. "Our representatives from IPL approached us and asked if we wanted to be the ‘guinea pigs' for IML packaging in this country," says Dingman, who is responsible for marketing over 85 different products. "Once we saw the photographic quality of the labels compared to the screen printing process we were currently using, there was absolutely no reason why we didn't want to move forward."

Home Hardware employs three different sizes of IPL pails. Made of 100% recyclable polypropylene, IPL pails are resistant to shocks and to the toughest conditions encountered in everyday use. The patented tamper-evident safety tab keeps the containers watertight, an important consideration in preserving product consistency.

"With our old dry off-set printed pail, we were limited on our print area," Dingman continues. "There was a total of about an inch and a half on the top and bottom that was just white pail. The IML process lets us print every square inch of the front, top to bottom. Even though the pail is the same size as the old one, people perceive it as a bigger container. This gives us a better shelf presence and a stronger ‘billboard effect.'"

Dingman says that the new IPL packaging was a key component to a sales upsurge. "It should be noted that there are a number of outside suppliers that make Home Hardware private label products like grout and wood filler who also use IPL packaging. So we're not the only ones who recognize their value."

DESIGN: The Design Agency Team Creatif Reinvents Calor Brand

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The Calor brand has belonged to SEB Group since 1972, and has a history of groundbreaking innovations that impact domestic life. Team Creatif [www.team-creatif.com] is an international design agency based in Paris specializing in packaging, retail, and corporate identity for companies like Mars Inc., Danone, Cadbury-Schweppes, Campbell's, and Vivendi Universal.

The Calor brand recently acquired a new visual identity courtesy of Team Creatif. The new identity graphically claims the position of the brand on a comprehensive "care" concept grounded on three categories—clothes care, human care, and domestic care. The "care" concept:

• Underlines the nature of the brand—modern, feminine, inventive, and generous.
• Expresses the quality of the products and of the design thanks to a visual identity in better harmony.
• Points out that the brand is beneficial, more oriented on the consumer, with a fluent and logical brand management that is less industrial and fragmented.

The icon approach is anchored with the protective heart, which brackets movement, protection, the action of caring, sensuality, comfort, pleasure, and emotion. Calor now has color branding with a mixture of pink, white, and grey. The pink gives a touch of femininity, sensuality, and care; the grey expresses technical innovation, status, stylishness, and elegance; the white confers purity and softness and underlines the care image.

The typography is also much more fluid while respecting the brand's typographic balance. The presentation simultaneously expresses several core values of the brand—providing life, suppleness, softness, delicacy, and modernity at the same time.

DESIGN: Raison Pure Extends the Dove Brand Into Pro-Age

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In continuing their successful six-year collaboration with Unilever Dove's brand, New York City-based Raison Pure [www.raisonpure.com] worked closely with Dove's marketing team, lead by Giovanni Valentini, and the Dove design team, lead by Matthew Okin, to design packaging for the new and highly anticipated Dove Pro-Age line for women aged 50-plus.

It is the first time a major consumer products brand will target women over 50 across all categories of personal care. According to an independent global study commissioned by Dove, 91% of women aged 50-64 interviewed believe it is time for society to change its views about women and aging.

Dove Pro-Age will be a worldwide launch for a multi-category line of products. The package design revolved around two main stories—copy and color. The objective with the copy was to establish a direct communication with consumers. There is a positive and direct tone from the brand to consumers with these products that addresses a woman's need for honest beauty solutions that encourage and help her to take better care of her skin, hair and body. The typeface is simple, clear, positive and appealing, using soft, rounded lower-case lettering.

"Finding the right color to reflect the richness and maturity was a key decision," says Jeanette Palmer, Raison Pure's Director of client services. "We wanted to stay away from traditional codes of silvers and grays." The rich burgundy color speaks to consumers in a strong and confident tone while giving an elegance and luminosity to the packaging, and the bold color will also be easily distinguishable on-shelf.

STRUCTURE: Bladder Bottles Take a Stand for Unique Packaging Application

For the producer of a topical livestock treatment, filling 1-liter HDPE bladder bottles was about as easy as keeping flies off a cow's back. Without a flat base, the rounded bottles, which farmers squeeze to spray animals with insect repellant, could not stand upright. As a result, the bottles had to be placed vertically into pucks on the filling line to prepare them for filling. The process was both inefficient and time-consuming.

"In addition to cost issues, we experienced problems with the bottles leaking," says the company's materials management supervisor/buyer. When the company turned to Airopak, a subsidiary of Novapak Corporation [www.pvcc.com] in Eatontown, NJ, to redesign the bladder bottle, its primary goal was to eliminate the use of pucks on the filling line. To achieve this, the bottles had to stand upright, but still remain flexible so the farmers could squeeze the product out of the nozzle.

The base of the bottle contains two holes for a shoestring, which is used like a strap. "The bottle is designed to hang under the arm, like a purse, so the farmer doesn't have to hold it," explains the buyer. A flexible hose protrudes from an attachment that fits into the 28 mm neck of the bottle, and the farmer squeezes the bottle with his or her arm to dispense the product through the hose. Farmers stored the original bottles horizontally or by placing them vertically in boxes.

Novapak redesigned the 1-liter bottle first, and later developed a 2.5-liter version. The new bottles retained the basic shape of the original, but the base was flattened and shaped to include feet so the bottles would stand up on the conveyor line, explains Alan Wood, Novapak's vice president of business development. "We also worked closely with the company to fine-tune the bottle's neck dimensions, because it had to accept the attachment that allows the farmers to dispense the product," Wood says.

The bottles are HDPE extrusion blow-molded using custom, two-cavity tooling for each size. In addition to ensuring that the caps and attachments do not leak when fitted on the bottles, Novapak had to ensure sufficient wall thickness at the bottom edges of the bottles for strength and stability. "We designed the molds with ample venting in the corners to prevent thinning that can result from entrapped air pushing against the bottle as it is blown."

STRUCTURE: New SnapTop™ Closure/Container Combination Reduces Costs

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Specialty packaging manufacturer J.L. Clark [www.jlclark.com] has partnered with Blue Ridge Paper to develop and introduce a new packaging product called the SnapTop™ closure. The new plastic SnapTop™ closure from J.L. Clark, combined with a paper container from Blue Ridge Paper, is designed to make significant reductions in overall packaging costs as compared to conventional round plastic tubs and other containers used to contain, store, and dispense all types of foods, snacks, and ingredients.

The SnapTop™ closure design now makes it possible for the consumer to easily and repeatedly open and close a container while ensuring a secure fit every time. In addition, the square shape of the closure/container enables manufacturers and retailers to pack more product in a smaller space than in round containers, which also translates into significant savings on storage and shipping costs.

J.L.Clark delivers a variety of consumer and industrial packaging services to a wide range of markets including health and beauty aids, coffee and tea, spice, confectionery, candles, film, battery, spools, and plain tin containers. From plant locations in Rockford, IL, Lancaster, PA, and Lathrop, CA, customers can take advantage of any and all of a full range of services, including assisting graphic and concept design, package development, prototyping, project management, and contract packaging.

MATERIAL: AVC Corp. Unveils EnviroTube, Its Newest Environmental Packaging Concept

AVC Corp. [www.avccorp.com], the Torrance, CA-based custom retail packaging manufacturer and leader in environmental packaging solutions, recently unveiled its newest green packaging solution—the EnviroTube™—at Wal-Mart's Sustainable Packaging Exposition in Bentonville, AR. This eye-catching clear plastic retail package is made entirely from one type of plastic and can be recycled once the product is removed.

"We brought a few different versions of our new EnviroTube™ to the Wal-Mart show, and these samples were a huge hit," says AVC's executive v.p., Guy Marom. "Not only is the EnviroTube™ completely environmental, but it is also extremely eye-catching and can accommodate products of all different shapes and sizes in all different categories."

AVC's EnviroTube™ utilizes one type of plastic for the entire package, which eliminates the issue of cross contamination in the recycling stream, and can be made using most PVC alternatives. This tube-like packaging concept features an attractive look with a clamshell or thermoformed tray suspended inside. The package is sealed with end caps made from injection molded or thermoformed plastic, molded with slits in the center to hold the internal tray or clamshell and keep it suspended within the tube.

By printing directly on the plastic (available in up to eight colors), the EnviroTube™ does not need a printed paper insert, reducing the amount of components and further eliminating cross contamination. If desired, a printed paper insert that can be easily removed can be used instead. Windows can be opened anywhere on the artwork for optimum product visibility.

SOFTWARE: Inc.jet Inc. Introduces Intelligent "control.tower™" Software

inc.jet Inc., a leading provider of digital printing products using Hewlett-Packard TIJ 2.5 thermal inkjet technology, announced the release of the Company's "control.tower™" software. This new technology delivers complete control for variable data printing (VDP) by incorporating the capability to track product location and status.

"control.tower represents the latest improvement to VDP that inc.jet has brought to market," says Per Hellsund, president of inc.jet. "By helping to create an intelligent system, control.tower takes us another step closer in simplifying the VDP process, and reaffirms inc.jet's commitment to deliver excellence in mail marking and package coding."

The product, which is incorporated into the Company's jet.engine™ graphical user interface system, creates an intelligent process that enables users to precisely track print jobs, product status, and product location from start to finish. In just three easy-to-use steps—Read, Track, and Verify—control.tower allows for full control of the job while ensuring product integrity and consistency. For more, visit www.incjet.com.

SOFTWARE: Esko Raises the Bar With the New Software Suite 7

Esko, the leading global system integrator for packaging pre-production, announces the roll-out of Esko Software Suite 7, a complete update of its design and pre-production software tools offering significant improvements in features, productivity and compatibility with third party software.

Esko Software Suite 7 is fully compatible with Adobe's latest PDF standards and Creative Suite application versions. Native support for all Adobe Illustrator blending modes speeds up workflows by up to 50%, as file flattening is reduced to an absolute minimum. Esko Software Suite 7 further adds new capabilities for variable data digital printing and JDF integration with business systems.

Beta testing started in January 2007 and resulted in very positive feedback from the early users. Global commercial availability is planned for this coming July. Users can get additional value from the Esko Software Suite by combining it with other software and hardware products from Esko as well as from third party suppliers. For more, visit www.esko.com.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Sekuworks' New Corporate Identity and Expanded Platforms

Sekuworks, a Cincinnati based global brand protection company unveiled a new corporate brand identity today that represents a significant mark in the company's history. This identity emphasizes Sekuworks continued dedication to providing full service solutions to address the ever-increasing brand counterfeiting and product diversion problem.

The new Sekuworks identity features an abstract globe representing the company's world-wide presence with offices in Manila, Hong Kong, and Germany as well as several global partnerships. The new blue and green corporate palette further communicates the company's commitment to approaching brand fraud as a problem affecting the whole world.

"This brand evolution will clarify our world-wide reach and full service brand protection capability," says Robert Sherwood, v.p. of security programs. "Our new tagline, ‘Protecting Brands. Protecting People.' shows Sekuworks' dedication to alleviating brand fraud and the destruction it causes both to businesses and to people."

The new identity launches Sekuworks' expansion into a five platform brand protection strategy supported by robust programs designed to help brand owners achieve success in battling counterfeiting, diversion and fraud. The five platforms are: Security Consulting; Technologies & Information Systems; Security Printing, utilizing their patented technology, the Sekuweb; Mass-Serialization/Track & Trace; Investigation & Enforcement. Visit www.sekuworks.com.

WHITE PAPERS: PMMI Intelligence Briefs

From automation to sustainability and machinery to materials—the packaging industry is consistently evolving. The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), the leading global resource for the packaging industry, introduces the Packaging Intelligence Brief (PIB) series to help define and address trends currently shaping the future of packaging.

PMMI will release the Packaging Intelligence Briefs to keep industry professionals and media abreast of emerging trends that have an impact in the packaging industry. Each brief will address a specific topic and outline how packaging machinery suppliers and manufacturers are, and should be, responding to market needs. To obtain the Packaging Intelligence Briefs, please visit www.pmmi.org or contact Sara Kryder at 703-243-8555. PMMI has released four PIB briefs to kick off the series, and one on in-store advertising can be downloaded here.