Single-Source Service

'Concept to Consumer' Inspires Innovation at Caraustar

by Noel Jeffrey

Meaningful taglines or slogans really can contain the essence of a company's philosophy. For Caraustar's Custom Packaging Group, for example, the expression "Concept to Consumer" describes its intent to be a single source supplier to its customers. Its centralized Business Development Group is key because it offers digital imaging and graphic design, prepress services, and structural and mechanical packaging engineering to a widespread manufacturing empire.

Tony Petrelli, Caraustar's vice president of Marketing and Business Development, says that this allows Caraustar to offer "ad agency style design and development for major clients." Petrelli elaborates: "It lets us offer the customer greater value. More of our customers are recognizing the importance of packaging as an advertising medium than ever before," he says.

For production, the Group operates 13 folding carton facilities and seven contract manufacturing and contract packaging operations throughout the United States. Products include folding cartons, rigid set-up boxes, blister packaging, pouching, wet wipes, displays, specialty corrugated, and merchandising support products for a variety of end uses. Markets served include pharmaceutical and healthcare, candy & confectionery, specialty dry foods, frozen foods, sporting goods, pet foods, and household & hardware.

Petrelli uses "Concept to Consumer" like a mantra. "We want to be involved early in the process to design and develop a package style using materials to merchandise and sell product," says Petrelli. "This doesn't stop when the product reaches the shelf. It has to attract the attention of the 70 percent of consumers who are going to buy on impulse. It has to have something that enables a consumer purchase, interested or not.

"You also have to make sure that serving or using the product gives the consumer a positive emotional experience with the product. Bad packaging can turn a good product into a bad product. Conversely, great packaging can save a bad product."

He describes a three-step process that inspires and informs the innovation it takes for a package to move from concept to consumer.

• Step one is answering the critical objectives of the package and determining whether Caraustar can manufacture it economically.
• Step two is to examine how the package will hold up in shipping and how it is being used. Part of this step is to find out whether the package will be filled mechanically or by hand. If the package is for a mechanized line, then it's imperative that it be a good fit for the machinery to be used. If the package is for a manual operation, then the package should be designed to make it simple and easy for people to form and fill it.
• Step three considers the consumer involvement with the package. Questions such as "Is it easy to get off a shelf?" "Will it be too heavy to carry without handles?" "Does it reinforce the brand?" "Will it protect and store the product?" "Does it dispense the product easily and effectively?" "Does it serve as an additional reminder to buy the product again?" are just some of the necessary considerations.

Paul Curtis, regional general manager for Caraustar's Chicago and Grand Rapids, Mich., carton plants, summarizes, "We follow a strategy of innovation and differentiating yourself in the marketplace, not just being the low-price bidder. It is really key that our customers have the perception that Caraustar is the most innovative in helping them to meet their challenges—that we're a company you want to be involved with."

Beyond a philosophy

Caraustar's consistent multiple awards in the annual National Paperboard Packaging Competition (PPC) offer one tangible testament to the company's performance, and ultimately, it is printing and finishing that transform the innovative concept to consumer reality. Their folding carton plants use both sheetfed offset and narrow web flexography processes for printing. Press widths range from 16" to 55". Several of the award-winning packages pictured on these pages were printed on MAN Roland presses in Grand Rapids and Versailles, Conn.

In the Chicago and Grand Rapids plants, a MAN Roland R907LV (seven-color with coater) and two R707LV presses have all passed the 200 million-impression mark and are going strong. Curtis says that high-end customers like Nestlé, Gerber, and Ford are making good use of six-color process printing on these presses, whether it's Pantone's Hexachrome process or the customer's own proprietary ink set. "It's especially effective on cereal packaging, for example," Curtis says. "The addition of orange and green to traditional four-color process gives a real vibrancy to the animation used on these boxes." Little Suzy's Zoo, an example of six-color printing with aqueous coating, received a PPC Excellence Award in 2004.

As in the commercial world, ink/water balance is always a challenge, but especially more so in specialized package printing. Curtis notes that printing on treated paperboard, on board that has a grease barrier for instance, means that an oil-based ink is being applied on top of an oil barrier. "The chemistry of the ink and fountain solution to make that work is tricky," says Curtis.

Erv Piela, general manager of the Versailles carton plant, also cites ink/water balance as challenging. He points out that it is especially so when printing with ultraviolet inks on plastics like lenticular lenses. "There's less latitude, a much smaller window for variations in the ink/water balance," Piela says.

One high-value innovation

The MAN Roland 900 55" sheetfed press at Versailles is up to handling lenticular (specialized three-dimensional) printing, but more often the press prints on metallized foil, polyester, and hologram films. These substrates are film laminates to solid bleached sulfite (SBS), typically 16- or 18-pt. SBS. The Ben Hogan golf ball package, which took a 2004 PPC Gold award, was printed at Versailles using metallized polyester.

Now in operation for about two-and-a-half years, this MAN Roland 900 is an eight-color machine with two inline coating decks. Therefore, customers can take advantage of either UV or aqueous matte and gloss coatings on the same piece. In addition, Piela says that the press is equipped with inter-station curing, which means there is a dryer after each printing and coating unit so that each color of ink is dry trapped. "It provides a sharper image and helps control dot gain," Piela explains.

Piela also says he believes its configuration is unique in the U.S. Its capabilities are also enhanced by automated ink settings and an on-press densitometer. A fiber optic network in the plant permits prepress data to be sent directly to the press control panel and set ink fountains. During the run, when a press operator pulls a sheet and takes a density reading, the press will self-adjust as necessary or the operator can manually override settings. In addition, the plant uses robotics—that is, a conveyer system line—to load substrates for the press feeder and exchange pallets in and out.

The MAN Roland 900 at Versailles is an example of press technology and automation that enable Caraustar to produce higher-value packaging. The Queen Anne Milk Chocolate Covered Fruit carton, which was printed at Grand Rapids, offers another unique twist. Its 2004 PPC Excellence Award is for its unique shape as well as appearance, and offers an example of high-value innovation at the creative end. Petrelli notes that today bags and stand-up pouches are serious competition to folding cartons. Yet, while the Queen Anne box appearance suggests a lunch sack look, it offers the durability and display features of a folding carton.

Petrelli also points out that the narrow flexo presses offer important technology as well. In addition to printing units, the flexo presses can have rotary and platen diecutters, stamping and embossing capabilities, and cold foil transfer units inline. That workflow offers a variety of creative options combined with manufacturing efficiency. "With these webs, you're running rolls to cut cartons," he says.

No matter which press is involved, time-saving automation is especially important because, again as in commercial printing, run lengths continue to shrink. Curtis puts the average run lengths in Chicago and Grand Rapids at about 1,500 to 500,000 impressions. "Customers are working with reduced capital and only want to buy what they know they need," he says. "In addition, they are more sophisticated. They no longer order two million of something to get a reduced price and hope they'll be able to use the excess. They realize that, once glued, certain cartons that are stored over a longer period will have machinability issues. Now they order more frequently, place emphasis on time to market, and change graphics as well."

A long history

While the Custom Packaging Group could arguably be the "glamour" division at Caraustar Industries, the other company divisions are each significant in their own right. There also are a Mill Group, an Industrial & Consumer Products Group, and a Recovered Fiber Group. Along with Packaging, these divisions offer recycled paperboard tubes, core and composite containers, recovered paper recycling, injection-molded and extruded plastic products, and adhesives.

Founded in 1938 as the Carolina Paper Board Corporation, the mill in Charlotte, N.C., had 45 employees and produced 25 tons per day of boxboard for the folding carton market. The company began to expand and vertically integrate in the 1940s and has grown to become a $1 billion company with 108 facilities employing over 5,700 people. Today, it ranks as number one in recycled paperboard production in the U.S.; the second largest producer of tubes, cores, and composite containers; and in the top 10 of folding carton producers. It is also one of the nation's leaders in recycled fiber processing.

Packaging printers, then, come in all sizes and configurations. Looking at the list of PPC award winners is instructive. Along with Caraustar, there are a number of integrated paper and product companies in the field, but standalone printers compete as well. Deftly executed through personnel and technology, Caraustar's concept to consumer thrust should keep it a strong competitor in this lively market.

Noel Jeffrey regularly covers print production, digital imaging, print-on-demand, and related subjects for the graphic trade media. Contact her at noeljeff1@earthlink.net.