Contract Packaging: Packing It All In
Unique shapes can help set cartons apart. Pictured left to right: PaperDoll Cosmetics' Lip Lustre carton, by UBS Printing; Oh Baby! Cosmetics' eye shadow box; and Stacked Style's Scentarettes, by Advance Paperbox. Try a little creativity for striking shelf presence.
By Marie Redding, Senior EditorCreatively shaped, colorfully decorated cartons are hitting the shelves. They will, no doubt, impress consumers during those first important moments. Some impressions will even last long enough for consumers to want to hold on to these cartons.
Mitchell Kaneff, president and CEO of Arkay Packaging (New York City), says, "Adding value is definitely a trend that continues, everywhere, from mass to prestige--especially now with consumers shopping in a much wider array of stores, like Target and Wal-Mart. In those environments especially, the outer packaging really has to get noticed."
Mica particles, pearlescence, and perma-white board are some of the things Arkay uses to add value for its high-profile clients. Satin coatings, laminates, textured finishes, and embossing are other decorating techniques that Kaneff says are popular right now.
"We're seeing a lot of vivid colors and reflective materials. Bright, shiny surfaces are being achieved through UV coatings, printed film lamination, foils, and metallic inks," adds Patti Gettinger. She's market manager for the paperboard division of the company that was formerly named Riverwood Holdings Inc. The firm merged with Graphic Packaging Corp. (Golden, CO) in August, and the new global paperboard packaging company, named Graphic Packaging International, is headquartered in Marietta, GA.
"The common theme I see is special effects," says Arkay's Kaneff. Everyone strives to create a rich, elegant-looking launch--on a budget.
Creative Carton Shapes
For niche brands, the cartons getting the most attention are those with highly original designs; recent launches are modeled after pizza boxes, cigarette cartons, and even a baby.
Eye shadows in the Oh Baby! Cosmetics (Morgan Hill, CA) line are housed in a carton with a baby's face on top. Inside, flaps have been die-cut in the shape of a baby's hands. Inside is a pink fluted insert. Marketed to students and sold mainly on college campuses since October 2001, Oh Baby! Cosmetics was founded by Sarah Wood and her two college-age daughters. The graphics were inspired by the face of a baby on a greeting card given to Wood by her daughters. The line includes 33 mineral-based eye shadows, a selection of applicator brushes, and six lip glosses, which have launched this past spring.
"Die-cutting is a great, inexpensive way to create interesting carton shapes," says Justin Finn, president of Finn Industries Inc. (Ontario, CA). "All of our customers want to know how they can cut their carton production costs. My answer is to take advantage of the steps it takes to make the box. Since a carton needs to be die-cut anyway, why not add a decorative window or edge design? It gives a carton more perceived value, without adding the extra steps of hot-stamping or embossing."
Scentarettes are vials of perfume sold in a 20-count box that looks like a pack of cigarettes. Founder Linda Sivrican is an ex-smoker, and she began her company, Stacked Style, in 2002 with scented candles.
Last year, Scentarettes were sold only in small-scale, trendy Los Angeles boutiques. Last March, they launched in Nordstroms and in July in Sephora. Advance Paperbox (Los Angeles) makes the cartons, and ABA Packaging Corp. (Holtsville, NY) supplies the vials.
"I bought the longest stock vials they had, to save money. But they still weren't quite long enough to look like cigarettes lined up in the box, so a cardboard insert had to be used inside," says Sivrican. The insert also helps prevent the vials from breaking. When the carton was designed, the template had to be done over three times to make sure exactly 20 vials fit the way Sivrican envisioned them, "all snugly lined up."
Angela Word, another creative entrepreneur and founder of PaperDoll Cosmetics (Saratoga, CA), went to her carton supplier and asked for a miniature replica of a pizza box for her lip gloss. The PaperDoll line just launched in Sephora stores in August. It consists of six Lip Lustres, two Body Blushes, and two Shimmer Powders. A gift set and eye shadows are also in the works.
Each color has a unique name: MaryAnn, Ginger, Mrs. Robinson. A short description about the type of woman who would choose that particular color is printed on the back of each carton. The cartons cost more to produce than it would to differentiate each SKU with a sticker.
Aquafresh's Extreme Clean carton, made by AGI/Klearfold, is the first plastic carton on the U.S. market for a toothpaste."It is challenging, and maybe later on I'll change things when I get into higher volumes. But I'm really happy with the way the cartons look now," says Word. UBS Printing (Corona, CA) supplies PaperDoll's cartons and does the graphics.
Consistent performance and strength are other sought-after carton qualities. Those were some of Riverwood's customers' routine requests, says Graphic Packaging's Gettinger. Last April, it launched Sustain paperboard. Sturdy enough to be used in cartons for hair dryers and gift sets, but not corrugated, Sustain has a finished edge that reduces manufacturing steps. According to Gettinger, that "means shorter lead times and cost reductions."
The unique aspect of Sustain is that it can be printed on both sides with equal quality. It can be embossed or UV coated. It is laminated, but performs the same way as a standard folding carton. "The other high-strength choices out there now either don't have a white back or are expensive," explains Gettinger.
Printing on Plastic Cartons
A larger number of companies are now skilled in new printing techniques, so we may soon see shelves filled with even more colorful plastic sleeves and cartons. At least Ed Patingre, vice president of AM Packaging Inc. (Chicopee, MA), hopes so. The firm recently developed new capabilities, but not many of their customers have fully taken advantage of them yet.
"A lot of package designers still don't know what we're capable of producing," says Patingre. The company has been doing UV printing for five years, and they do a lot of sleeves and wraps for prestige clients (Chanel and Estée Lauder). But it has just recently perfected the technique of printing high-quality, four-color graphics on plastic. It can now handle the job from beginning to end--proofs on plastic, printing, folding, and delivery.
"It took a year to get everything up and running, and to understand all the idiosyncrasies of applying ink to plastic," Patingre explains. "There were many different issues that aren't issues with paper, and there's a huge learning curve. It's not something that other companies would easily jump onto within a couple of months."
The EastPack show, held last June at New York City's Jacob Javits Convention Center, was the first trade show where the company exhibited.
"We've had everyone from small manufacturers to large cosmetic companies stop by. They were all commenting on how they've never seen that type of high-quality printing on plastic before, and they were surprised to see how great it looked," says Patingre.
Using printing as a decorating tool could be a much more cost-effective option than silk-screening, says Patingre. "But many companies just aren't aware that paper-quality, sheet-fed printing can be done on plastic."
A firm making its way to the United States from Hong Kong also wants U.S. consumers to see more color on plastic cartons. Hip Lik Packaging Products Fty. Ltd. (Tokwawan, Hong Kong) is in the process of setting up a Los Angeles office to share its printing techniques with U.S. beauty product designers. Experienced in off-set printing, silk-screening, and hot-stamping, the firm prints four-color graphics and text onto PVC, PET, and PP cartons. To prevent these cartons from scratching, Hip Lik applies a varnish immediately after printing. It specializes in soft-crease cartons and no-crease tubes and can handle light-gauge thermoforming, which can be used to produce carton inserts that can give products a floating look within the clear carton.
For Abercrombie & Fitch's Fierce cologne, Boom!Creative Development
hired Pro-Motion Industries
to apply this label, made by Standwill Packaging Inc.
Applying extremely thin labels, one of the latest trends in labeling, is another challenge. Cone says, "It takes a delicate touch to get a thin label off the web carrier and onto the product without wrinkles or bubbling problems, which becomes more of a challenge as labels get even thinner."
Tubes and aerosol cans are among the most difficult packages to label. While Pro-Motion doesn't do aerosol labeling, the company has one of the largest capacities in the United States for off-line tube labeling, reports Cone. Because of the flexibility of the tube, it must be put onto a fixture and spun. The label is applied during the spin. Now that tubes are becoming more flexible, an even thinner label is needed. "The thinner you go, the higher the difficulty factor goes up."
A few of their clients include Sancoa International (for Revlon) and Cebal Americas, as well as brands like Bath & Body Works and the private-label Fierce scent from Abercrombie & Fitch. P&G has also hired the company to help solve problems on their lines, and many companies call on them to test new materials.
To the Rescue
Contractors take a lot of pressure off beauty product companies. They worry about coordinating incoming deliveries of all components necessary for a project and about having the time to assemble it by the ship date. Craig Lowy, owner of TechniPack (Piscataway, NJ), says that "Everyone else could be late--the carton supplier, label manufacturer, the bottle maker--but the ship date never changes. We have to be on time, even if it means unloading a truck in the middle of the night."
Demand for the new Schick Intuition razor increased so much at launch that TechniPack was finishing up a rush job for the company when we spoke to them. TechniPack designed the complete line of point-of-purchase displays for the launch with its in-house graphic and structural designer. The firm also packaged and sealed the razors in their primary packages.
TechniPack will also let a designer know when a design is too costly to produce. Lowy says his firm redesigned a product once and saved a client one-and-a-half million dollars in materials. Since the new package was lighter, an added surprise was the savings of a half million dollars in postage. Lowy says, "We helped build the brand, because with the savings, the company increased its mailing program to target additional potential customers."
When companies run out of capacity, they often turn to a contractor, like Unette (Wharton, NJ). The firm forms, fills, and seals unit-of-use packages, but it also has a contract side to the business, where clients will send in all components, whether they're bottles, jars, caps, labels, or reclosable squeeze tubes, and Unette puts them all together.
"We have found a demand to supplement a company's need for production when they don't have enough capacity--they can't fill fast enough, or they don't want to break into a line to set up another run. We then become an extension of their manufacturing facility," says Terry Sweeney, director of sales at Unette.
Sweeney tells us that Unette has changed operations recently to accommodate quicker setups and short runs. "Being able to do a fast turnaround definitely gives you an edge," he says. One of Unette's recent jobs was working on Redken's Extreme-Deep Fuel. The product was filled in Unette's unit-of-use tubes and packed into cartons supplied by AGI Klearfold.
Sample Sizes
The companies that specialize in sample-sized packages--including blister cards, unit doses, and vials--are all a large part of the contract world. It takes their specialized machinery to be able to fill these miniature forms of packaging, so they often handle the entire job, from designing packaging to filling.
Howard Thau, president of Sonic Packaging Industries Inc. (Westwood, NJ), says, "The biggest trend we're seeing today in the cosmetic and cosmeceutical areas [is the use of] applicator packages, and we are fortunate to have numerous options available in the latest applicator technologies." The applicator packages include single-use packages that are designed with applicators that are either presaturated with product or that can be saturated at the point of use.
The types of applicator packages popular now include towelettes, pads, and swab sticks. A number of different brands are getting ready to launch new products in these forms. Some of the more-aggressive products need to be kept separate from their applicators until use, and Sonic also makes packaging to accommodate these types.
Klocke of America Inc. (Ft. Myers, FL) has specialized in contract filling liquid unit-dose blisters, sachets, and specially molded products since 1998 in the U.S. and for more than 30 years in Europe.
"We have provided a full turnkey service since the beginning, which our customers have come to rely on and expect," says Don Hopta, vice president of sales and marketing for Klocke of America.
For Avon's new mark. line, Klocke recently produced two types of fragrance samplers and samplers for liquid foundation, lipstick, and the brand's Hook Up lip gloss. Klocke was asked to deliver the complete packages, ready for distribution, including registered foil printing, filling, carding, bagging, and packout--on time and on a budget. Hopta adds, "We take as much pride in the finished product as our customers do."
Plastics for Personal Care
In the mass market, the clear or semiclear trend in plastic cartons (popularized by Colgate's Simply White) continues.
"We're seeing a growing interest in plastic for mass market appeal," says Pat McGee, a marketing manager for AGI/Klearfold (New York City), a MeadWestvaco Packaging Resource. "A plastic folding carton provides a much better view of a unique primary package, and can stand out on cluttered shelves in mass-merchandise outlets."
The new Aquafresh Extreme Clean toothpaste by GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is the first plastic carton on the market used for a toothpaste. Supplied by AGI/Klearfold, it is offset-printed with eight bright colors, including orange and white to match the toothpaste color. It is semitranslucent, which lets consumers see a hint of the stylish silver tube inside.
Rigid plastic can be a more-challenging substrate to convert than paperboard. If improperly creased, a plastic folding carton will have stiff score-lines, making it difficult to open the carton and square it up. Another challenge is that toothpaste runs on filling lines at extremely high speeds, so carton integrity and consistency are critical. To ensure that the cartons maintain their shape, AGI/Klearfold used a proprietary process called SoftCrease, a procedure that occurs in-line during converting and produces scores that fold cleanly.
The oval carton for Oil of Olay's Regenerist, also made by AGI/ Klearfold, showcases the plain white bottle of face lotion with a black frame (which helps hide a source tag, colored black and applied on the gluer) and an orange circular background pattern. The distinctive oval shape is achieved by combining a printed, rigid plastic sleeve with injection-molded end caps that snap into either end of the sleeve.
"Even on the TV commercial, you don't see the bottle out of the package," says McGee, very proudly.
The plastic sleeve was printed on an AquaFlex Producer, which has been specially modified to incorporate two rotary silk-screen printing stations with 10 flexo printing stations. The sleeve is printed in 11 colors (10 web flex and one rotary silk screen).
McGee explains, "We have pioneered combining UV-flexo printing and silk-screening on rigid plastic. We have the ability to do up to 10 colors flexo and two-color rotary in a single pass. Before, it would've taken two to three passes with off-set printing, and it would've cost a lot more."
Fragrance Cartons Shine
Graphics adorn the inside of the cartons for Estée Lauder's Beyond Paradise fragrance and Liz Claiborne's Spark (background). In the fragrance category, colorful designs on the inside flap are being used on the cartons for Estée Lauder's Beyond Paradise, which launched in August, and Liz Claiborne's Spark, launching in September. White, with subtle hints of pastel colors, gives an airy feeling to the outside of the Beyond Paradise carton. Open the flap, and you'll get a glimpse of what looking at a gorgeous sunset on a tropical island is like. You'll see a splash of color--golden yellow and orange, resembling the sun bursting through a pink and purple sky. The corrugated cardboard insert is even dyed lavender.
The same is true for Claiborne's Spark. In an unusually simple, understated look for the company, the outer cartons are solid warm black for the men's scent and golden pearl white for the women's. Open the top flaps, and you'll see a cinnamon, cognac, and black cherrycolored flame--meant to match the ingredients in the scent. This makes the design of the whole package "one continuous experience, from the outer carton to the scent inside," says Dale Brandon Kan, president and creative director of New Yorkbased design firm Brandonology. The company has created everything from the packaging to the point-of-purchase displays for Spark.
Shorewood Packaging (Indianapolis) supplies the Spark cartons and prints the logo and flame graphics. Hamden Papers (Holyoke, MA) supplies the paperboard for the women's and men's cartons. For the women's carton, Hamden decorated the paperboard with a pearlized finish, according to Kan's specifications. The fragrance bottles are from Pochet in Paris and the cap is by Augros (Neuilly sur Seine, France.) For the 3.4-oz women's bottle, Risdon-AMS (Watertown, CT) supplied the collar; the collars for the other bottle sizes were supplied by Eyelematic (Watertown, CT).
Clinique's Simply fragrance is packaged in a shiny, laminated carton by Arkay Packaging. Alexander McQueen's debut fragrance, Kingdom, launched in the United States in September in a white paperboard box. A reflective silver, oval-shaped insert in the center holds the heart-shaped bottle. A transparent, deep-red sleeve slides over the box and over the words "Pierce my heart again," which are printed on top. "Alexander McQueen" is silk-screened in white on the sleeve.
Raffypack/Alliora, a division of ILEOS (New York City), produced and decorated the outer packaging. Laminated red foils were glued onto the PET sleeve to give it a rich red color, and the top panel is white opaque paperboard--meant to resemble royal parchment paper. It was left uncoated for a rough, natural surface.
To glue the paper and PET together, special machinery had to overcome registration problems. Movement between the paper and plastic had to be eliminated so that they lined up correctly, according to a representative of Raffypack/ Alliora.
MeadWestvaco's Packaging Resources Group (Stamford, CT) is another company using traditional materials in a nontraditional way.
"We are working with some customers who are taking standard papers, which are coated on one side, and flipping them to print on the uncoated side," explains Drew Conrad, a marketing manager at MeadWestvaco.
Alexander McQueen's fragrance, Kingdom, is housed in this carton by Raffypack/Alliora. It features a transparent, deep-red sleeve and a reflective, oval-shaped insert in the center to hold the heart-shaped fragrance bottle.Printing on the uncoated side results in a different texture or feel, which may impart a more luxurious effect, as in Alexander McQueen's carton. The specialty papers division of MeadWestvaco has even taken this a step further and developed a more-specific type of uncoated board that has a silky, soft-touch feel.
As an alternative to the square carton, Perry Ellis 360 Red is packaged in a round canister by Robinson Consumer Packaging (Mississauga, ON, Canada). A gold metallic version contains the women's scent, and silver is used for the men's. Special inks, rather than hot-stamping, are used in printing for a metallic look. Because ink is so cost-effective when compared to hot-stamped foils, a company could afford to color the entire carton or canister, rather than hot-stamping a small spot.
"Round or oval is the way to go if you're looking to differentiate your product with a high-end look," says David DiBernardo, manager of cosmetic packaging at Robinson Consumer Packaging.
A gold-copper, high-shine finish was used for the rectangular-shaped carton for Clinique's Simply, launched last spring. Supplied by Arkay Packaging, it is a brushed Mylarlaminated carton with hot-stamping and pearlescence on the inside.
"When you have a nice carton, then purchasing a product feels like you're unwrapping a present," Kaneff concludes. "We want customers at the end of the day to feel like, 'wow, I just bought something I really love.'"