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Business Beat

Wal-Mart Begins Keeping Score

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is using scorecards to rank the efficiency and environmental friendliness of product packaging. The scorecard is part of a plan to eliminate 5% of unnecessary packaging across the Wal-Mart supply chain by 2013 to reduce trash, save energy, and cut emissions.

The scorecard will allow brands to determine how their packaging innovations, environmental standards, energy efficiencies, and use of materials match up against those of their peers, and what areas of their packaging process can be improved. Criteria focus on areas such as product/package ratio, the amount of CO₂ emissions generated, and the amount of recycled content and renewable energy used.

By February of this year, Wal-Mart’s more than 60,000 brands had access to the scorecard. An automated online demonstration of the scorecard can be viewed at www.scorecardlibrary.com. An additional Web site, www.marketgate.com/ packaging, can help brands find packaging suppliers that can help them make improvements and conserve resources more effectively. Beginning February 2008, Wal-Mart will begin using the packaging scorecard to judge whether companies have been able to improve their packaging processes.

Details on the scorecard’s specific criteria were announced at the Pack Expo International trade show in Chicago in November during a joint speech presented by Matt Kistler, vice president of package and product innovations for Wal-Mart, and Amy Zettlemoyer, director of packaging for Sam’s Club.

“We at Wal-Mart recognize that we have unique strengths and a unique opportunity to have a positive impact on the environment through our own actions, those of our customers, and those of our suppliers,” said Kistler. “As vital as the packaging initiative is to reaching our environmental goals, it is also very good for our business and our suppliers’ business.”

CPC Packaging Calls for Entries

Want your company to join the likes of Coty, Christian Dior, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, and Procter & Gamble? If so, don’t miss this chance to nominate your company’s beauty package to be a winner in CPC Packaging’s annual Editors’ Choice Awards.

Each year, CPC Packaging’s editors vote on the year’s most outstanding cosmetic, fragrance, personal care, and sampling/promotional packages. In an exciting new development, this year we have added a fifth category—environmentally friendly packaging.

Entries will be judged on originality, design concept, marketability, and functionality. Packages must have been launched on U.S. shelves between January 1, 2006, and February 28, 2007. Each winner will be covered in a one-page exclusive story in CPC Packaging’s May/June issue. The winners will be honored at an awards ceremony at the Luxe Pack New York trade show taking place May 23–24.

If you would like to nominate a package, please mail a note along with a sample of the product you are nominating to CPC Packaging magazine, Editors’ Choice Awards, c/o Canon Communications llc, 11444 W. Olympic Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064. Entries must be received by February 23. For more information, call group editor Daphne Allen at 310/445-4263.

Execs Urge Graduates to Consider Packaging

Too few college graduates are entering the beauty packaging industry today, according to Jerome Fraillon, manager of packaging concept development at Coty Prestige. “There are always job opportunities here at Coty, and not enough [qualified] people to fill the positions,” he says. His solution? A Packaging Design Colloquium held at his alma mater, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). “We thought this would be a good way to put students directly in contact with major companies,” he says.

The speakers at the fall 2006 event included two RIT experts, Roy Berns of the school’s Munsell Color Science Laboratory, and Bill Garno, director of RIT’s printing labs.

Several leading suppliers also participated in the event. Jerome’s father, Patrick Fraillon, and Volker Shreps, both vice presidents in the engineering department at Alcan Packaging (New York City), spoke about the challenges involved in producing a compact and a mascara package. A presentation about fragrance packaging was given by Olivier Caspar, president, and Christian Laussy, vice president of product development, both from Saint-Gobain Desjonquères (New York City).

Camilla Taft, president, Humming Bird Packaging, spoke about the package development process and the experience of working with cosmetic companies. Other speakers included Kees Riphagen, national account manager, decorative market, JDSU-Flex Products (Santa Rosa, CA); Jared Spencer, packaging sales, Unisource (Southboro, MA); and Anthony Heraud, project manager, Axilone USA (New York City).

Mitchell Kaneff, an RIT graduate and president of Arkay Packaging, spoke about decorating techniques that can be used on cartons. He also offered the students tips on what to expect when entering the workforce.

“Knowing how to communicate your ideas is so important. Practice speaking in front of a group of people,” he advised. Kaneff also stressed the importance of face-to-face meetings rather than communicating via e-mail, as well as the importance of being involved in industry organizations as a way to network.

Jerome Fraillon was proud that the day went so well. “When I was at RIT, some professors, as well as people in the industry, reached out to advise me. It feels good to be able to do the same for the students there now,” he says.

The event might also have been helpful because many RIT students aren’t familiar with the job opportunities that exist in the beauty industry. “Many RIT professors are from the food and medical industries. Some of the students who attended the presentations told me they didn’t know that much about our industry,” says Jerome Fraillon. He is already excited about planning the next Packaging Design Colloquium, which will be held this fall.

Look for Inspiration from Outside of the Beauty Industry, Students Advised

“Innovation is [about] bringing something new to market,” Estée Lauder packaging executive George Kress told a group of high school students last October. The company’s vice president of corporate packaging innovations said that innovation is often found by broadening your horizons.

Speaking at a Fragrance Foundation career fair in New York City, Kress pointed out how objects from other industries can sometimes inspire a package’s shape or style of decoration. He passed around the room a vase that he found on a trip to Asia. It was decorated using a unique sandblasting technique. Kress explained that this decorating technique could be used on a fragrance bottle. “At the end of the day, my job is to find cool things to inspire unique designs for packaging,” Kress told the students.

Joining Kress on the packaging and design panel were George Utley, president of Utley’s Inc.; and Stephanie Delille, vice president of packaging innovations for Coty Beauty.

Utley spoke about the importance of making prototypes before a “real” package is produced. “Every single package that is made had a prototype first,” Utley explained. He showed the students the model for the fragrance Be Delicious by Donna Karan, explaining how the bottle started out as a piece of clay.

Delille concluded the presentation by showing technical drawings of the Baby Phat by Kimora Lee Simmons fragrance bottle. She explained how package engineers developed it from a rendering to a model. Delille also spoke about licensing and the process of working with celebrities.

The Fragrance Foundation held its career guidance fair, “Making Scents of Your Future,” at the Fashion Institute of Technology. The Fragrance Foundation organized the event to expose teenagers to the different aspects of the fragrance industry and to help them choose a college and career path. Industry speakers included experts from Avon, Beauty Avenues, Coty Beauty, Estée Lauder, Firmenich, Givaudan, Lancôme, and L’Oréal.

Shanghai Steals the Show

Shanghai is a popular destination these days for beauty trade shows. This year, both Cosmoprof and Luxe Pack are debuting Shanghai editions to take advantage of what show organizers deem a quickly growing market.

The first Cosmoprof Shanghai show at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre took place January 31 to February 3. (Cosmoprof Shanghai is an extension of the Cosmoprof Asia trade show, which takes place annually in Hong Kong.)

Cosmoprof Shanghai’s Packaging Lounge educated attendees on the Chinese beauty market. More information on the presentation is detailed in the story at right.

Also at the lounge, Yidan Li, cofounder and vice president of Sino-European Yihong Consulting Company, Ltd., spoke on current laws and procedures that apply to cosmetics imported in China.

Like Cosmoprof Shanghai, Luxe Pack Shanghai will help brand marketers navigate the Chinese beauty market. The show, which focuses on the luxury end of beauty packaging, is scheduled to take place November 19–21 at the Shanghai International Convention Center.

A Luxe Pack Shanghai press release states: “Currently seeing incredible economic success, Asia, and especially China, is establishing itself more than ever as an essential area of development for luxury brand names. It is estimated that by 2010, more than 250 million Chinese will have access to luxury goods, i.e., 17 times more than [those who have access to luxury goods] today. Shanghai is established as the true shop window for Asia and is the focal point of all trends.”

Chinese Beauty Market Poised for Growth, According to Cosmoprof

Chinese buying power will continue to grow rapidly, according to a study recently presented by organizers of the Cosmoprof Shanghai trade show. The study claims that the Chinese beauty market, the eighth largest in the world, has grown steadily during the last decade and should continue to blossom.

“The growth rate of cosmetic sales in China has exceeded that of the overall economy for 12 out of the past 14 years,” the study concluded, based on findings obtained from the Hong Kong Trade and Development Centre.

Since 1997, general sales of cosmetics and toiletries in China have almost doubled. Skin care and hair care products accounted for most of the purchases. Imports of beauty and fragrance products have approximately doubled since 2003. Most imports come from France, Japan, and the United States (although most fragrances are imported from France).

Green Is Trendy, Says Ampacet at NJPEC Awards

At the New Jersey Packaging Executives Club’s (NJPEC) annual awards celebration honoring outstanding beauty packaging, guest speaker Linda Carroll of masterbatch supplier Ampacet Corp. (Tarrytown, NY) forecasted that green will be one of the beauty industry’s most popular colors in 2008.

“Green has gone mainstream,” said Carroll, Ampacet’s color insight manager. According to Carroll, the popularity of green reflects consumers’ growing concern for the environment.

Doreen Becker, group leader for plastic applications and design, BASF Effect Pigment Group (Florham Park, NJ), also spoke on decorating trends. Liquid-metal effects, pattern etching, and embossing will continue to be popular decorating techniques, according to Becker. She also said that more blow-molded bottles will feature more-transparent pigments that reflect light and make plastic look brighter. “We will also see more multifunctional additives being used in plastics,” Becker added.

The awards celebration took place November 16 at the Marriott Hotel in Whippany, NJ. Click here for details on all of the NJPEC winners.

Art of Packaging Award to Honor Clinique

The Pratt Institute and the organizers of Luxe Pack announced Clinique as the 2007 Art of Packaging Award winner. The award will be presented at a black-tie gala on May 22 at New York City’s University Club. Lynne Greene, president of Clinique Worldwide, will accept the award. The awards dinner benefits the Marc Rosen Scholarship for Graduate Design, a Pratt Institute program for cosmetic packaging design.

On December 14, a cocktail reception was held to celebrate Clinique’s award at Firmenich International’s Fine Fragrance Creative Center in New York City.

 

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