The future of food packaging?

Tony Foster, sales and marketing director at DS Smith’s UK packaging division recently spoke to Food Processing magazine around the future of the food packaging industry.

The feature article was published in the September issue of Food Processing magazine and his full responses can be read below:

What do you see as being the future of food / drink packaging?

The past decade or so has seen significant innovation in food and drink packaging and I see no reason for this not to continue as manufacturers work hard to offer the most effective solutions to FMCG brands, retailers and ultimately, shoppers.

This innovation will need to help the brands and retailers sell more products and reduce costs. And, as more and more competition emerges, making cost savings without compromising on quality will be absolutely necessary.

I believe there is a fantastic opportunity for the packaging industry to be more inventive as we look to make the consumer choice easier and more appealing.

Packaging that allows products to remain at the right eye level and at the front of the shelf will become more common place, to allow a product to stand out further than its competition and to help maximise on-shelf availability. Specially engineered retail ready packaging (RRP) will smoothly move the contents forward as each item is sold.

Research from IGD has revealed that 37 per cent of customers will buy an alternative brand if they can’t see their chosen product on the shelf, while retail trials have shown that sales of a product continually presented at the front of the shelf can increase by up to 20 per cent, with an average increase of six to eight per cent.

Advancements such as this will help FMCG brands and retailers combat the problem of poor on-shelf availability, without the need for additional equipment on the shelf or for in store teams to spend time manually pulling products forward. It will improve the shopper experience.

The role of personalisation in retail ready packaging (RRP) can be pivotal as retailers position their marketing strategy to meet evolving shopper needs.

It will become increasingly important for the packaging industry to become more nimble so that retail ready packs help to influence shoppers at the point of sale, whether messaging is regionalised or event specific.

Topical and regionalised messaging could help a retailer’s promotion around specific events such as Wimbledon specific promotions in London SW1 in June and July. Innovation like this has proven to be a success with primary packaging, as has been seen with the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign.

As we go forward I anticipate the technology that is already being used to great effect develops further and we’ll see much more use of digital information, such as QR coding and even the grasp of near field communication technology (NFC) with chips planted in the RRP.

There are caveats, however, and the industry needs to be aware of the potential pitfalls. The use of technology, especially within short print runs will drive prices up in what is already a retailer-lead, price-driven war. In addition, consumers are already being bombarded with promotion through their letter boxes and smart devices and they continue to be time-poor.

The packaging industry will need to adapt to ensure it is supporting its customers in the future, meeting the demands of the shopper and ensuring shelf space is best utilised where brands are competing. But it’s what we are good at and we’ll continue to offer the industry new technology and innovation to make it happen.