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Pet: Creating value - concept to consumer
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Monday, 25 May, 2015, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Vincent Le Guen
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fiogf49gjkf0d Today’s beverage consumer is faced with many purchase options, and packaging can considerably influence choice. Some studies suggest it takes just 3-7 seconds for a consumer to choose one beverage over another.
However, packaging isn’t only about the consumer experience. As well as communicating the brand and creating a great consumer experience, a beverage package needs to improve line efficiency and product safety, be sustainable and reduce costs – all with a fast time to market.
A well-designed package can create value at every phase of the supply chain. It uses less raw materials, and reduces energy during production while increasing overall production efficiency. It withstands transportation and looks good at the point of sale, leading to a pleasant experience for the consumer resulting in repeat purchases. Packaging development, therefore, is much more than the means to producing an attractive yet functional package. This is particularly true for packages made with PET, which thanks to its low weight, high strength and design flexibility, offers great opportunities to create value from concept to consumer.
At Sidel our over 300 packaging experts, engineers and designers, many with decades of experience, are dedicated to this goal. They do so via five distinct packaging development phases:
Packaging and preform design
Conceptual creative designs, digital models, technical drawings and 3D-printed physical models can all speed up the creative process, helping innovative new designs make the leap from page to production and get to market quicker. At the same time, lighter preforms, shorter necks and thinner labels can save costs. At Sidel we have over 70,000 bottle drawings in our global database, which we use as inspiration for each new design we work on.
Packaging qualification
Using virtual bottle modelling with finite element analysis and full feasibility studies and performance tests with pilot moulds and Sidel equipment, our scientists evaluate bottle stability, rigidity and quality prior to industrial production to ensure that bottles will perform in the real world. We work with both internal and external designers in order to improve bottle strength and performance across the supply chain, provide a faster design cycle and reduce costs.
Liquid-package interaction analysis
Light, oxygen, temperature and other conditions can influence the quality of end-products. So our liquid-package interaction experts perform laboratory tests under real production and supply chain conditions to determine the most suitable packaging designs, PET resin, sizes, shapes, caps, and filling volumes. They account for each product’s recipe, processing parameters and production conditions to maximise product quality and shelf life.
Packaging optimisation
Raw materials can account for as much as 70-80% of a bottle’s cost, which is why lightweighting bottles and caps can lead to substantial savings. However, to better ensure the end-product’s quality, at Sidel we prefer to talk about rightweighting. Grams lighter at an optimum weight, requiring less energy to produce, the final package will still have the same look and feel – still strong and true to everything for which the brand stands. Our latest Sidel RightWeight concept bottle weighs and costs less, saves energy, maintains optimum line performance and protects beverage quality, all with a positive consumer experience. This is the ultimate goal of all the packages we help design and develop at Sidel. Only then can you truly start turning supply chains to value chains. To do this, you also need to understand the package production environment, which is our critical fifth phase.
Complete line solutions
When it comes to industrialising bottle design, Sidel draws on over 30 years of PET expertise to determine which high-quality equipment and production solution is right for the end-product – regardless if it is water, carbonated soft drinks, liquid dairy products, JNSDIT (juices, nectars, soft drinks, isotonics and teas), beer or even non-beverage categories such as edible oils. New packages should only be designed with the production environment in mind. For example, only new technologies such as the Sidel Matrix system that includes proprietary Intelliblower technology can ensure consistent, optimal PET material distribution that is so critical for true rightweighting, if that is the goal. Alternatively older equipment can be converted, possibly with upgraded technology, to achieve new packaging goals. Either way, the goals remain the same: Protecting quality, raising efficiency, lowering costs, getting to market quickly and delivering that all important consumer experience that results in repeat purchases.
(The author is vice-president, packaging, Sidel)
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