Board talk
The most appreciative noises being made about paper and board packaging tend to refer to its sustainability credentials from forestry accreditation schemes to its proven recyclability.
But of course there is a huge international industry busy developing the technical capabilities of these materials, both on the level of the substrate itself and through a growing array of alluring visual and tactile effects.
One example of the hard-edged benefits of board and its ability to pack an often unexpected punch is Chesapeake's Impressions mouldable fibre technology. A joint development with Billerud, this system for the first time allows fibre to achieve some of the shaping and embossing effects previously only found in plastics and metal.
The shaping technology means that the virgin board stretches without thinning. "The restrictions are that it will only stretch between 15% and 20%," says head of research and development (R&D) Carol Hammond. But within those limitations, different surface textures and effects can be built in, and (perhaps most excitingly) deep embossing put into the pack. "Impressions gives you depth of 2mm, 3mm or even 4mm on embossing, which is up to the levels of tinplate," she says.
Billerud has commercialised one pack using Impressions board with a polymer lining for cold meats. One option would be to apply the technology to higher-end products. But according to Chesapeake, there is just as much interest from brand owners and retailers keen to 'premiumise' what are currently everyday categories.
Board is already turning up in some unfamiliar parts of the store, sometimes to help justify premium pricing and at other times simply to create shelf stand-out.
According to Nikki Clark, marketing manager at Benson Group, a carry pack for Tesco Finest potatoes illustrates this tendency. "In this case, the carton holds four top-end jacket potatoes," she says.
"Retailers in general are starting to tier their fruit and veg," she adds. "This is an area where we haven't been before."
Imitating metal
If board can imitate metal more in terms of shaping, as Chesapeake's Impressions suggests, then it can also do this on the level of surface effects. As an example, Clark holds up recent work carried out by Benson for Ahmad Tea, which wanted to move away from using tinplate packaging.
"Our ink manager worked with suppliers to come up with a flexo metallic silver with a colour wash over the top," she says. "We were able to replicate all the colours with just the right metallic finish."
Just as often, it is the basic properties of the material itself, as much as any additional effects, which are getting board noticed. "Largely for the tactile effect, there is a trend for using the reverse side," says Clark. "It gives a rougher feel to the pack, and because it absorbs the inks more, has a tendency to mute the colours applied." She cites Marks & Spencer cake boxes as an example of this type of impact.
The grainy appeal of 'naked' kraft board remains one of food retail's current packaging fashion statements. It has been applied to everything from sandwich and salad packs in the food-to-go market to products in Tesco's bakery range. In the case of Tesco, replacing plastic clam-shell type packs with the 'natural' feel of board has helped, no doubt, to generate a more artisanal, patisserie-style image for the range.
Says Clark at Benson: "The vast majority of consumers know that paper and board can be recycled. What brands are pushing at the moment is not this aspect but the suggestion that the food is somehow 'home-made', or more 'natural'." What better way for food manufacturers to imply that their food is not, in fact, manufactured in a factory?
This type of growing market for board has been reinforced by developing capabilities both in the types of barrier that can be built in and in the automated forming, filling and sealing of the pack. The potential here for the on-the-go and ready meals markets has been supported by technology which combines hermetic sealing of the polymer-coated structure with gas flushing for modified atmosphere packaging (MAP).
MAP for board trays
Tray lidding equipment company Proseal and designer Rapid Action Packaging last year launched an MAP machine system for board trays, having introduced the sandwich pack equivalent the year before. The companies are continuing to work together on pack-and-machine combinations in this area.
The potential role of board packaging in some of these categories has doubtless been helped by the availability of ovenable grades. Of this greater uptake of ovenable board, Clark at Benson says: "That's going to be the big change. We've already got a few projects in the pipeline on this." As she says, this convergence of technologies means that, in theory at least, any oven-ready product in plastics or foil is a possible target.
But not everyone sees ovenable board as a new frontier in retail packaging. Those who are not investing in this area point to the continued success and relative cost-effectiveness of ovenable plastics for ready meal and other trays.
The board industry has always used coatings, but there is now an even greater willingness to match consumer acceptance of fibre-based packaging with the functional benefits of plastics.
Sales director for consumer board at Stora Enso Wilfried Schmahl says: "We run a lot of extrusion capacity for drinking cups and the like. Extrusion can be used to apply just the necessary barrier. That will be the key for the future." It could mean being able to eliminate, for example, an inner bag inside a carton.
He adds: "One of our biggest R&D projects involves a strong grade of paper which, in combination with a thin layer of plastic, could replace plastics films for pouches, for instance."
There are massive flow-packing and bagging markets where this type of hybrid material could challenge the current dominance of flexible plastics, Schmahl argues. "This is a very young trend, but we've done trials with frozen vegetables, for instance." Breakfast cereals could be another promising category, according to Stora Enso.
Competing with plastics
At Chesapeake, Hammond agrees that, in many markets, going head-to-head with plastics may actually mean combining board and paper with plastics in order to create the required barrier.
Increasingly, the board industry is working with biopolymers. Stora Enso, for instance, uses a blend of three different biopolymers in a coating process applied to some of its products. The process is being extended to allow cartons as well as drinking cups to be coated this way, says Schmahl.
Chesapeake, meanwhile, is participating in the EU-funded NewGenPack training network, which includes the development of functional barrier coatings for board materials using sustainable and renewable materials. "Over the next three years, this will be looking at ways of taking paper and board to the next generation, also incorporating agents such as antimicrobials," says Hammond.
While all this is going on, board is also managing to make more of an impact in those categories where it already has an established presence.
Apart from its mouldable board technology, Chesapeake rates new finishes and effects among the more interesting developments over the last 18 months or so. Its Glint micro-embossing technology creates an effect not unlike a holographic foil. "It's applied from a carrier film, but transferred to the varnish," says Hammond. "Since nothing of the film remains on the board, it is still recyclable."
As well as being used to decorated toothpaste cartons, the technology also takes a starring role on Walkers' limited edition shortbread carton created to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee.
More straightforwardly, she says, the use of cold foil blocking to replace hot foil has made this type of decoration more cost-effective. "Cold foil can be applied inline, rather than being a secondary, offline process, and requires no special die," she says.
Benson Group, too, understands how foil blocking can help to create shelf-standout. For five products in the Copperpot range of traditional confectionery, foil blocking of the brand name is combined with shaping of the carton profile, in the form of an eye-catching 'petal-top' style.
Like combinations with plastics and bioplastics, digital print for food cartons is something that could loom much larger as an option in the future.
Chesapeake's digital presses currently serve the pharmaceuticals industry almost exclusively, thanks to the nature of the sector and average run lengths. But Hammond says: "There's no doubt that there's increasing interest in these capabilities in all sorts of product areas."
She adds: "Currently, we can print labels this way, but we are developing the capability to print entire cartons," she says.
As all of this shows, the paper and board industry continues to prove the point that its product is far from being a one-trick pony, able to sell itself only via an environmental message, whether tacit or explicit.
But whatever flexibility and functionality the supply chain builds in, it cannot afford to compromise board's all-important recycling record. For many (perhaps most) consumers, that will remain the bedrock on which their positive attitudes towards fibre packaging stand.
