Compromise was never an option when pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) faced the challenge of adopting shelf ready packaging (SRP) while protecting its branding status in the highly competitive market for consumer medications in Australia.
With the major Australian retailers increasingly insisting on SRP for its stocked brands, GSK was keen to ensure that its best-selling brands, such as the tried and tested Panadol products, were able to stand out on shelves and retain market leadership in the sector.
Its determination to protect its products’ shelf profile led GSK to form a partnership with specialist folding carton packaging manufacturer, Hannapak, based in Richmond North, NSW. GSK wanted to ensure its entry into SRP gave it an opportunity to enhance its brand visibility in supermarkets rather than simply meet the retailers’ functional requirements.
Hannapak, for its part, was a relative newcomer to the SRP arena itself, but had been working hard to devise a strategy that would allow it to use its particular strengths to ensure its entry to SRP was about building value for its customers.
As Hannapak sales and marketing director Sam Hanna explains to PKN, the company’s traditional focus on folding carton manufacture and printing meant this was an importrant market segment to be involved in.
“We had been asked by customers many times over the years about whether we could help them with shelf ready packaging,” Hanna says.
“We were determined to create a genuine alternative to what was already available.”
Hanna says the company decided to start from scratch and come up with a shelf ready concept that could play to its particular expertise and enhance customers’ brand values.
“Lots of people look at SRP as corrugated boxes with the front panel taken out, which can then sit on the shelf,” he says.
“This can be functional, but it does not stand out so much as a point of sale tool.
“But in many application, particularly with established brands, it is more important to use it to enhance brand presence, recognition and quality.”
Hannapak’s solution led it to launch a new SRP service it has dubbed ShelfMate, a full service offering to clients based around using SRP as an opportunity, rather than a requirement.
“ShelfMate is a new concept we’ve devoted a lot of research and development and resources to creating over the past two years,” Hanna says.
“Our customers invest a lot of time and money into their brands and shelf real estate, and SRP should not compromise that.
“Most brands ultilise SRP, so why not get the most out of it by enhancing point-of-sale presence.”
By happy coincidence, as the company’s ShelfMate project matured into a finished and polished product offering, GSK was in the process of devising its own SRP strategy.
“Timing-wise, it was perfect,” Hanna says. “When we came to meet them ourselves, we found we were ticking all the boxes for what they were after.
“For GSK getting into SRP with a product like Panadol which is a respected market leader, well, they didn't want to compromise. The quality of the finish of their SRP packs had to be the same as the primary packs.”
Hannapak technical sales manager, Ben Knight, says the company’s expertise in the folding carton arena was exactly the remedy GSK was looking for in approaching SRP.
He says the company was also able to leverage its technological and equipment advantages to ensure its SRP proposals met GSK’s requirements that such packaging enhance, rather than hinder, its point-of-sale presence.
“That meant there were many things for us to make a priority. The SRP packs had to fulfil many roles for GSK in terms of both the graphics and functionality,” Knight says.
Hannapak's approach started with the materials used, in this case, using folding carton as the chief packaging material.
This gave it two advantages. Firstly, the company could use its in-line printing technology, producing the finished result in one pass while maintaining a level of affordability.
“Secondly, it would mean that the produced SRP reflected the quality of the primary pack.
“We have the technology to do foil finishes, offset litho printing and coatings, all in one pass on our presses as well as the ability to print colour over the foil components,” Knight explains.
“Traditionally, foil is laminated to board in a separate process by means of a ployester carrier. But there are no plastic components on the finished product using our in-line foil printing process, so it can be totally recycled.
“This means we have taken a lot of landfill packaging out of the system.”
Also, by printing on carton material, Hannapak could also produce SRP packs that can be be folded to produce a variety of shapes to suit the primary products they are destined to hold, with all graphics easily visible to the purchaser, all while still ensuring structural integrity.
“In terms of structure, we have internal folding tabs on the side to assist with carton strength and stability, to help it stand upright, and to help it stand out,” Knight says
“The structural design was all about enhancing the front panel.”
“Because of the advanced equipment we have at Hannapak, the SRPs we have supplied GSK have inside print and branding as well, even though they are only printed on one side of the sheet,” he says.
“The structural strength of the double carton means there is also no limit to the shapes you can make in the front panel, and it also has a clean line finish on the top edges – all the perforations are internal, so we do not have a ragged edge,” he adds.
“Now, they are easier to open. Just one pull of one panel to remove the top, and it is all fully recyclable.”
Hanna says the success of the SRP project and the use of the innovative in-line foil print and manufacturing techniques has seen the company grow its product offerings to GSK.
It has also impressed one of the major retailers destined to stock the SRPs.
“I came across this SRP and was so impressed with the design work that Hannapak had put into the Panadol shelf ready packaging. If you have been wondering what best in class looks like, this is it,” Woolworth’s general manager strategy, Rod Evenden, says.
Packaging consultant Ralph Moyle, of Packaging Solutions with Ralph Moyle Pty Ltd, which acted as the project leader from GSK’s part, says the Hannpak solution ticked all the boxes required of SRP.
“GSK had a challenge when converting its packaging to Shelf Ready as the Panadol brand is in every household; the standard of the shelf ready carton had to be superior to all competitors,” Moyle says.
“The Panadol logo had just had uplift to the ‘Beacon’ style with the foil print and this had to be complemented. The challenge was to bring these attributes together and present a block of Panadol products across the shelf to reinforce the brand.”
The GSK SRP team worked with Hannapak to create a design that not only met the five easies of the retailers’.
“The full range of Panadol, Polident, Biotene and Breathe Rite were prepared with a common theme of front face shape, printing and carton structure to give the GSK brands the superiority they demanded on shelf,” he says.
He says retailers regard the design as best in class, which augurs well for Hannapak’s ShelfMate.
