Monthly Archives: November 2015

Hannah’s Holiday Home Appeal

hannah's holiday home appeal

Hannah’s Holiday Home Appeal

Has been set up in memory of Hannah Westbrook a very well loved and brave girl.
At the Age of 8 Hannah was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease and was treated at Southampton General Hospital.
Throughout her illness she underwent very intense chemotherapy, a stem cell treatment and radiotherapy.
During her illness she never complained and remained a very happy, caring and loving daughter, sister and friend and was well loved by all who knew her.
Despite all of this, she continued with family and friends to fund raise for the Piam Brown Ward, which is the children’s cancer ward based at Southampton General Hospital, raising over £10,000 in just 3 years.
Sadly, at the age of 10 on 19th September 2004, Hannah passed away peacefully at her family home in Waterlooville.
It is because Hannah was such a caring and loving child that her family and friends have set up this appeal.
Hannah loved family life and spending time with family and loved ones was very important to her.
We thought there wasn’t a better way to remember her by offering just that.
Through overwhelming generosity we have been able to purchase the holiday home allowing us to offer as many families as possible a well earned break.
It is also to be offered to families who have lost someone very special to them so they can have some valuable family time together away from it all.
The park itself is wonderful. It offers an indoor and outdoor pool, outdoor play area, shop, club house, arcade and games area with fantastic family entertainment and a cafe catering for all your needs. The staff are all very friendly and helpful too.
All of this is set in picturesque woodlands on the outskirts of the New Forest.
Plus with thanks to everyone who has helped and donated, in 2012 we were able to open another holiday home on Hayling Island.

 

For more on Hannah’s Holiday Home Appeal go to www.hannahsappeal.org/

Driving brand engagement and loyalty

Driving brand engagement and loyalty

Driving brand engagement and loyalty

 

Trevor Nichols (Business Development Manager, Domino Printing Sciences) and Mike Hughes (Managing Director, Autocoding Systems), tell why promotional codes are a crucial asset in today’s fiercely competitive marketing arena.
WHEN were you last stopped in the street by someone asking how often you purchased a particular product? The chances are it was a while ago. The decline in street-corner market research is driven by digital technology.
We buy so many things online, and tell brands so much about ourselves in the process, that there’s little need for it. And even when we ‘go offline’ and actually visit the shops, what we buy tells brands a lot about us.
Supermarket loyalty cards are the most obvious example, but examine the products in your basket and it’s likely you’ll find evidence of another, increasingly popular marketing tool — the promotional code.
Promotional codes are proving a highly effective way of engaging customers with innovative campaigns. A unique item of alphanumeric data, the codes are printed on a product or packaging. They are most often used by food and beverage manufacturers to stimulate consumer interest and engagement with a particular brand. They may, for example, encourage consumers to access online information such as deals. And in the very act of engagement, the consumer will be sharing information — even if only an email address.
FUNDAMENTAL DIFFERENCE
Promotional codes are fundamentally different from traditional codes. The latter provide the security essential to risk mitigation. Promotional codes, on the other hand, serve a customer acquisition and relationship function. They are used to drive brand growth, increase consumer loyalty and cultivate market insight and research.
For brand managers, promotional coding can give a significant edge in the marketing arena and an opportunity to increase brand awareness via cross media channels.
More importantly, promotional codes are a cost-effective way of gaining valuable insight into consumer behaviour, in the form of granular, validated data.This allows brand owners to extract useful information about consumer demographics — gender, age range and, more crucially, repeat purchases.
Advertising agencies, meanwhile, play a crucial role in creating and executing the promotional ideas and concepts themselves. They build the websites where codes are input and redeemed, and buy the media to drive and support the campaign penetration. They are also taking on responsibility for providing the actual promotional code data to be printed and used.
THE ENGINEERING CHALLENGE
This is all great news for marketers, but it’s important not to underestimate the engineering needed to deliver the promotional codes with 100% accuracy. Stakeholders should be conscious that any promotional technology needs to be seamlessly integrated with existing or planned automated packaging processes; or that the promotional coding hardware and software will run independently of any existing equipment producing BBE dates and compliance codes.
The years following the 2008 recession led to leaner manufacturing through cost-reduction and profit maximisation, and with production teams already streamlined, careful packaging equipment and production planning is required to ensure existing product demand can be met.
HARDWARE
Domino provides multiple technologies to print promotional codes onto products or packaging — this knowledge, experience and understanding of the manufacturing and packaging environments, influences the promotional application and, as a result, the type of technology deployed. For example, continuous ink jet is a frequently adopted technology for printing promotional codes onto soft drink cans, while PET bottles are well suited to Domino’s latest i-Tech laser markers.
The flexible wrappers around chocolate bars or crisps are ideal for thermal transfer overprinting systems. In other words, the choice of coding technology is dependent on the sector and industry in question. Many factors influence this, including the packaging machinery in use, production environment, line speeds, stability, as well as the packaging material itself.
CLOSER TO CONSUMERS
Promotional coding has historically been applied where the packaging is made, but this is no longer the case. Changing pack sizes, growing demand from fast-moving societies, digital consumers, higher throughput and greater flexibility mean more coding now happens closer to the end user. This calls for more robust and reliable automated solutions to apply codes to primary packaging.
Systems Integrator, AutoCoding Systems, can set up and control all packaging line devices, including all types of coding and marking equipment. The AutoCoding software solution can deploy the correct set-up and message data, including the delivery and management of unique codes, to all printing devices. AutoCoding’s solutions integrate directly with Domino’s coding and marking equipment, representing a seamless connection of software and hardware without the need for human intervention. This is important in securely linking together the various elements of such a project. Securing the quality and success of the promotional coding campaign is the ultimate goal. The key is balancing the needs of various stakeholders — brand managers, advertising agencies, production and packaging teams, hardware and software suppliers.
Promotional codes are an invaluable asset in today’s fiercely competitive and increasingly digital marketing environment. When they form part of a broader campaign that offers customers more than the product alone, they build trust, loyalty and commitment. Whether sharing knowledge, prizes, or the ethics and values of a brand, promotional codes provide outstanding insights and granular detail about how consumers interact with brands. The empirical data they produce has the power to shape the effectiveness of future campaigns and a brand’s market share.

IML (in-mould labelling) enters new growth phase

IML (in-mould labelling) enters new growth phaseIML cartons

In-mould labelling (IML) may be well known in injection moulding. However, the reasons for investing in it have evolved and are not always so familiar, points out Nigel Flowers, managing director of Sumitomo (SHI) Demag UK.

NO one could describe in-mould labelling (IML) as the new kid on the block and perhaps having been around for so long makes it easier for brand-owners and packaging converters to overlook it. This is despite the fact that the balance between costs and benefits has actually undergone a considerable shift in recent years.

For those who have not revisited IML in the light of these developments, it may be time to give it another long, hard look.

Arnaud Nomblot, European business development manager for packaging at Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, comments, “Many are aware of IML as an option without knowing precisely how labels are applied. Techniques vary, although the most common approach in injection-moulding is to index pre-cut labels into the mould using a dedicated robotic arm, and immobilise them using vacuum or static electricity.

“The polymer is then rear-injected into the mould, while heat and pressure are carefully adjusted to deliver the required degree of melt in the film.”

Industry analysts signal that while Europe commands the IML market with 58% of overall demand, its growth is barely on the radar compared to emerging markets including South America and Asia Pacific – which have enjoyed an annual growth pattern of 17.5% and 7.5% respectively.

Based on global IML volume the injection moulding format (IML-IM) dominates at 68% in comparison to 31% for IML extrusion blow moulding and a mere 1% for thermoforming. This reflects the much deeper penetration of the technology in European food packaging, where, currently 95% is IML-IM compared to the other IML alternatives. Looking ahead, global IML volume is expected to reach 1.01 billion sq. meters in 2017– up by almost 18% on 2012 figures.

Converters and brand-owners in the UK and of Europe may express concern about entering a whole new market with a different set of suppliers. However, because the networks and reputations have had plenty of time to bed in, new entrants stand a much better chance of latching onto established supplier relationships, rather than encountering a fly-by-night sector on the crest of its first wave.

For Sumitomo (SHI) Demag) this has been especially evident in the high end spirits sector, where a number of our Scottish customers are keen to innovate and develop sophisticated dispensing, tamper evident and customised special edition caps incorporating IML branding.

This may reassure those new to the market, but what about the costs? Here too the news is encouraging.

At Sumitomo (SHI) Demag, we have seen the capital cost of a system decline significantly in recent years at an estimated 12-15%.

One prime reason for this is robots have become simpler to integrate. In the last half decade this has stripped out some significant expenditure in IML installations.

Meanwhile, IML cycle times have got faster, varying from 4 seconds upwards.

EXPERIENCE COUNTS

Europe’s track record in IML-IM, along with its tried-and-tested supply chains, mean that the pool of expertise able to identify potential cost savings and reinforce quality is that much greater.

Our company, for example, has actively recruited more in-house packaging specialists. Having access to this type of experience is invaluable, especially for customers expanding their portfolio and perhaps moving into the precision market and exploring the benefits of switching from hydraulic moulding to all-electric machines.

We understand that packaging tends to need bigger and more complex moulds than other sectors. But at the same time, it typically requires less clamp force.

Recently, Sumitomo (SHI) Demag reduced the machine specification for one packaging application from 160 tonnes, initially down to 130 tonnes, and now to just 100 tonnes.

An experienced eye can conjure up cost savings – and other benefits – from unexpected sources.

Specifically in IML, many benefits relate to materials use. At a time when the weight of packaging is more closely scrutinised than ever before, both for cost and sustainability reasons, IML-IM offers a cost effective method of forming robust thin-wall containers with lots of visual shelf appeal.

Most filmic IML labels are around 40 microns. Enhancements in pre-mould handling technology give converters the option of using label materials at the thinner end of the spectrum.

While label substrates have become thinner, they have also migrated from decorating a small portion or strip of any given pack to covering the entire container.

This is the result of years of development. It means that, in the case of food, labels can incorporate multilayer barriers and even provide full coverage to minimising oxygen penetrating the pack, which in turn extends shelf-life and reduces product waste.

HOOKING CUSTOMERS THROUGH SHELF APPEAL

In today’s overcrowded consumer market, it’s the tactile and visual finishes of a container that gives it a unique standout on-shelf and in the consumer’s hand. And that’s where brand owners continue to focus much of their efforts.

Previous challenges, such as label distortion on deeper containers (for instance ice cream tubs and yellow fats) have been solved.

It is now possible to apply labels to containers 80mm deep, while staying consistent and true.

What’s more, the modular flexibility of IML-IM systems today means you can run a wide range of packing shapes and label types through one system.

This means much smaller production runs are now feasible.

Higher-quality results are largely the result of dependable supplier relationships on the equipment side to match specialisation in label converting. In particular, IM machine manufacturers like us have well-established networks with tool manufacturers, downstream equipment manufacturers and IML robot manufacturers. This enables us to obtain the ideal calibration to achieve optimal functionality.

IML is gaining traction in the UK and Europe and generating interest beyond the automotive sector and yellow fats food categories.

Now, other packaging categories such as DIY and a much wider range of foods are reaping the benefits. No sector is immune from today’s much fiercer competition for the consumer’s attention, and IML has proven benefits in terms of image quality, consistency and overall visual impact.

There remains, of course, several challenging aspects to IML which need to be considered, notably the wider machine footprint. Effectively, a label insertion system requires the same amount of space again as the IM machine itself! However, converters that have the physical capacity to expand, and the imaginative capacity to spot the opportunities, will offset these drawbacks against the huge – and growing – advantages offered by this technology.

RRT Rapid Relief Team

RRT Rapid Relief TeamRRT Rapid Relief TeamWho We Are
Who is the RRT Rapid Relief Team ?

The RRT Rapid Relief Team is a volunteer, not-for-profit organisation, set up to support local communities in times of need; We do this by serving food and drinks to emergency services personnel, helping out at homeless missions and support work for other charities.
The core service of RRT is to provide quality catering and refreshments efficiently. This benevolent relief is offered to persons in need with compassion and care by our teams of willing volunteers. Our volunteers are dedicated to providing compassionate, friendly and effective help. RRT members are part of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC).

RRT Rapid Relief TeamOperations

RRT is a global organisation with teams in Australia, UK, USA, Canada, New Zealand and Europe.

RRT has replicated the Organisational chart in every state or region globally to ensure uniformity in our offer to the community. Our teams are generally the same size, follow the same protocol, carry the same equipment and have access to a central source of supply.
Our teams have attended courses for Risk Management, First Aid, WH&S, Food Handling , Food Safety Supervision, and much more.

To read more about the RRT Organisation please go to http://www.rapidreliefteam.org/

Aluminium pack recycling records best ever performance

Aluminium pack recycling records best ever performanceAluminium pack recycling records best ever performance

Packaging waste recovery data shows reported aluminium packaging recycling’s highest ever quarterly performance at 23,330 tonnes.

Aluminium pack recycling records best ever performance

Packaging waste recovery data shows Aluminium pack recycling records best ever performance at 23,330 tonnes.The Q3 results are the direct result of adjustments made to the accreditation process, following lower than expected tonnages in Q1 and Q2, and increasing volumes of aluminium packaging recovered from incinerator bottom ash (IBA) being reported through the system.

An estimated 18,800 tonnes is required in the final quarter to achieve the 2015 recycling target.

Rick Hindley, executive director of the Aluminium Packaging Recycling Organisation (Alupro) said: “Alupro has consistently advocated streamlining the reprocessor/exporter accreditation process and these changes have had an immediate effect. With more reprocessors coming on stream we are increasingly confident that aluminium will not only achieve the 2015 recycling target, but also that in future the figures will be a more accurate picture of the amount of aluminium packaging recycled in the UK or exported for recycling. We are very pleased to see that new reprocessors are becoming accredited to the system and are grateful to Defra and the national environment agencies for working to bring about these changes.

“We knew that 2015 would be a period of adjustment following changes to the aluminium protocols which came into effect in January. This is the first set of data since further revisions were introduced to the protocol which allows PRNs to be issued on 70% of the non-ferrous material recovered from incinerator bottom ash. We are increasingly confident that the 2015 recycling target will now be met.”