The Sea Change in Packaging, Paul Jenkins, ThePackHub

ThePackHub is a packaging innovation consultancy specialising in the delivery of technical and innovative packaging solutions for brand owners, retailers and packaging suppliers. Paul Jenkins understands the industry drivers, the packaging trends and consumer insights that help inform the packaging innovation process. In this article, we ask Paul Jenkins more about the compelling trends in packaging and how print needs to adapt to follow suit.

Paul, tell us more about you and ThePackHub?

I started a consultancy with Barrington Pamplin after a career in packaging design and brand management with Imperial Tobacco. We developed the idea of ThePackHub as we saw a need for independent insight and innovation for packaging professionals. Our ‘bread and butter’ or simple value proposition is an innovation database called the Innovation Zone. This features a number of independently created reports, presentations and blogs. People subscribe, they gain access to this information and we provide an information service and continually improve our day to day connection with them.

What kind of people subscribe?

We have subscribers across the market representing both brands and retailers including Coca Cola, Waitrose, M&S, Mondi, AB InBev, Premier Foods. They like the value of ThePackHub as it gives them access to our database and they get plenty of curated, practical and independent insight.

What defining trends do you see shaping packaging?

Sustainability has once again risen to the top. This is because it has clearly made a return to the height of consumer concerns. This will only grow in its importance and will continue to influence retail and brand owners further up the line. Environmentally friendly inks and processes are becoming a key area that brands and retailers are keen on and everyone is feeling the pressure to do more.

Obviously packaging is on the front line in terms of consumption, production, pollution and waste. Unfortunately, we in the consumer world have got used to cheap food. And hand in hand with cheap food, we see very efficient low-cost packaging. For example, you can now buy a whole chicken for only £4! This is the result of low-cost farming. Also, you can eat all types of produce 12 months a year, whatever the season. Therefore packaging is seen as a problem but actually it’s the entire way things are made and how we consume that is the problem. Consumers need to make a compromise, but ultimately many are not prepared to do that. People are now thinking that single-use PET bottles are bad but the market remains buoyant. What about single-use sandwich packaging? Has this market gone down? I doubt it.

How will this change?

Through cooperation and collaboration. A great example of positive change has to be the Leeds by Example project managed by Hubbub. They are doing the innovative project in Leeds Recycle on the go and #LeedsByExample | Hubbub Foundation and are doing all these initiatives to improve consumer engagement for recycling. #LeedsByExample was funded by Starbucks, Ecosurety, Asda, Bunzl, Caffè Nero, Coca-Cola GB, Costa Coffee, Danone, Highland Spring Group, Innocent Group, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Marks & Spencer, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Pret a Manger and Shell.

One of the ideas is that you put a bottle into a dinosaur’s mouth and it growls back. And it has really improved the amount of recycling! It is fun and not so earnest which is positive, and this does make a change.

Right now there is a war on Plastic. Plastic can be recycled and many are saying that this in itself is wrong. The war should be on carbon, not on plastic per se and the issues we have with climate change are not merely with plastic, it is with all materials and fundamentally how we live our lives. This is a carbon footprint issue. For the past 12 months or so the big issue has been plastic but people do need to see that the issues are nuanced. The output of bad stuff generally is the issue and it is to do with what this adds up to in terms of carbon output.

Is there still a general problem and misunderstanding with regards to sustainability and disagreement over what is good, and what isn’t?

Yes, there is still a lot of confusion and inconsistency regarding sustainability. I was at an event recently where a speaker said that a key problem is that most plastic cannot be recycled. When in fact it can, and the audience, mostly consultants, brand owners, retailers and packaging suppliers, pulled him up on it and they all ended up disagreeing and debating. The fact is that the speaker was wrong but wouldn’t accept it. We do need clarity and people need to come together to tackle the issue on a strategic level and not just pick on one material in the supply chain. That doesn’t get much done. But whatever, you cannot make statements that are not true.

Is packaging trying to change?

Yes, this is around necessity and demand coming from the value chain. Retailers are nervous about doing the wrong thing and being hauled over the coals on social media and in TV programmes. They don’t want to be accused of being bad. But they have all had their share of negativity. It’s difficult as retailers are competing on price which means operational efficiency and this often means shelf-ready packaging as this enables a quick and cheap method for getting the product into stores. And that by definition isn’t always good for the environment.

However, I recently went to Waitrose, a leading supermarket chain in Oxford UK - they have an initiative called UnPackaged where they have an extensive range of product - you get a label and go to the checkout as normal and they scan the labels - you have jars to add it in - you keep the jars and then you go back again. This experiment will appeal to a small subsection of the community who are highly motivated to make a difference. It may not be convenient to clean the containers and take them back to the store as it places a lot of the responsibility in the hands of the consumer. So it makes the shopping experience more complex and time-consuming. And in today’s ‘need it now world’ we want speed and convenience. However, what Waitrose have done as an experiment is really positive, but it is hard to imagine at the moment a significant section of society doing it like this when they have had it so easy for so long. There are lots of logistical challenges here but you have to applaud them for trying!

So what is the key to change working both for the environment and consumer experience?

The challenge is to deliver eco-convenience. Greengrocers, before Supermarkets took over, used paper bags and you didn’t have frozen food. People shopped every day and bought what they needed. The Supermarket has changed all of that and arguably made it easier (for them) and we now shop for longer periods and the packaging industry has grown hugely as a result.

Are FMCG brands truly committed to the environment?

Most brands are really committed to sustainability. Take P&G for example. They are part of the TerraCycle Loop initiative which is about reusable packaging similar to the traditional ‘milkman model’ and it’s really impressive. P&G are big players and they make a variety of famous brands. They have this thing where they have reusable depots with products. You order stuff online, and they deliver it in a reusable container - you notify them when it is finished and then they pick it up. Or you order and give back the packaging to be re-cleaned. It’s impressive but there are big costs for this, and it isn’t cheap or easy to do.

Is the growth of online retail making any kind of difference?

Online food shopping still only represents 7% of food retail. It isn’t easy or necessarily profitable model. So for food shopping, I don’t think it is making a big difference - bricks and mortar retail is being affected in different ways by online retail.

Is digital print growing in the packaging sector?

At ThePacKHub we are well placed to see all the packaging trends you can find. The digital area for printing in packaging seems to have slowed. Companies like HP seem to be focusing on selling to converters rather than showing the output to creatives. 18 Months ago pack versioning and personalisation were really visible and there were many examples but this seems to have died down. I guess if brands switch from digital to analogue you would never know! So even with AR, QR and Integrated marketing with digital printing it is not really happening in any meaningful way as far as I can tell. There could be pack versioning where every pack is different, with unique reference numbers etc. I like it but it seems to have reduced. It has not disappeared entirely but brand owners have tried it, and it has just not gone mainstream. It is just something they can do but it will not take over mainstream production. Share a Coke has not repeated for instance. That said, we can only see the stuff that is promoted so there may be more going on we do not know about.

A few years ago it was really exciting and we had a sense that digital printing would grow. For example, Kit Kat did their personalised project with Ultimate Packaging and made personalised bars. But it was all PR and they only made 35,000 packs, so it was a tiny in volume and it did not make an impact on sales. Walkers did the same with a packet of potato crisps but they were just road testing the tech and again it didn’t make any impact on sales.

Imagine if the brand still looked familiar but no 2 packs were the same?

This has not happened yet but there is retail change.  Being creative is more important these days particularly where there is also the threat of online. Take the White Company, for example, the packaging is as important as the product itself even if it is an online order.

So to summarise what has changed in the seven years of ThePackHub?

What has changed in seven years, for me the biggest issue is sustainability. I think the Blue Planet programme and now with Greta Thurnberg, this is a big issue and all of the big-name retailers are accepting that the world is pushing back. There is a sea change in packaging - everything you do now has to have factored in eco and sustainability. This used to be 20% and now it is 80%. This is a permanent change, not a fad, the issue of single-use plastic may well shift into to carbon footprint management but whatever, sustainability is well on the agenda and brands and retailers are scared to ignore it.

To connect with Paul email him here - or check out ThePackHub here.