Ceepackaging

Technology

Promo Packs - the new film multi-packaging is a success!

The idea of multi-part film packaging is not new. One takes an attractive lifestyle
magazine with an award-winning film on DVD or with an attractive promotional sample
for the trendy female reader. Push both into a clear film bag, seal properly, finished. Not
so good, however, if the DVD or brand name sample works its way free on its journey to
the customer due to the small format and creates all sorts of problems: they can
generally only be seen with from side, tend to cover important information on the
magazine title, are frequently tilted, bulge out and are somehow always difficult to stack.
Hugo Beck decided it was time to tackle this problem and began last year to supply
foreign packagers in Italy and Greece with a convincing solution for packaging service
providers. Using a simple, but technically sophisticated idea for the user, it is now
possible with the help of the promotion packs to place different articles of arbitrary
format in two separate compartments within a film bag and seal them together so that
they can be opened and shut as in a transparent folder and can be seen from all sides.
Together with a reinforcement strip – known as a header - and Euro hole sealing, this
double-pack can be easily affixed to display stands, be handled by the customer and
closely examined trouble-free before purchase.
This technological further development for the manufacture of the promotion pack was
achieved by a Hugo Beck patented seal and separating device close to the lateral sealing
aggregate. “Hugo Beck machines are the only ones that can currently produce this type
of packaging”, says Rainer Buck, head of sales in Europe at Dettinger mechanical
engineering, not without some pride. “Interest is particularly high in foreign markets.”
The machine which produces this packaging type is a Super 400 K/8 “double-pack”. It is
considered to be a multi-talent, as it also seals conventionally in addition to the new
packaging form and is furthermore in a position to incorporate a re-sealable closure.
Upon request, individual printing of the bag and the header is possible at any time.
With suspense and relief, both on the part of the publishers as well as at Hugo Beck in
Dettingen near Stuttgart, the results of the first tests were awaited in the run-up period.
Not only in the case of a test market already carried out last year among north Italian
kiosk owners, who offered two DVD’s each with cartoons for children and observed the
consumer reaction exactly, but also with the sale of a fashion magazine with extras in
Greece, the access and sales rate was clearly increased. The impression of the
purchasers that they were getting simply more for their money could not be ruled out.
Mr. Nasopoulos, general manager of D. Nasopoulos - G. Gogos S.A. in Athens, is very
pleased with the new packaging form. It fits very well to the Greek market. Responding
to the question how frequently he has already used the double-pack, he replied that “50
% of all contract packaging has already been ordered with the Promo Packs – here better
known as Multi-Packs”. In particular, the consumer market with street sales in shops and
kiosks profits well from the attractive packaging. The packaged goods comprise of
different parts, such as booklets, magazines, gimmicks, multimedia and give-aways,
according to customer requests. Following research by contracting publishers, sales
figures have already increased spontaneously by 5 %.
The company in Greece processes PE as well as CPP films with 30 – 50 microns for the
double-packs and solitary packs. The machines, which pack individually with a speed of
8,000 p/h, achieve an astonishing 4,000 p/h eith the Promo-Packs. In replying to the
question, what particularly impresses him about film packaging plant from Germany, the
head of technology Nikos Karamalikis stated that “the Super 400 K/8 is very flexible and
can be adjusted extraordinarily quickly to changing formats”.
Thus it is not surprising that Horst Heimann, general manager of Hugo Beck Film
Packaging Machines is firmly convinced, “that the market will soon accept this new
packaging type and this new technology will lead the branch to an increase in growth”.
Today, the customer expects to package things which will lead to new market
opportunities. The impulse which led to the Promotion-Packs was unequivocal: “It was
the marketing of the manufacturer, confronted with new challenges, which we then
solved with the new machine packaging form”, according to Heimann.
In view of this and similar new developments, the Swabian packaging machine
constructer was pleased to be awarded the TOP 100 seal of approval last year in
recognition of “outstanding innovative achievements” as part of a nationwide
comparative study by Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke (University of Vienna). The company also
plans to successfully address new topics in the future.