Tear tape from Payne for Dutch confectioner’s flip-top box
Look-O-Look, with its distinctive yellow packaging, will roll out ten new sweet flavours on to the marker that target "young consumers" in a "convenient" flip-top box.
"We hope that this easy opening initiative will prove a popular way of helping consumers to enjoy the new flip-top box range,” commented Rudie Haarman, a buyer for the Dutch company.
According to Payne, because the box is flow-wrapped, Look-O-Look wanted to incorporate "an easy opening device to help young consumers gain access to the product".
Moreover, the chosen medium needed to "complement the eye-catching cartoon decoration of the box", says Payne.
Look-O-Look approached Daka, Payne’s distributor in the Netherlands, who suggested the gold tape, which will be trialled for one year.
"If consumer feedback is positive, Look-O-Look will extend the use of tear tape into other products," the firm reported.
Payne, a division of plastic and fibre products supplier Filtrona, supplies a range of opening tear strips for the food industry. Its supastrip® brand, the firm claims, "demonstrates immediate tamper evidence, ensuring consumer confidence and enhancing brand loyalty".
Further, pressure-sensitive adhesive bonds on contact with the film give a "visually enhanced, wrinkle-free appearance on the finished pack".
The product is available in three core sizes – 29mm, 82.5mm, 152mm – and is supplied in lengths of up to 120,000m.
In terms of use, Payne asserts that its product is supported by a "range of dispensers and application systems to retrofit most types of packaging wrappers and corrugators".
Other confectionery packaging news
Local news reports in the UK suggest packaging firm Alcan Packaging at Salterbeck in Workington, Cumbria will shed approximately 40 jobs from its 450-strong workforce because the "loss of work from a confectionery company will reduce their volume by half".
Workington-based Times & Star newspaper cites Howard Farrar, HR director at Alcan Packaging who said the situation at the factory had been brought "about by difficult market conditions".
According to the paper, Farrar said the "UK confectionery market has been declining, forcing suppliers to adjust to the new market size".
With the market for sugared confectionery under pressure, recent data from AC Nielsen/ Euromonitor suggest that sugar-free confectionery is helping to boost lagging sales. According to the their figures, the UK’s sugar-free confectionery currently holds a market share of 11 per cent, lifted by 18 per cent since last year – compared to a total market growth of 2 per cent.
In France sales of sugared confectionery have actually dropped by 5 per cent, whereas sugar-free products have grown by 11 per cent, bringing their market share to 35 per cent.
The sugar-free market is strongest in Spain, where it accounts for 50 per cent of sales, showing growth of 5 per cent. The functional confectionery market is set to increase there from $51 million (€34.8 million) in 2001 to $227 million (€155 million) in 2011, according to the AC Nielsen/ Euromonitor data.
