Magazine: Packaging going greener

Levente Szabó
sales and marketing director
DS Smith Packaging Hungary

According to Levente Szabó, sales and marketing director of DS Smith Packaging Hungary, the region’s economic upturn has created growth opportunities in the packaging industry. Packaging materials are changing, due to the growing popularity of e-commerce, an increasing need for environmentally conscious operations and the intention to automate the packaging process.

György Kolozsvári
sales director
STI Petőfi Nyomda

György Kolozsvári, sales director of printing company STI Petőfi Nyomda Kft. has experienced a stronger need from partners for added value in packaging solutions, from special films to hidden security features.

Zsolt Miklós
managing director
Rondo Hullámkartongyártó

Zsolt Miklós, managing director of corrugated board manufacturer Rondo Hullámkartongyártó Kft. talked to our magazine about raw materials coming from renewable sources becoming more and more popular, e.g. paper packaging gaining ground to the detriment of plastic solutions. Not having enough workers is a problem in the packaging industry as well.

Imre Hopka
owner
Wanapack Papírfeldolgozó

We learned from Imre Hopka, the owner of Wanapack Papírfeldolgozó Kft., that prices are at a historic high. Processing companies have to cope with this situation. At the same time the market is going in the direction of lighter products, which means lower environmental protection product fees too.

Attila Fazekas
managing director
Box Print – FSD Packaging

Attila Fazekas, managing director of Box Print – FSD Packaging Kft. talked to Trade magazin about the changes caused by the GDPR regulation, which affected both their CRM system and HR databases. However, changes in the regulation were a great occasion to review and improve their processes.

Ifj . Keskeny Árpád
ügyvezető igazgató
Keskeny és Társai 2001

Árpád Keskeny Jr., managing director of Keskeny és Társai 2001 Kft. highlighted the fact that many changes had occurred in the last few years – from consumers turning more health conscious to the efforts made for a more sustainable production – and these had an influence on Hungary’s packaging production too. He added that partners now pay more attention to ask for packaging designs that communicate the values of their products.

Wanapack Papírfeldolgozó Kft.’s representative told that standardised solutions are the past now: partner needs are served in a customised fashion. The company’s view is that it is increasingly important for discount supermarkets to use stylish collective packaging solutions on store shelves. Box Print – FSD Packaging Kft.’s experience is that duo- and triopcak solutions are pushing forward in certain segments, while in others product manufacturers are opting for smaller designs. The key to success is continuous experimentation with packaging and logistic cost optimisation, monitoring changes in target group needs all the time. Keskeny és Társai 2001 Kft.’s managing director pointed it out that shoppers also want products bought online to have nice packaging. This creates new challenges for packaging designers. What is more, packaging not only must impress consumers, but also make them be loyal to the given brand. As far as DS Smith Packaging Hungary sees it, partners want packaging designs to be cost-efficient and well-performing. The gist of the group’s new strategy, which is called PACE, is that instead of square metre/weight specifications they define the performance of the packaging design.

Zoltán Tóth
head of product
innovation
STI Petőfi Nyomda

Zoltán Tóth, the head of STI Petőfi Nyomda Kft.’s product innovation division told our magazine that demand had increased for light, cost-efficient and customised size boxes. One of the top priorities has remained to be product protection, even more so as a growing quantity of products is now taken to shoppers by parcel delivery companies. Partners often want special shapes too – this differentiates the product on store shelves better. RONDO Kft. opines that packaging needs keep changing and the company is ready to react to these changes all the time. They also make sure that the designs that they offer to partners are FSC-certified.

Zsuzsanna Zsebő
senior marketing associate
Dunapack

Zsuzsanna Zsebő, senior marketing associate of Dunapack Kft. talked to us about how they – in cooperation with partners – want to transform multi-component packaging solutions into single-component collective and transportation packagings. She added that due to the kraftliner shortage, they started to substitute primarily cellulose-based products with 100-percent recycled raw material in making corrugated board. DS Smith Packaging Hungary’s sales and managing director spoke about the launch of their PaPillOn product range, which includes an innovative fibre pallet, a container and a top deck – all of them are made from recycled paper. Production by Rondo Hullámkartongyártó Kft. practically fully complies with the requirements of the circular economy: they sell manufacturing waste as raw material, and the paper made from this is used to manufacture new products. Other waste is also collected selectively and given to waste management specialists. STI Petőfi Nyomda Kft. manufactures in accordance with the standards of the ISO 14001: 2015 environmental management system. Their energy utilisation meets the ISO 50001 criteria, and they can also make FSC- and PEFC-certified packaging designs. Everything Keskeny és Társai 2001 Kft. does meets the ISO 14001 environmental protection requirements. In January 2011 they acquired the FSC certification and in 2015 they became PEFC-certified. Wanapack Papírfeldolgozó Kft. made the observation that both packaging companies and product manufacturers like economical solutions that are also environmentally friendly. If the top stakeholders are willing to spend a little more on packaging, there will be a smaller burden on the environment.

Mr Kolozsvári: last year STI Petőfi Nyomda Kft. bought two new machines and now they nearly use 30. One of the new machines is able to provide basically any surface with lacquer coating. Mr Hopka: Wanapack focuses on small- and medium-volume individual orders, offering full collective and transportation packaging services. There are also superlight, 0.5-5kg paper pallets which can be loaded up the several hundred kilograms. Mr Szabó: from this September DS Smith offers the augmented reality (AR) technology to partners in their PackRight Centre in Budapest – this can be used to place packaging concepts in real-life usage environments. Ms Zsebő: Dunapack Kft. can enter the partner’s production process at the very beginning of the planning. Packaging solutions are designed especially for the machines of partners, by this cutting costs and utilising workforce more efficiently. Mr Keskeny: Keskeny és Társai 2001 Kft. plans to install production lines in the near future that ensure the greatest efficiency and continuous high quality in production. They make several designs for cosmetics and food companies. Mr Miklós: Rondo Hullámkartongyártó Kft. specialises in designing, manufacturing and selling corrugated board products, plus doing the related customer service work for partners, too. At the moment they are busy increasing their production capacity.