Mastering the flute – corrugated products that hit the right note

With the corrugated packaging market experiencing robust growth expected to continue in the coming years, exhibitors at London Packaging Week are seizing this opportunity. The evolution of the corrugated industry continues at pace and is to be realized at London Packaging Week 2024 when the show returns on 11 and 12 September at ExCeL.

Megatrends such as “paperfication” of the packaging industry and a global health crisis have given corrugated a hefty shove in the right direction, supported by developments in materials, hardware and design that make the material an increasingly adaptable and appealing packaging medium.

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Today, this makes corrugated as suitable for shipping luxury cosmetics and beverage products directly to the customer’s door, as much as it is for distributing goods throughout supply chains.

This variety and versatility will be showcased in volume at London Packaging Week 2024, taking place on 11 and 12 September at ExCeL.

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Maximum effort

Exhibitors McLaren Packaging (K60) and The Box Factory (A10) and their respective product portfolios illustrate this perfectly. The former is a Scottish manufacturer of high-quality corrugate packaging, serving the UK food and drinks sector. It specializes in presentation and transport packaging, so delivering great shelf appeal as well as robust packaging that protects products in transit, or both. This includes drop-in cases for shipping, wraparound cases, product boxes and trays, on-shelf presentation shippers, mailer packs, and more. Bespoke options create exacting corrugated packaging to protect and present products, whether for transit, shelf display or e-commerce deliveries direct to the customer. The latter, one of the largest independently-owned, high-volume manufacturers of FSC-certified corrugated packaging in the UK, designs, manufactures, stores and delivers all types of corrugated boxes. From regular cases to shelf-ready packaging (SRP) and die-cut boxes, these are suitable for a range of end uses and applications. Corrugated fittings are also offered as alternatives to plastic, polystyrene or foam. These can be bespoke designs and are fully recyclable.

Fittings are an example of items that complement corrugated boxes in their pure form and function. Others, such as Corru-Loc from Item Products (D12), similarly show what can be introduced to enhance the capabilities of corrugated. Corru-Loc is an integrated fastener that cannot be removed or lost from a pack, while Corra-Screw is used to bind and release multiple layers of board. It eliminates the need for tape and staples. Carry handles, clips and closures, and detachable wheels and feet are other options to increase the usability of corrugated boxes. Garment transit rails transform boxes into wardrobe removal cases used to ship items produced by the clothing industry.

Corrugated can also aid in the shipping of chilled items. Kite Packaging (B14) offers insulating corrugated box liners. These are made of double-wall corrugated constructed with 125gsm paper, giving them the same temperature-controlling qualities as polystyrene and making them suitable for use in temperature-controlled packaging for food, fish and pharmaceuticals. As well as providing safe transportation for such items, their core material is widely recycled both domestically and commercially, so contributing to the Circular Economy.

Another use for corrugated is as sleeving for fragile containers. Kite Packaging’s flexible, protective corrugated sleeving is similarly good for the environment by being 100% recyclable and biodegradable, but rather than protecting product integrity it protects the packaging itself – bottles, glass, ceramics, jars, small metal items and others.

Stone corrugated boxes and cylindrical wine boxes, as offered by Mercury Global Packaging (H44), further example the role corrugated continues to play in protecting products.

Many of the above can be decorated using various print and finishing techniques, depending on their intended application. From simple, two- or four-colour flexo and offset prints that aid the integrity of the supply chain, to full-color digital options that allow for short-runs, versions and personalization. Digital print options for corrugated were one of those to benefit during the Covid-19 pandemic owing to the rise of e-commerce.

Return to sender

E-commerce is an area of packaging that was already on the rise as more consumers were starting to shop online. The prolonged closure of brick-and-mortar retail and enforced periods indoors during the recent Covid times meant this trend was accelerated, and with it demand for packaging appropriate for e-commerce applications. This is a trend that has not reversed as the world has embraced its “new normal” where “next-day” is now the norm.

Packaging has responded in kind – lightweight, single-wall structures with crash-lock bases that allow fast assembly time, while hinged lids can be closed quickly and securely. In the case of Kite Packaging, an integrated peel-and-seal strip removes the need to apply tape, speeding up the fulfillment processes and shortening the time from order to delivery. A tear strip is included to open the package without difficulty.

With white and brown e-commerce postal boxes available off-the-shelf, bespoke colors and custom prints are available to match branding. Colored postal boxes and custom-printed postal boxes can be manufactured to meet Royal Mail’s PiP guidelines.

SR Mailing (C22) offers boxes that are available in a range of different sizes within the specifications that Royal Mail stipulates to be PiP compliant. They are made from 100% recycled corrugated material. Not only are they made from recycled material, they are easy to recycle and can be added to household recycling. They are biodegradable and compostable too, so allowing recipients to safely dispose of the box however they choose.

On show in the Innovation Gallery, Re-Zip (A14) is a return system for circular packaging, which makes it possible to reuse the packaging for shipping several times As a circular packaging concept for the e-commerce industry, Re-Zip offers a variety of reusable boxes and bags suitable for use by webshops to reduce CO2e by up to 80%, water consumption by 89%, wood consumption by 93% and packaging costs by as much as 100%. For customers, they use an app to find the nearest mailbox or parcel shop through which to return the packaging and are then rewarded with a voucher for the webshop for using the service.

The above examples provide a glimpse into the current possibilities for corrugated and showcase future capabilities. This will see corrugated go from strength to strength as a packaging medium of choice for an endless array of brands, retailers, applications and environments.

These and other examples from the show floor are sure to be ones to watch out for when London Packaging Week 2024 takes place on 11 and 12 September at ExCeL.