Smurfit Kappa Northampton has developed specialist beer wraps that have helped a brewer to cut end-of-line packaging times by 20% on some of its product lines.
Bespoke pre-print and post-print wraps were developed for Fullers, Smith and Turner’s London Pride Premium Ale, further to the installation of new Kister machinery from Germany. This has allowed 12ml x 500ml and 8ml x 500ml bottles to be auto-wrapped in RRP carry-home packs. It has moved the company away from using standard hand-erect cases, to make end-of-line packaging quicker and more efficient.
The wraps are made from corrugated B flute with a Kraft inner liner. Offering exceptional brand print quality, its 12ml x 500ml London Pride wrap has a four-colour pre-print with anti-slip gloss varnish. Wraps are also manufactured with nine other prints using post-print one and two colours in the same format.
Developed over six months, the packaging had to be designed to strict parameters, dictated by the newly installed Kister machinery. This included extensive pack testing to ensure optimum packaging efficiency, and a striking, functional and robust RRP product.
Jeff Hack-Davies, packaging operations manager at Fullers, Smith and Turner, said: “We switched to Kister machinery to improve the efficiency of our production lines. This gave us the perfect opportunity to change the way we boxed our products to further speed up our end-of-line packing process. Smurfit Kappa worked with our bottling line team to create the perfect RRP solution.”
Steve Moore, account manager at Smurfit Kappa Northampton, said: “We had very strict parameters to work to, which were dictated by the functionality of the new piece of Kister machinery. This required us to work in close partnership with Fullers, Smith and Turner to understand production requirements, then research and test wrap alternatives to provide a fully functional and bespoke end product.”
Compliant to retailer requirements, the box is made from materials that are fully recyclable within a single waste stream.