Tearing up the Industry with Tape

Source from:  worldtobacco.co.uk 25 July 2008 07/31/2008

Teartapes are an often-overlooked, but important, part of the tobacco packaging industry, which offer a wide array of individual opportunities to advertise, provide extra information about the product and communicate with consumers. Recent innovations in teartapes have highlighted the impact they can make if paid enough attention to. From the business perspective, companies are always looking into developing a different range of product and, for instance, in the May issue of World Tobacco, it was reported how Payne has created a colourful teartape for Cleopatra Molasses, which reinforces the company's brand through extended use of their logo. Historically, plain teartape was the first generation of its kind and was followed by wax-coated teartape. The wax is pre-coated on the surface of teartape during its manufacture. Due to various different negative aspects of these methods, a third was incorporated. The pressure-sensitive (self-adhesive) teartape was the third generation and is the most advanced kind of teartape; it avoids the shortcomings of plain teartape and wax-coated teartape. It is manufactured by coating adhesives on the teartape during production. No heating is needed, no wax bath is needed, no warm up time required, and producers are able to change the packaging speed anytime. Nowadays, teartape manufacturers around the world are mainly using three kinds of plastic film to manfuacture teartape; polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and MOPET and MOPP, which are both oriented and metallised. The many sides to teartape When looking at the subject of teartapes, there are many aspects to explore and many services provided around the product. Whether they are a main producer, supplier or a distributor, everyone has an opinion on the different functions of teartapes. Through varying industry factors, such as the rise of counterfeiting and loss of large scale branded packaging, teartape has seen its usage cover varying area in recent years. Nowadays, companies offer a plethora of different styles of teartape with different dimensions, adhesive qualities and purposes. Some are tailored to directly advertise a brand whilst others are more basic in design. One constant, however, is the continual attempt by teartape companies to push teartape in brand new directions of business. As the packaging and tobacco industries' needs evolve, so does teartape. One company that strives to do this is Guangzhou Yongshun Packing Materials Co, Ltd, manufacturer of King Horse teartape and located in Guangzhou City, China. James Ma, Chairman of the Board states that: "With the development and progress of printing, most customers need to improve and perfect their brand, so we need to develop anti-counterfeit teartapes with high-tech content, such as the colourful latent anti-falsification tapes, laser bronzing, rainbow anti-falsification tapes and so forth. We use our top machines and advanced technology to meet the client's various demands and also protect their brand." James Ma of Guangzhou Yongshun Packing Materials Co, Ltd Typically, the potential for delivering messages is an added feature on top of the tape's primary easy opening function, but PP Payne, a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high quality teartape, coated film and security products, believes that thinking should not be limited to using teartape in this way, something that had been underlined by an ongoing application in North America: "The customer wished to promote a new launch but the opportunities for positioning this were limited by legal regulations," explained a spokesman for the company. "While they were waiting for deliveries of updated packaging, they needed another method to quickly get their message to consumers in-store, and an additional printed teartape was the ideal medium for this." The company already used teartape for easy opening, which is printed with a mandatory message confirming that duty has been paid on the product; so it investigated using a second tape to carry the information and found it to be more cost-effective than using a printed overwrap. Scott Office Systems is a leading supplier of index tabbing equipment and film, as well as teartape. Founded more than 40 years ago, Scott Office Systems has grown from a small, machine manufacturer to an international company. With offices in New Jersey, Michigan, Canada, and England, the company supplies the market with a wide range of teartapes and packaging tapes. It customises products by laminating various materials together to achieve specific performance capabilities. Additionally, it adds value by coating films and printing designs using both gravure and letterpress systems. In fact, the company has made significant changes in its coating and printing processes that enables it to print up to six different colours or coatings on a film or paper. Ken Scott, Head of Teartape at the company states that: "The majority of our clients use advertising on teartape, and I can admit that with more complex advertising designs on our teartape this has led to more challenges for our printing capabilities. However, this has been combated and the productions process takes the same time as usual. Additionally, feedback from our clients has shown how the advertising has proven effectual for them." Amcor Flexibles states how its previous big name clients such as BAT would always use advertising on teartape and how, in general, half of their tobacco clients used advertising on teartape. Ron Valkenburgfurther adds: "The majority of major clients used advertising on teartape and were often happy with it, as displayed by continual orders. What I would say is maybe advertising on teartape isn't as effectual as people state, there is a danger that its use could be over emphasised." Mr Ma from Guangzhou Yongshun Packing Materials Co Ltd also makes the point that: "A large majority of our tobacco company customers use advertising on the teartape as this gives publicity of their brand to all of their customers simultaneously. We always have the company's authorisation, in this way, we can stop acts of infringement from illicit enterprises." On the topic of security, several big name teartape companies are providing customers with various options to improve protection against counterfeiting. Payne demonstrated the interest in this when its 'Security Essentials' range skyrocketed. 'Security Essentials' is a package of security features that can be integrated into teartapes to give brand owners a first step towards protecting their products against counterfeiting. Technologies available to improve security on its teartape includes Microtext Print, Fine Line Print, Colour Shift Ink, UV Ink and holography. In regards to the complex new designs of teartape used for advertising and security purposes, printing capabilities are being pushed to their limit as Payne states: "We have invested significantly in our capability with gravure printing presses at both our Nottingham and Richmond sites, ensuring we meet both the teartape volume and quality needs demanded. Our in-house design studio provides the origination of highly sophisticated printed tapes incorporating our customer's text and graphics to photo quality and ensures that we maximise the performance from our 10 station presses." P P Payne Security Essentials An additional element, which the teartape industry has to address, is the loss of branded packaging for larger consignments of cartons. This is due to the lack of visibility of the packaging for the consumer on the 'transporting carton', which could be perceived as a waste of money. Large numbers of cartons are now, for the majority, placed in naked wrap bundles. Therefore, the loss of teartape on this product can be seen as a negative, however, PP Payne sees the bright side of this development: "This has not particularly effected our production of teartape and, in fact, may provide some new opportunities." The future of teartape So what does the future hold for teartape manufacturers and the market for teartape? One person that has an opinion is Ron Valkenburg of Amcor Flexibles: "At the moment, we are currently working on teartape replacement solutions, which would incorporate laser perforations into the cigarette carton's packaging, decreasing the cost of production," he states. Following this consensus, but seeing a positive side, Ken Scott of Scott Office Systems states: "In certain markets the use of teartape is declining, but there are still opportunities to be explored and generate new business." Payne, on the other hand, states that, due to sophisticated printing, it can increase the protection of its 'Security Essentials' range by including emerging track and trace technologies in the next few years, adding an extra level of security. Payne states that: "Security technologies are constantly developing in order to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiters and Payne Security is making significant investments to devise technologies that keep the tobacco industry one step ahead." "The same can be said of the history of teartape itself. Whilst it remains at heart an easy opening device, there is a continual commitment to finding new ways of maximising its potential for tobacco manufacturers. Whether through improving the efficiency of the application process, or devising exciting new methods of communicating with consumers, the teartape industry is never static and the next quarter-century is likely to throw up as many innovations as the last." Enditem