Machinery manufacturers focus on solutions for special cigarette packs, but have also discovered other tobacco products as an ever more important segment.
When discussing requirements for tobacco packaging equipment, flexibility is the term named most often these days.
Of course, in the field of tobacco packaging, high-speed equipment that can handle the packaging of high volumes of cigarettes fast and efficiently still plays the major role for equipment manufacturers. Flexibility, however, is also key to the innovations for this segment of the market: G.D, based in Bologna, Italy, for example, has recently introduced two new pieces of add-on equipment for its high-speed H1000/W1000/BV1000 packs-per-minute production lines, which have been designed for applying stamps and coupons with online folding units on the packets.
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"These devices incorporate technical improvements which permit them to fully meet the needs of these machine complexes, i.e. they are both extremely reliable and very flexible for size changing," a G.D spokesperson said. "This fact reduces to a minimum machine down-time, which has a critical impact, above all on high-capacity production machines."
G.D said it had redoubled its efforts in the area of flexibility and in enabling customers to make brand changes and size changes extremely easy and quick. The result is a solution called ABC (Automatic Brand Change), which automates most of the brand change operations, to-date handled manually, e.g. filling/emptying the cigarette hopper and re-supply of wrapping materials. This solution is integrated with a control and supervision software, again developed by G.D, which synchronises the operations between the machines in production and the loading of the materials to the machine loading area, with the additional advantage of reducing waste.
Packaging cigarettes off the beaten hinge-lid track, however, is becoming an ever more important business opportunity for machinery manufacturers. It is also about to become an interesting playing field for newcomers which, so far, have only supplied other industries with their packaging solutions, such as confectionary or cosmetics.
Next to flexibility improvement and the total cost of ownership, G.D commented that innovative products were a main focus for customers lately, judging existing levels of product quality and machine reliability to be consolidated standards, at least for the main machinery suppliers.
"G.D is extremely present in the field of machines for producing 'special' packs, with solutions which permit the customer's packaging ideas to take shape and be transformed from dreams into real packets, both where the product is produced on new machines or by modifying existing machines that the customer owns," added G.D's spokesperson.
Upgrading cigarette packaging
Tobacco equipment manufacturer International Tobacco Machinery (ITM), based in Kampen, the Netherlands, was also focusing on speciality packaging for cigarettes, said Jeroen Slobbe, member of the board: "As the majority of packaging equipment supplied by ITM is specifically designed for new or innovative packs, new developments tend to be a by-product of providing effective solutions to customers.
Our make-pack portfolio has been very reactive to customer requirements, resulting in very specific developments that are less suitable for a wide spread audience." As far as trends in cigarette packaging equipment are concerned, he added that flexibility and modularity tended to feature heavily when discussing special solutions, as it helped to limit exposure to risk: "If a special product does not take off as expected, or needs to be modified slightly to fit the market then it is sensible to have equipment around that can be adapted accordingly."
German company Christ Packing Systems is specialised in building customised solutions based on standard machines. Nearly 50 per cent of the machines include new developments. The average speed of its special packaging machines is 60 to 120 packs per minute.
"The concept of our product range is based on a very high flexibility in regards to different formats and is aimed to be applicable to a large variety of packaging applications, such as special machines for packing cigarettes into shoulder boxes, shell and slide boxes or display cartons," said managing director, Andreas Christ. "In addition to our cartoning machines, Christ is able to offer film packing, case packing and palletising machinery to offer a complete turnkey line solution to our tobacco customers." These customers, he said, were nearly all globally operating cigarette manufacturers, who mainly looked for special marketing packaging solutions, but there were also cigar, cigarillo, RYO and even snus manufacturers.
"The trend we observe is to exclusive packaging solutions, such as tin shoulder boxes, and to display packaging, improving presentation in the shops," he continued. "High quality and special marketing packaging was a privilege of the upscale tobacco products, such as cigars or cigarillos, for a long time. But some solutions now requested by cigarette manufacturers are packaging types we know very well from our customers from the cigar industry."
Plain packaging: a chance?
One cannot talk about tobacco packaging these days without mentioning the idea of generic packaging for cigarettes, which has been discussed repeatedly by public health advocates in the past years, for example in Canada and the United Kingdom. And in April 2010, Australia's government became the first to announce its intention to force through a law to require cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging, meaning no logos, plain black fonts for the brand name, and no use of (bright) colours or graphics on the packs.
The only colours and graphics on the packet would then come from large, graphic health warnings of blackened teeth, diseased lungs, etc. If the plan to mandate generic packaging for cigarettes becomes law in Australia, it is likely that other countries will be quick to follow suit; cigarette manufacturers would lose their more or less last means of communicating with consumers completely - or would they?
Packaging machinery manufacturers are quite relaxed regarding this challenge. Christ said: "For sure, the force on the cigarette manufacturers to use plain packs will have an influence on machine builders. Christ regards these changes as a challenge rather than a disadvantage. Together with our customers, we will find solutions to reach the consumer even with these restrictions."
And G.D's spokesperson added: "In the future, the task will be to determine which forms of differentiation will be required to meet local needs and legislation: different shapes and kinds of packets, coupons or other types of accessory components, and it is most probable that, as a consequence, cigarette manufacturers will go down those roads in giving an identity to their own products."
For suppliers of packaging equipment, this may mean new business opportunities, he added: "Machinery manufacturers will have to adapt to these new demands, which are becoming more acute as each day passes. G.D has already been active in the sector of special packets for some time now, in the attempt to meet customer demands and to propose its own ideas and packet shapes.
Moreover, it is also present with a series of devices which can be fitted on new or existing machines to make it possible to insert or onsert individual or folded coupons, to use wrap embossers, different types of wrapping material, pre-printed materials, etc. Furthermore, to be better able to face and meet all these demands, G.D has created a team of experts who actively collaborate with the machine designers, providing their support in the development of the products, making use of skills matured in sectors other from that of tobacco to further enrich the overall offering of solutions."
More emphasis on OTP
While cigarette packaging continues to be the core business for major tobacco machinery manufacturers such as G.D or ITM, they are also looking at other segments within the industry to use their packaging expertise. Despite still being niche products, other tobacco products (OTP), including make-your-own (MYO) and roll-your-own (RYO), snus or molasses for water pipe smoking, play an increasingly important role.
On the occasion of its open house event in Poland in April 2010 (see also page 104), ITM, together with its sister company Technical Development Corporation (TDC), introduced a new pouch packer for RYO and fine-cut tobacco, Isis 120, and a bundle machine named Anubis. Isis 120 is the high-speed variant of ITM's FPP210S flexible pouch packer.
On the new packer, wrap-around pouches and side-gusset pouches can be filled and packed. The implementation of additional, customer-requested tools is also possible, ITM said. Pouch bundle machine Anubis offers the user the flexibility to produce paper as well as foil bundles. According to the company, it takes about ten minutes to change from one type to the other. The machine collects pouches from two to twelve with a maximum of 30 bundles per minute.
Smaller equipment manufacturers have also specialised in the OTP sector. German company Emkon, for instance, focuses on pouch-packing equipment for RYO and MYO tobacco. In 2009, the company launched a new pouch packer family capable of packing 60, 120 and 180 pouches per minute respectively (see TJI 3/2009). Currently, the main market for MYO/RYO products is Europe, Emkon's general manager, Andreas Dittrich, told TJI.
The main reasons for an increase in MYO/RYO products are restrictions and tax policy, and the RYO/MYO price advantage, as well as a certain philosophy of life of RYO/MYO users. "Markets for MYO/RYO products in the traditional countries of Benelux and Germany are increasing slowly," explained Dittrich. "But markets in Latin America, Africa and eastern Europe are growing.
Uruguay is already a traditional MYO/RYO market in South America (especially for bloc-pack); however, the markets in Argentina and Brazil are growing at an immense rate. In our opinion, the reason for an increase in MYO/RYO products in eastern Europe is the wish to join the European Union, which is accompanied by higher taxes for factory-made cigarettes - the alternative is then to change to MYO/RYO products. We expect the market in western Europe to increase or remain stable for the next three to five years. Then, the next regulations remain to be seen, also with regard to smoking bans.
On the other hand, higher living expenses are forcing consumers to buy low-cost cigarettes or MYO/RYO products - especially younger people."
MYO/RYO products are still a niche market, but also a classic one, Dittrich said. "The producers of factory-made cigarettes do not consider the MYO/RYO market to be as interesting as the cigarette market, as there are lower profit margins. This can be seen in the following example: Emkon developed a special MYO/RYO packaging line for a leading cigarette company, which is cautious about introducing these products into the market because of possible losses for them in the cigarette market. They fear their cigarette consumers may change to the lower-budget MYO/RYO product."
As far as future developments are concerned, Dittrich pointed to increased demand for - here we go again - highly flexible machines to react quickly to market requirements. Just like cigarettes, RYO and MYO tobacco is likely to experience a trend towards more specialisation in packaging, according to Dittrich. "We expect special packaging, e.g. with lower volume or double advantage, such as a double pouch that comprises an ashtray combined with a pouch for tobacco. Also, different consumers can be targeted with individual packaging and/or with limited editions, for example a purse pouch for female consumers or a pouch with soccer impressions just for special events like the world championships."
Snus packed nicely
Another product in the OTP segment that has recently received growing attention is Swedish-style moist snuff or snus. While banned in all of the European Union, except Sweden, the product has achieved impressive growth rates in the United States, for instance, and cigarette manufacturers are currently testing the product's appeal in new markets, such as South Africa.
ITM's recently developed snus handling system and pack configurator CPPE, also officially launched at the company's open house in Poland, is aimed exactly at the latter target: markets yet unfamiliar with snus. "Until now, snus sachets were simply thrown into cans, which does not look nice," said Arend van der Sluis, chairman of ITM. "You can do that in established snus markets such as Sweden, but it is not good if you want to explore new markets where consumers are not familiar with the product.
CPPE picks up each snus sachet and can arrange it in different variations in cans or boxes of all shapes, even with individual compartments for each sachet." The system, which is currently in field trials in an industry other than tobacco, features a guide track, linked carriers, a drive and action units; according to van der Sluis, it offers continuous accuracy, speed, flexibility and modularity. To find out more about the appeal of orderly or effectively arranged snus sachets, the tobacco industry is presently doing tests with consumers using manually arranged boxes and cans.
Considering all the current innovations for special packaging of cigarettes and also niche products, it seems that the possibilities for tobacco packaging as the tobacco companies' last bastion of communication with consumers is far from exhausted. Enditem
