What changes and impacts has COVID-19 brought? What direction will the future strategy and investment plan focus on? What are the new insights on market supply and demand dynamics and sustainability trend objectives? Recently, the CEOs and CEOs from Grupo gondi and other heavyweight carton packaging group companies discussed these issues.
Eduardo Posada, chief executive of Grupo gondi, pointed out that the industry will move towards reducing the gram weight of paper, reducing the floor space and adopting a completely different attitude towards packaging, especially advanced and personalized packaging. “E-commerce sales will continue to develop, and we will have to consider different ways to process paper into cartons. Because the outbreak of COVID-19 has forced many consumers who initially dissatisfied with ordering goods online to accept online orders.
“Some people didn’t want to use this method a few months ago,” said Marlow, President and chief operating officer of cascades. “Considering what impact this will have on our industry, we will provide packaging with a weight of 10 grams, and we will also adopt a more appropriate packaging solution. Consumers will seek a good experience similar to that of seeing products in stores, and the methods of tracking and tracing packaging will also play an important role in the future. “
Greg hall, President and chief operating officer of hood container, said that although the paper mills will focus more on the production of low gram Kraft linerboard, we need more automated and fast turnover machines in the production process to meet the needs of e-commerce retailers and consumers.
Greg Tucker, chief executive of bay cities, agreed. “It needs to speed up, everything is getting fast. For example, some consumers order some things online, and after two hours, the goods have been delivered to the door. In addition, I expect large-scale customization and personalization will be more obvious. When it comes to physical business, retailers have not completely disappeared, but they also need to change their thinking and ideas. When consumers enter the retail environment, they need to give them more experience, and the products will be displayed to consumers in different ways. “
E-commerce sales and shelf sales
Tucker said the packaging design must distinguish between e-commerce sales and shelf sales. “Nowadays, there are two main ways for packaging to reach consumers: e-commerce and physical retail. We have to start thinking about where primary packaging is mainly used. Using QR code, AR and watermark technology, and digitization will play a greater role in packaging. “
He hopes to see more digital printing, robot technology and digital die cutting technology in the carton factory. “In the next three years, if you buy any traditional die-cutting machine that needs die-cutting blade, unless the die-cutting order is large, you will make a fatal mistake. The trend in the future is to speed up the listing speed, rapid turnover, and more personalized small batch production. “
In May 2020, cascades launched a new product line specially designed for e-commerce under the banner of cascades E-com packaging solutions. “Packaging has to adapt to a variety of tasks, through different areas of the supply chain, in order to eventually appear on the shelf, in our company, we have a highly skilled design team that can provide adaptive solutions and special designs to help our customers facing new demands and challenges in the supply chain,” Marlow said. When we introduce the new e-commerce packaging series, a large part of it is to provide supporting services, such as professional knowledge in testing, supply chain knowledge, and the design of customized packaging solutions. “
Impact of the epidemic
On the impact of the epidemic, Hall said, “we are a relatively young company, about eight years old, and have made a lot of acquisitions, so we have many different factories. By preparing and planning, and responding positively to problems, the pandemic has brought us closer together and helped us build a new culture. “
The same is true of Grupo Gondi, “COVID-19 said,” to speed up the cultural integration of enterprises. From the beginning, the first priority was the staff. We need to separate the high-risk groups, so in the past six months, we have 1600 people working at home on full pay. ” In addition, the company implemented private transportation and strengthened the medical sector in each factory. “At present, there are still many people working at home with full pay, and now we hope they can come back. It also shows that workers and operators are the most important assets of our company. “
Tucker is a little worried that the epidemic may cause certain damage to the corporate culture due to more communication by telephone. “We seem to be losing our culture. How to maintain our culture? I think that’s what takes a lot of time to improve. “
Referring to the lessons learned from the epidemic, Hall said: “we are ready and understand that we have to take care of our employees first. In some cases, we have to transfer orders to other facilities in certain periods of time, because we have a higher level of virus prevention and control in these facilities. It brings everyone together and works better together. “
Balanced combination
When it comes to the trend of paper weight reduction, who is driving the development of North America? Brand owner, e-retailer or consumer?
Tucker said Europe’s leading role in sustainable development is influencing this trend in the United States. Another factor is new capacity in North America. “In terms of design, all new machines installed in North America, as well as new capacity added in the future, are focused on the production of low gram weight paper, which will help North American customers use lightweight products in their products.”
Will this affect the market share of original and recycled paper? In the future, which category of paper will grow faster, pulp paper or recycled paper? Hall is the first to introduce Kraft linerboard, because his background is that he once worked in a recycling paper factory. “We all know that Kraft linerboard performs better than recycled paper in some areas, such as agricultural products and refrigerated items. But over the years, in terms of performance and printing, the quality of recycled paper has been improving, so I think the performance of recycled paper and kraft linerboard is very good. “
“Without recycled paper, there would be no Kraft linerboard,” Posada said He pointed out that paper mills must strike a balance between Kraft linerboard and recycled paper, and believed that the decline in Asian demand for OCC would stabilize the recycled paper market to some extent. “I believe there will be more demand for paper with lower gram weight.”
“We can’t just be a producer. Maybe in the same factory, you can see that we have corrugated box processing, folding color box processing and graphic printing, because we are ready for all the changes brought about by e-commerce, personalized packaging and digital printing. We have tried to be at the forefront of the industry in Mexico, and we have successfully led the industry in these businesses, It also makes us more competitive.
Post time: Feb-04-2021