Procter & Gamble has launched a newly designed shelf-ready package for primary packages of Alldays and Always feminine care products. As a replacement for a more traditional corrugated RSC, the new tray and hood costs less, performs better, and racks up some impressive gains both in efficiency and in sustainability. Consider:
• Factoring in both material cost savings and better transport efficiency, the new format costs about 20 cents less per unit.
• 80% less ink is involved
• 28% less corrugated is used
• Handling by in-store personnel is greatly simplified
• On-shelf appearance is much better
“The perforated SRP was never an optimal package because it was an adaptation,” says Ibrahim Ulas, section head at P&G’s Feminine Care Package Development Group in Schwalbach, Germany. “An existing case was modified to meet a new set of shelf-ready requirements. When the whole SRP trend was new, the adaptation was acceptable enough. But those early days of SRP are over, and these days we want a much more optimized packaging format.”
The old SRP came “pre-made” in the sense that it was a knocked-down blank with a manufacturer’s joint. The new SRP consists of two flat pieces of single-wall corrugated, neither of which has a manufacturers joint. One piece is formed into a tray that holds four, eight, or twelve primary packages. The other piece is a hood that fits over the primary packs in their tray. Only the tray is printed.
A number of shortcomings have been addressed by this new format. First, in-store handling is much easier. A simple glue point attaches the hood to the tray. All the store workers need do is break this bond with the bare hand, lift the hood from the tray, and place the tray out on the store shelf. Ulas estimates the time required to make the new SRP shelf-ready has been cut in half. Furthermore, it’s a lot easier for a store worker to quickly spot the specific SKU he’s looking for when he goes to the back room for a fresh SRP because now most of the primary package’s graphics show through the unprinted hood.
