The investment, which includes a digital printer and die cutter, provides rapid prototyping for pilot production, industry-leading packaging performance analysis and field lab facilities under one roof.
The Design2Market Factory is well placed to cater to two of the biggest trends within the packaging industry, sustainability and eCommerce, with customer data, cutting-edge machinery and long-term expertise being utilised to enhance customers’ competitive advantage.
Starting from the initial design brief, a multidisciplinary team supports the organic and collaborative design process with customers, resulting in customised prototypes which are rapidly produced in industrial pilot production. This production run gives the flexibility to quickly test, refine and adapt the packaging innovations on a smaller scale, building confidence and eliminating risk before market launch.
The team in the Design2Market Factory has so far created and tested innovative solutions including Frustration Free Packaging for wine, Shelf Ready Packaging for detergent and several of Smurfit Kappa’s Better Planet Packaging products including a replacement for shrink wrap.
Commenting on the announcement, Arco Berkenbosch, Vice President of Innovation and Development at Smurfit Kappa, said: “The Design2Market Factory provides our customers with the fastest way to launch their new packaging solutions and has revolutionised the development process. It’s set up to provide them with a tangible prototype that can be tested with consumers and subsequently refined and honed before moving to large-scale production.
“We bring all the relevant stakeholders together on the design journey from inception through to production and, if appropriate, certification, enabling customers to use robust data and insights to get their products on to platforms such as Amazon and Alibaba.”
The first Design2Market Factory, which is based in the Netherlands, has been fully operational since January.