Smurfit Kappa has completed a significant investment in its new Design2Market Factory concept, for a ‘fast and seamless’ development, from packaging design through to market launch.
The first Design2Market Factory is based in the Netherlands, has been fully operational since January. 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.
Starting from the initial design brief, a multidisciplinary team supports the organic and collaborative design process with customers, resulting in customised prototypes that are rapidly produced in an industrial pilot production environment. 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.
According to Smurfit Kappa, the Design2Market Factory caters to two of the biggest trends within the packaging industry – sustainability and e-commerce. Customer data, machinery and expertise are used to enhance the customer’s competitive advantage.
The team at the Design2Market Factory has so far created and tested 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.
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.’
