Premium and luxury packaging: Maintaining appeal while cutting excess material

21 Aug 2024 --- Maintaining premium and luxury appeal on packaging for high-end products remains one of the industry’s foremost challenges amid consumer and legislative pressure to reduce and redesign materials for environmental sustainability. 

Catering to customer demands for appeal while reducing footprint is a call numerous producers and brands are answering with shifts toward materials with higher recyclability rates, monomaterial designs and alternative materials sourced from agricultural waste or other novel materials. 

The 4evergreen Alliance, an alliance of over 100 manufacturers, designers, brand owners, researchers and recyclers in the fiber-based sector, is working to support companies to achieve a 90% recycling rate by 2030. A prominent member of the group is South African pulp and paper manufacturer Sappi. 

Luis Mata, sales director of Packaging & Dye Sublimation at Sappi, tells Packaging Insights: “Sustainability is becoming a top priority for consumers of luxury products. Maintaining sustainability in luxury packaging involves balancing premium aesthetics with eco-friendly practices.”

“Sappi is committed to playing a major role as a supplier of wood fiber-based packaging products sourced from sustainably managed forests. But delivering materials made from renewable resources isn’t enough. We also released a Decarbonization Roadmap, which outlines our energy-related sustainability targets that include the reduction of GHG emissions and an increase in renewable energy.”

Sappi’s paperboard products are widely used in high-end sectors such as cosmetics, perfume and consumer electronics (Image credit: Sappi).“Sappi’s paperboard products are widely recognized and used in high-end sectors such as cosmetics, perfume, luxury drinks and consumer electronics, ensuring a brilliant brand experience and consistent growth in brand communication,” he continues. 

“Luxury brands value our quality consistency as well as our superbly reliable sales and technical support, which are crucial for high-precision printing and embellishment jobs.”

Consistency and durability 

Another area Sappi is focusing its efforts on is producing packaging with maximum consumer appeal. 

“We offer premium paperboard solutions that deliver constantly high-quality finishes, brilliant color reproduction and outstanding shape properties,” says Mata. “This enhances brand differentiation, shelf impact and overall value perception, crucial for luxury packaging.”

“Furthermore, our broad product portfolio guarantees brand owners the same colors, shades and brand appearance across a full range of applications. That means that any brand-carrying paper-based material lives up to a consistent identity and creates the same impact whether it’s getting its message across in packaging, point-of-sale or promotional materials across all geographical regions.”

Sarah Price, chair of the 4evergreen Alliance, tells Packaging Insights: “As a sector, we are constantly developing new and exciting packaging innovations that look great, serve their function well and are sustainable. At 4evergreen, we collaborate across the value chain on guidance to help ensure these new designs are made with circularity at their heart.” 

“Our alliance, brings together diverse expertise to develop guidelines and recommendations on perfecting fiber-based packaging circularity. These efforts will contribute to 4evergreen’s goal of achieving a 90% recycling rate for fiber-based packaging in Europe by 2030.”

Minimizing material, personalizing products 

Innova Market Insights placed “Maximizing Minimization” as a top trend for 2024, noting a 41% increase in products carrying material reduction claims between 2019 and 2023. Legislation is also increasingly stipulating the quantity of material allowed for products.

In China, detailed regulations on the ratio of materials allowed for products have been implemented, aiming to target excessive packaging on luxury goods, particularly for food delicacies, which often come in far more packaging material than the products themselves.Sappi’s product portfolio provides brand owners with equal colors and brand appearance across applications (Image credit: Sappi).

Recently, the EU declared that all 27 member states have failed to reach the mandated waste reduction requirements, which some analysts blame on political ineptitude.

At Drupa 2024 in Düsseldorf, Germany (May 28 to June 7), we spoke with Marlene Langthaler, Mondi’s senior customer experience manager, about the company’s luxury and premium packaging, which can be personalized according to customer needs. 

She described how the company uses alternative fiber sources “We have rough surfaces, natural papers, smooth surfaces, fresh fiber, grass fiber and high whites to infinite black with 31 colors in between,” she explains.

“What is more premium than having packaging that is sensory and that you can experience with all the senses, touch and feel and experience?”

“Our uncoated fine papers can be applied to different industries but what is important is that our papers can be applied to creative design projects and premium design products.” Many of the materials are food safe and applicable, and many are also tailored to cosmetics and personal care segments, Langthaler concludes. 

By Louis Gore-Langton