“Retail-ready trays and boxes have traditionally been made of uncoated white-top linerboards,” says technical marketing director
Leena Yliniemi from Metsä Board. “Now we are offering Kemiart Brite+ to enhance the customer experience in a competitive and effective way. This board has an excellent surface for conventional flexo post-printing of corrugated boards. The high colour density and gloss of Brite+ make it possible to colour-match secondary and primary packaging perfectly.”
According to Yliniemi, corrugated boards have lots of potential to support sales, whether they are used in shelf-ready, point-of-sale, or display solutions: “Colour is what attracts the consumer. Ideally, you could play with colours in trays by combining the attractively coloured outer surface with the white inner surface, with the whiteness communicating the pureness and healthiness of the food inside.”
Veijo Korkalainen & Leena YliniemiThe strength of Kemiart Brite+ is precisely its power to show off colour. Thanks to the coating technology specially developed for Brite+, more ink stays on the surface, but then dries quickly. The smoother surface also makes it easier to print uniform areas. Compared to uncoated grades, it is possible to obtain the same colour strength with less ink per area.
White linerboards growing fast
Urbanisation and changes in retail structures favour the use of corrugated board in retail-ready solutions. “The aim is to reduce handling times and packaging waste. The recyclability of corrugated board, of course, gives a competitive edge compared to alternative packaging materials,” says
Veijo Korkalainen, commercial director of the corrugated segment at Metsä Board.
Anyone who walks into a supermarket can see that brands are really competing for people’s attention using high-quality graphics in point-of-sale solutions and displays. White fresh-fibre linerboard performs well in this battle, as it reflects the colours correctly.
Metsä Board’s annual capacity of white fresh-fibre linerboard is over 700,000 tonnes – making the company the leading supplier in this growing, high-end linerboard niche. The future definitely looks bright.
More on Metsä Board's product development:
Blog post by Cyril Drouet: Packaging innovation is about dreaming bigArticle about paperboard development: Managing the product safety cycle
