Simon Howie moves packaging from cartonboard sleeves to linerless labels

British butcher Simon Howie has switched its packaging from cartonboard sleeves to linerless labels in an effort to enhance productivity.

Simon Howie has moved its packaging from cartonboard sleeves to linerless labels

The award-winning Perth-based butchery business, which supplies a variety of private and own label meats, had previously used printed cartonboard sleeves for pre-packed retail lines to deliver a premium shelf presence. However, with hand application of sleeves, production speeds were limited to approximately 40 packs a minute and owing to growing demand and new contracts, greater capacity and faster production speeds were required. With multi-format expertise, Simon Howie tasked Coveris to help it with a change to its packaging and packing lines.

Using transition, studio and launch expertise, Coveris supported Simon Howie’s move from sleeves to linerless labels to meet a tight retail launch date. Artwork was transferred from existing designs to streamlined label keylines for greater tooling and production efficiencies, in addition to improved on-shelf design consistency.

Printing was handled by Coveris, which deployed its standard and Slidewrap linerless formats. A Nobac 500 from Ravenwood Packaging was used to speed up application of linerless labels.

The results of the transition from cartonboard sleeves are noted as: faster packing speeds and improved capacity; lower packaging weight; reduced production waste as a result of in-line date coding, compared to pre-dated sleeves; studio management of artwork from sleeve to streamlined label keylines; and less demand on storage space. Some 15 lines were launched into the retail environment on time.

Deputy editor David Pittman interviewed Simon Howie about its label and packaging for a feature in Labels & Labeling, issue 4, 2017, which you can also read here