19.08.10 EFFORTLESS OPENING brought to you by WITH OPTILIFT Trendwatch Metal STACKs UP IN THE LIGHT Homegrown FUDGE URBAN STANDS OUT FROM THE CROWD Impress Group has extended its range of easy-open ends with the introduction of OptiLift, which features even easier finger access to provide effortless opening for consumers of all ages. Continued over page...
NEWS EFFORTLESS OPENING WITH OPTILIFT cont. OptiLift is part of a continuous drive by Impress to address consumer convenience, product innovation and reduce the weight of its products. OptiLift is compatible with different customer processes and reaches its high performance thanks to smart design patented by Impress. The new end has a flexible panel that is convex before seaming and becomes concave after sterilisation. This leads to greater finger access by increasing the gap between the panel and the tab. The finger well is designed to intuitively guide the finger to the correct position for ease of opening. OptiLift is the result of extensive testing and consumer research into easy-opening ends, with 75 per cent of consumers interviewed in Germany and France saying they prefer the new end. Consumers with longer finger nails and those suffering from arthritis were especially pleased with the new design and opening feature. Impress business development and marketing manager (Food Division) Jacqueline Turlings said OptiLift is a major step forward in consumer convenience. A specially designed logo printable on the end reinforces the message of the ease of opening experience for consumers, said Ms Turlings. Consistent with other recent Impress innovations, this new end also features a significant reduction in metal gauge. The new 73mm diameter version of OptiLift is around 10 per cent lighter than its predecessor, reducing even further the related carbon footprint. OptiLift is being produced in a full range of diameters of steel easy-open ends: 65mm, 73mm, 83mm and 99mm. More end designs are also available under the umbrella of the OptiLift brand to meet different customer filling requirements. A CENTURY OF CAN-MAKING Impress s plant at Montecchio in northern Italy which has special expertise in easy-open ends such as the new OptiLift featured this issue this year celebrates 100 years of can-making. Located about 20km from Parma, the plant began operating in 1910 as a local co-op formed by residents, led by a priest who wanted to provide job opportunities. The plant provided threepiece cans for local food producers and expanded with the production of two-piece drawn cans in the 1960s. It now has eight canmaking lines. French multinational Pechiney bought out the company, then called Capolo, in 1996. A year later Pechiney s food can business became part of the newly-formed Impress group, which now has five plants in Italy. Impress Montecchio recently became the first Italian food can manufacturer to achieve internationally recognised certification from the British Retail Consortium. Source: The Canmaker 02
Trendwatch METAL STACKS UP IN THE LIGHT cont. The protection offered by canned food and drink products has been highlighted by a report that companies are being forced to consider the potentially damaging effects that light has on product quality. Shelves are lined with more and more drinks packed in clear bottles and filled with natural and functional ingredients, but these are precisely the trends that make light exposure a major concern for brands. The report by FoodProductionDaily.com highlights how exposure to light can damage the colours, vitamins, lipids and flavours in beverages cutting short shelf-life and eating into product value. Even some synthetic dyes like FD&C blue #1 and artificial flavours like aspartame are vulnerable to light, but Carol Zweep, manager of packaging and nutrition labelling services at Guelph Food Technology Centre in Canada, said natural ingredients are particularly vulnerable. Carotenoids, anthocyanins and chlorophyll are all groups of natural colours that can degrade and create undesirable shades when exposed to light. Some citrus flavours can also degrade, creating off-flavours. As formulators look to make more natural products, this can prove to be a headache. The need for fortification is another trend forcing companies to consider light damage, as many vitamins can degrade with light exposure, reducing nutritional value and causing unpleasant sensory changes. Light can also accelerate the oxidation and degradation of lipids and fatty acids. Light exposure causes chemical reactions that can modify the proteins and fats in milk and yoghurts, damaging flavour and vitamin content. Another important consideration is the shelf life that companies are looking to achieve. If they want to sell a product with an extralong shelf, then more protection will be needed. 03
Homegrown FUDGE URBAN STANDS OUT FROM THE CROWD The styling category shelves in supermarkets are full of brands that one industry expert believes express themselves in a surprisingly conservative voice but breaking out from the pack is the bright orange packaging of Fudge Urban. The Fudge Urban range, which includes an aerosol produced by Impress at Taree, NSW, has blasted onto the shelves exclusively through Woolworths and Safeway supermarkets, aimed at a youthful market looking for high-quality unisex products. Fudge Urban was launched in May with a range of 11 products, including Instant Smoothie, a post-iron smoothing aerosol spray. From early August, the brand made its presence felt on Melbourne s streets with the introduction of one of the city s famous trams decked out in the brand s unmistakable colours and style. According to a blog (www.disruptiononshelf. com) produced by the staff at Carpe Diem Design in Sydney, Fudge Urban is an interesting example of disrupting on supermarket shelves, a marketing tool for cutting through the proliferation of brands and advertising in modern life. Most (styling category brands) are sophisticated, understated, subdued and clean, said the blog. Most companies quite sensibly want to avoid risk, or at least manage it. When it comes to brand development, this often results in a tendency to look at successful brands in a category and doing what they do. Rather than risk playing it safe by following those rules, Fudge s entrance into the grocery channel is brash, loud and idiosyncratic. Will it appeal to everyone? Probably not. Will it appeal to a viable proportion of the market? Very likely. Will it get noticed? Absolutely. 04
Innovation AEROSOL RESTAURANT STARS IN PARIS One of the highlights of this year s Aerosol Forum in Paris was the Paris Aerosol Restaurant where chef Pierre- Dominique Cécillon illustrated the state of the culinary art and prospects for food and catering through a number of delicious recipes. After a series of lectures and presentation papers, including one by Impress Research & Development, the 600 attendees from 30 countries were ready for some taste sensations. I love working with aerosols, said the renowned chef. One can do everything, or nearly everything, in an inventive, delicious way: smoked foie gras mousse, French-style pea mousse with cream and bacon, poached cod with balsamic vinegar mousse, champagne mousse and so on. Chef Cécillon recalled the assets of aerosol dishes in terms of taste and aesthetics. He explained the usefulness and advantages of products developed for catering professionals, such as aromatic oils, spray egg whites that can go in the microwave for a floating island, pasteurised egg sprays to make pastry golden brown, unpasteurised preservative-free lemon juice, non-stick sprays and vegetable oil films. Nestlé packaging science and environment chief Christian Saclier was impressed by the innovations and with their commercial potential. Paris Aerosol Restaurant was an excellent initiative, said Mr Saclier, and this demonstration proved most enlightening, both in terms of the foie gras mousse and the French-style pea mousse. We need to adapt this to our product portfolio. The Paris Aerosol Restaurant enabled participants, packaging and technology suppliers to demonstrate the potential of aerosols on the food and catering market. As one attendee commented: All it takes is a major player to launch into the area for the aerosol food market to take off. The Aerosol Forum returns to Paris on 8-9 March, 2011. The conference program will focus on Innovation & Sustainable Development. It will deal in particular with the food and catering, cosmetics, health products, technical products and niche markets. NEWS JOHN WEST GOES TO THAILAND Thailand s largest canned fish producer has won the race to buy MW Brands, the owner of brands including the 140 year-old John West tuna. In the process, Thai Union Frozen Products (TUF) will become the world s largest seafood group. TUF paid EUR680m (A$977m) for MW Brands, representing a profit of 60 per cent in four years for private equity firm Trilantic Capital (once a division of Lehman Brothers), which bought the business from Heinz in 2006 for EUR425m (A$611m). TUF president Thiraphong Chansiri said the acquisition of MW Brands, which also owns French and Italian tuna brands Petit Navire and Mareblu, was a transformational opportunity for the business. MW Brands strong European footprint will also provide us with further business opportunities in the future through a strong customer base, distribution, and brand leadership, said Mr Chansiri. 05