Stora Enso Packaging Boards
Consumer Boards
FIN-55800 IMATRA, Finland
Tel. +358 2046 121
Fax +358 2046 24716
PRESS RELEASE
29 August 2007
Attractive new cartons for Vacu Vin
Vacu Vin manufactures wine and food-related products famous for their original and functional design. Besides continuously bringing new products on the market, the company has recently intensely focused on packaging. The entire Vacu Vin selection is being relaunched with a new look and an upgraded packaging concept using Stora Enso's Performa White board.
Vacu Vin is a real Dutch success story. The company's patented wine saver, with specially designed stoppers and a vacuum pump, has been a best-seller since its initial market launch two decades ago. Rapid Ice coolers for wine, beer and water are also very popular but currently the real hit is a pineapple slicer. Vacu Vin household products are indeed designed to make a gourmet's life easier but also to help professionals in restaurants and bars. The company shares its success by participating in charity work and employing handicapped people.
Packaging communicates
The Internet is often regarded as an overwhelming communications media as we nowadays spend part of our lives in the virtual reality. Vacu Vin has an excellent website, but it is not its main channel for communication with consumers. "Every year, consumers around the world pick up about six million Vacu Vin products to their shopping baskets.
They look and touch the package from different angles and read what is printed on it. Packaging is simply the most important means for us to carry our message to consumers," says Jaap H. Formsma, Vacu Vin's Vice President Operations says.
In 2006, Vacu Vin decided to reform its visual look and packaging concept to further increase its attractiveness and to differentiate of the quality brand from lower-level copy-cats. "Earlier we had diverse packages for different product lines and we used mainly white lined chipboard as our packaging material. The target of the reform was to upgrade the packages to a new level that equates the original and high-quality products. Red, white and silver, our new identifying colours, are now visible throughout the range and make the products easy to recognize. The style of the images is also new," Mr Formsma says.
"Since the design features large white surfaces, Vacu Vin needed a new board material that would provide the required whiteness and clean impression. We recommended the fully coated CTMP board Performa White,"
says Peter Daams, Sales Manager at Stora Enso Netherlands. Printing the packages became more demanding because a sixth colour was added and some text was to be printed on the silver surface. Performa White proved to work well in the printing and converting processes.
New efficiency in packaging
In today's fierce competition, Vacu Vin's strategy to invest in packaging is strikingly different to that of just seeking plain cost savings to secure profits. According to Mr Formsma, the new packaging concept has also improved the efficiency of packaging as well. "Using just one packaging material and the uniform visual look throughout the range gives us new possibilities to improve the efficiency of our processes. The board also has a lower grammage than before."
Thanks to these improvements, retailers and consumers receive a more attractive product at a competitive price. It is not surprising that the new concept has been given an enthusiastic reception among buyers everywhere. With two product launches in the near future and several other ideas brewing up, the future of Vacu Vin looks bright, just like the new packages.
Direct links to images
For further information
Stora Enso Nederland BV
Peter Daams, Sales Manager
Tel. +31 20 6505 515
Stora Enso Consumer Boards
Sanna Heiskanen, Marketing Communications Specialist
Tel. +358 2046 23440
E-mail sanna.heiskanen@storaenso.com
