As the countdown to Christmas well and truly begins, the two landmark dates in the sales world are fast approaching – Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Businesses widespread are gathering resources and getting their strategies ready as two of the biggest dates in the diary loom ahead. A real crucial
The employee-owned packaging company has announced plans to extend its network of regional distribution centres to service the North East of the UK, an expansion on their existing presence in the Midlands, North, Thames Valley, South Wales, South Coast and South East. The company’s existing regional distribution infrastructure and in-house
UK based company, Kite Packaging, has launched its sustainable future plastics initiative to reduce plastic levels with the unveiling of its new mobile packaging test facility and the release of their white paper. With the increasing focus on plastics and the harmful impact on the environment, businesses and consumers across
In today’s society, items big and small are finding themselves imported and exported round the world at an alarming rate of speed and efficiency. A lot of the time, consumers and businesses are left feeling angry due to the unintentional state a product arrives in. If the item is of
As the countdown to Christmas well and truly begins, the two landmark dates in the sales world are fast approaching – Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Businesses widespread are gathering resources and getting their strategies ready as two of the biggest dates in the diary loom ahead. A real crucial characteristic to expect from this year’s notorious Black Friday and Cyber Monday is the heightened emphasis on the ecommerce sector. Last year, it was found that a huge £1.4bn was spent on online sales in the UK on Black Friday which was up 11.7% in comparison with the previous year, according to online retailers trade body IMRG. However in contrast, when looking to the high street, analysis firm Springboard discovered that shopping centres and retail parks footfall figures were down 3.6% to the previous year, showing the evidential shift from bricks to clicks is taking its toll. This last week of partial normality is a time where preparation drives day-to-day business but which sector does it really ramp up the pressure in? Packaging. Everyone wants to be sending their goods inside high quality, reliable packaging that gets them to their destination in the same condition they left the warehouse in. For UK packaging supplier, Kite Packaging, the Monday before Black Friday proves to be most demanding in terms of orders as it acts as the last big order day for most businesses who are getting packing materials in ready to sell and distribute goods on Black Friday. Peak Packaging Monday is where Kite’s team sees the biggest influx of orders, ensuring their efficient pick, pack and despatch process is able to pack and distribute all packaging goods to customer doorsteps in preparation for the big day. Kite’s ecommerce division was introduced in 2004 and has been continuously evolving since. This year has seen Kite’s ecommerce specialists redevelop and evolve the Kite site to offer improved user experience such as better navigation, design advances and improved on site functionality. All of which streamlining service and making ordering on smart devices easy and clear cut for customers widespread. So what sort of packaging is really out there? Kite Packaging has introduced some new peak season additions to its online portfolio to cater for the demand from Black Friday weekend and the lead up to Christmas. Its new white mailing bags, smaller bales of wood wool, capacity book mailers and twist wraps are just some of the many types of packaging they’ve brought in that can be used to send out goods with ease. So if you want to make sure you’ve got everything you need and would like to find out more simply visit www.kitepackaging.co.uk.
The employee-owned packaging company has announced plans to extend its network of regional distribution centres to service the North East of the UK, an expansion on their existing presence in the Midlands, North, Thames Valley, South Wales, South Coast and South East. The company’s existing regional distribution infrastructure and in-house specialist teams will work alongside the local team of experts in the North East to offer practical and cost-saving solutions to local businesses for their packaging. The expertise they offer includes corrugated re-design, a specialist Automotive & Aerospace design team, in-the-box solutions, load stability/stretch film solutions and compliance with the Packaging Regulations, providing customers with a packaging company that can offer them a comprehensive service & solutions capability. This comes after a successful year for the employee-owned packaging group, in which they released two industry white papers: focused on load retention and most recently on plastic packaging and a sustainable future ‘There is no planet B’. The two pieces really demonstrate the expertise that comes from within this highly regarded packaging company. 2018 also saw the launch of Kite’s mobile packaging test facility, the first of its kind in this industry. The truck enables Kite to develop solutions on-site at the customer. It is a fully-equipped mobile testing and demonstration facility in which Kite’s packaging technologists can develop bespoke packaging solutions, carry out stretch film audits for load stability and optimise pack design through QVE/VAVE. Kite’s new North East RDC based in Washington will be staffed by a highly experienced team from the industry with plans to expand the team further in the near future. For more information on Kite Packaging and its job vacancies, visit kitepackaging.co.uk.
UK based company, Kite Packaging, has launched its sustainable future plastics initiative to reduce plastic levels with the unveiling of its new mobile packaging test facility and the release of their white paper. With the increasing focus on plastics and the harmful impact on the environment, businesses and consumers across the country are searching for viable solutions to build a sustainable, circular economy. When it comes to the environment, it is particularly difficult to change our behaviour. In order to help raise awareness across the UK, the Kite team have challenged themselves and their customers to reduce their plastic usage by a huge 120 tonnes by the end of 2019. Kite’s white paper provides businesses and consumers with an essential guide to plastic packaging and offers new alternatives to help people across the country in building a circular economy. The Kite team’s new, fully equipped truck is a mobile testing and demonstration facility in which their packaging technologists can carry out waste minimising packaging audits to determine how plastic packaging can be reduced, as well as offering more eco-friendly packing alternatives. The employee-owned business announced the challenge earlier this month when the team held a plastic packaging conference in the Midlands, at which they launched both the truck and their plastics white paper. For a multitude of businesses, packaging is a substantial part of their day-to-day operation, but often companies are using excess amounts of plastics and are not looking for eco-friendly alternatives. Kite can help businesses explore a range of alternatives to traditional plastic based packaging. Their mobile testing facility enables the scientific analysis and testing of current packing operation whilst incorporating a full suite of alternative packaging systems and solutions. Gavin Ashe, Managing Partner at Kite Packaging said: “Everyone in business is fantastically busy, focusing on running their business and packaging often ends up an afterthought. So we have invested in our mobile test facility to take the solutions directly to the customer, where we can demonstrate, design and even test solutions at the customer’s factory, saving every one time and money. “We really are a packaging company who want you to use less packaging. Join us in saving 120 tonnes of packaging waste this year.” For further information on how to reduce your plastics use, please view our white paper (kitepackaging.co.uk/images/pdf/plastic-white-paper.pdf)
In today’s society, items big and small are finding themselves imported and exported round the world at an alarming rate of speed and efficiency. A lot of the time, consumers and businesses are left feeling angry due to the unintentional state a product arrives in. If the item is of a fragile nature, of course the common sense approach in this situation would be to wrap it appropriately, but it would surprise you the volume of people who just take the cheapest approach when sending away any item. This can all too often lead to disaster, but alas! Disaster and calamity can be averted if you take guidance on the following top six packaging tips. Recycling When packaging items, why not consider recycling boxes that have not been damaged? You should be careful with this tip however as many boxes and items of packaging will seem of a high quality, but exposure to certain weather conditions may have caused the material in them to break down, yet not visibly, over time. This includes only using ‘like new’ boxes. Immobilisation The best way to ensure security of fragile products is to ensure immobilisation. Making sure that certain products are unable to move within the packaging is making sure that nothing will break. The air spaces left in a box could be filled with packaging material to ensure items have no room to shake and break. Purchase in Bulk If you are going to be sending away more than one item, or if you yourself are a mass product producer, buying boxes and packaging in bulk will enable a more economically friendly solution. Correct Sizing This is an economically friendly tip as well because buying the right size of packaging will mean that you have less packaging material to purchase. Buying the correct size of packaging will also ensure a more secure form of packaging for your product. Stick to the Correct Dimensions When packaging, wrap the products you have in the appropriate fashion – you would not wrap a table like a lightbulb or vice versa. Only Purchase from Quality-Assured Firms Although you may instinctively be looking to save a bit of money when buying anything, purchasing cheaper and lower quality forms of packaging may result in tears if the packaging breaks downs. Searching Google for quality-assured firms will give you the best results, and also a range of reviews so you can find exactly what it is you are searching for. Although packaging is not at the forefront of anyone’s mind when dealing with industrial products, or any product for that matter of fact, it should be something every packager should consider to ensure high quality of their product and above all, security. By Lucy Miller at Smarter Digital Marketing for Ferrari Packaging & BDC Magazine.
