Crack the high profit growth point of flexible packaging
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In 2005, the flexible packaging industry was once again challenged by low profit margins.
We conducted an in-depth investigation using China Flexible Packaging Holdings as an example. We found that net profit fell by 56% in the fourth quarter. This resulted in a 10% decline in the Group's full-year net profit for the year 2005, from RMB 185.55 million to RMB 161.33 million.
However, we also found that as of October 31, 2005, the group's annual turnover actually increased by 27% to 830.78 million yuan. What makes this Chinese flexible packaging company listed in Singapore “do more and earn less”? According to the person in charge of the group, the main reason for the decline in the company's profits was the increase in raw material costs and the difficult business environment.
In a tough environment, someone is still earning a lot of money. According to a label industry insider, Avery, which specializes in the production and sales of label materials, saw its profit margin rise sharply last year. According to his estimation, the profit margin of the label can be as high as 50%.
If you do well, it is better to be smart. In this issue, the editorial department specially selected six high-growth high-profit growth points, telling you that you don't need to use brute force, just make a lot of money.
Discover new market excitement
Medical packaging
Chinese traditional Chinese medicine tablets, powders, capsules, pellets and other packaging, mainly experienced the progress of paper bags, simple plastic bags, glass bottles to high-quality aluminum-plastic blister packaging and plastic film composite packaging, the quality of pharmaceutical packaging fundamentally occurred Changed.
It is understood that China introduced PVDC packaging in the 1980s, established the PVDC manufacturing industry and the corresponding processing industry in the 1990s, and the future pharmaceutical flexible packaging will further increase the amount of PVDC coated composite film. The biggest advantage of PVDC is the barrier to gas and water vapor, which can maintain the original effect of the drug well. It is an ideal packaging material for Chinese medicine powder, powder and granules. In 2004, PVDC used more than 1.18 tons in the pharmaceutical industry, accounting for 5.6% of all packaging materials used in the industry.
Among them, the blister package of the medicine includes medicinal aluminum foil, PVC plastic hard sheet, heat sealing paint and the like. Because the drug is very sensitive to moisture, humidity and light, the blister material used is required to have high barrier properties to water, gas, light, etc. Therefore, PVC, PVDC or composite materials such as PVC/PVDC, PVC/PVDC/PE, etc. are often used. Due to the unsatisfactory performance of PVC in moisture barrier and gas barrier, PVDC and its composite materials are used. For some proprietary Chinese medicines that require high barrier packaging, especially those that require oxygen barrier packaging, PVDC film packaging is recommended. The smell will not be lost and will not affect the efficacy.
Powders and granules are usually packaged in SP film composite bags, which are made of various plastic film composites (such as BOPP/PET, OPA/PT) or aluminum-plastic composite films (such as PT/AL/PE, PET/AL/PE). The aluminum-plastic composite film is formed by laminating aluminum foil and plastic film with adhesive. It consists of base layer, printing layer, high barrier layer and sealing layer. Typical base material is PET and cellophane with PVDC coating. Typical high barrier material It is soft aluminum foil or PVDC.
At present, the use of aluminum-plastic blister packaging and plastic film composite packaging in the pharmaceutical industry continues to increase. As shown in Table 2 and Figure 3, the total consumption of flexible packaging in the pharmaceutical industry reached 80,000 tons in 2005. It is expected to grow at a growth rate of 5.4% in the next five years, and will reach 104,000 tons in 2010.
Table 1 Trends in demand for flexible packaging in the pharmaceutical industry (2004-2010)
2004 2005 2010 Average growth rate from 2005 to 2010 Pharmaceutical industry (10,000 tons)
7.3 8 10.4 5.4%
Polypropylene into a new favorite of pharmaceutical packaging
For plastic film for pharmaceutical blister packaging, the industry requirements have always been very strict, not only thin, but also have sufficient barrier properties, easy to tear but not easy to crack and high transparency, drugs at a glance, etc., so pharmaceutical companies are choosing blister packaging materials Very cautious. The most commonly used pharmaceutical blister packaging materials have been polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC). At present, due to the lack of polarity of the molecules, polypropylene does not cause the bonding of PVDC and metal production equipment, and the processing performance is much better than PVC and PVDC, which is becoming the new favorite of blister packaging materials.
China's pharmaceutical packaging market has developed rapidly, with an annual growth rate of about 14%. Many packaging products have begun to be produced and processed in China. The world trend in the development of pharmaceutical packaging is that the mainstream packaging of 100 capsules per bottle is getting worse and smaller, and it is replacing it with blister packaging.
It is understood that blister packaging uses PVC, mainly because of its good compatibility, easy molding, good sealing and low price, but PVC thermal stability is poor, moisture barrier is also low. The PVDC membrane is the best barrier film. It can be used under high temperature and high humidity conditions. Its performance is similar to PVC and it is more widely used than PVC.
However, with the rapid development of packaging technology and the pharmaceutical industry, the shortcomings of PVC and PVDC continue to emerge. For example, PVC has poor water vapor barrier properties, and it is difficult to meet higher production requirements, while PVDC processing performance is not satisfactory. As a result, some plastic and pharmaceutical packaging manufacturers have developed blister packaging plastics that can compensate for the above two properties. Polypropylene is one of the more popular materials in the market. During the calendering process, the tensile strength of the polypropylene sheet is greatly reduced. Because the internal crystal is small, if the quenching technology is used, the plastic can be prevented from being in a high elastic state. Due to this property, polypropylene overcomes the shortcomings of PVC and PVDC, so it is becoming the best choice for blister packaging materials.
Shrink label
Market competition has intensified, and many flexographic label printing companies have begun to turn to the field of shrink film labels. The shrink film label market is in rapid growth, and its market share is expanding. It is expected that the annual growth rate can be maintained between 7% and 10%, far exceeding the annual growth rate of 4% to 5% in the general label market. .
The traditional outer packaging form is carton packaging, and the carton has relatively poor moisture resistance; it cannot withstand extrusion, and transportation and storage are inconvenient; and the labor cost and equipment investment cost required for carton packaging are high. Another conventional outer packaging, such as the outer packaging of bottled beer, is in the form of a bundled package. This type of packaging is labor intensive and extremely unsafe, and is prone to bursting. In response to the above two types of packaging defects, the soft bag industry began to replace the traditional carton packaging and strapping with the label packaging of polyethylene heat shrinkable film.
According to reports, heat shrinkable film has unique advantages as a label packaging material. Save forest resources, reduce costs, moisture, sanitation, and ease of use; the products after packaging are beautiful and save space. Therefore, the heat shrinkable film label can be made into a "body" package, giving the product a distinctive appearance. And because polyethylene is recognized as a non-toxic material, it is especially suitable for commodity labels in food, medicine, beverage and other industries.
The high transparent polyethylene heat shrinkable label printing film is made of high transparent polyethylene heat shrinkable film. The film is made by internationally advanced flexible printing plate. It is a special formula to replace the conventional low density polyethylene resin. Heavy-packing material, made of heat-shrinkable film with high transparency, good processing performance and high strength.
Many excellent characteristics determine the high transparent polyethylene heat shrinkable printing film label is the development trend of the label industry, and its market prospect is very broad. Compared with other decorative forms, the use of shrinkable bottle sleeve labels to achieve 360° labeling shows some important advantages, such as large advertising area, strong rubbing resistance of printed images, and good recyclability. This shrinking label creates opportunities for branded merchandise, increasing the appeal of their merchandise on the shelf, and decorating shaped containers. Typical applications range from food, beverage, and cosmetic packaging. Another area of application is the so-called bundle packaging (multiple items are packaged together).
Market conditions of commonly used shrink film
PVC In the shrink film field in the United States, PVC shrink film accounts for 2/3 of the market. The shrinkage rate of the PVC shrink film is relatively high, ranging from 40% to 60%, and its cost is lower, and the tensile strength is better, which is suitable for multi-package combination packaging. The main problem with PVC shrink film is poor environmental protection, and plastic container recyclers are reluctant to recycle PVC shrink film. Moreover, the relative density of PVC and PET materials is relatively close, around 1.33, and it is difficult to distinguish the two in the recycling process at the current state of the art.
PETG Among the various types of shrink film, PETG film has the highest shrinkage rate of 78%. PETG shrink film occupies a market share of 15% to 20%. Its relative density is 1.28, but its price is high, which hinders its pace of development.
Compared with PVC shrink film, OPS shrink film is environmentally friendly; OPS shrink film is cheaper and more economical than PETG shrink film. OPS shrink film currently has a market share of 5%, and it still maintains a rapid growth momentum. OPS has a relative density of 1.025 and a shrinkage of up to 65%, and, during its contraction, substantially no shrinkage occurs in the opposite direction to shrinkage.
OPP Although the shrinkage of OPP film is low, its application in the field of shrink wrap can not be ignored, it occupies 18% to 20% market share. The OPP shrink film is more suitable for approximately cylindrical containers that do not require high shrinkage. OPP has a relative density of 0.90, so it can provide higher yields at very competitive prices. The OPP shrink film is only suitable for shrink wrapping labels.
Shrink film printing ink
There are four main types of inks used for shrink film printing: solvent-based inks, water-based inks, cationic UV inks, and free-radical UV inks. As far as the current application is concerned, in the field of shrink film label printing, solvent-based inks dominate, followed by water-based inks and radical-type UV inks, while cationic UV inks are expensive due to their high price and printing. There are few applications in the field of shrink film.
Shrink film printing equipment
At present, the printing method of shrink film labels is still mainly gravure printing, and the share of flexographic printing is small. Shrink film labels also have certain requirements for printing equipment, mainly in tension control and heat control. Since the film material is prone to tensile deformation, the printing tension must be precisely controlled when printing such materials. Some older models of printing presses or printing equipment designed specifically for substrate-based self-adhesive film labels are simply not suitable for the printing of shrink film labels.
Currently, shrink wrap labels are usually made of PP film. Since the shrinkage rate of the PP film is not high, it is generally within 20%. Therefore, it is suitable to use a hot melt adhesive for labeling. If a solvent-based adhesive is used, it may cause wrinkles in the PP film. Since the PP film has a high shrinkage temperature, it is mainly heat-treated by a hot air method, and can reach a higher temperature than the steam heating method. Nowadays, high-shrinkage film labels are used more and more, and in the shrink labeling process, the heat-sealed parts will generate more stress. In order to withstand this shrinkage stress, the demand for solvent-based adhesives will increase in the future.
Digital Printing
When it comes to digital printing, many people mix it with the digital technology of traditional printing. In fact, digital printing technology is not equivalent to the digital technology used in traditional printing. From a technical point of view, digital printing mainly focuses on electrostatic imaging technology and direct plate-making technology. The common feature is that the plate-making time is short, the short-run business can be printed more economically, and even a flexible one-off printing can be achieved.
This determines its main market and development direction is "on-demand printing" characterized by personalized printing, variable data printing, instant printing and so on. This market is what the traditional printing methods cannot satisfy. At the same time, at least in a short period of time, traditional printing still has the powerful advantages that digital printing can't shake in the field of high-volume printing that it is good at. It can be seen that the role of digital printing is to fill the market gap caused by the technical characteristics of traditional printing. Its market positioning and traditional printing are different and complement each other.
Digital printing is a comprehensive technology covering a wide range of technologies in printing, electronics, computers, networks, and communications. The so-called digital printing means that the electronic files are directly transmitted from the computer to the printing machine, thereby eliminating the steps of color separation, imposition, plate making, and commissioning. It brings the most efficient way of printing: from input to output, the entire process can be controlled by one person to achieve a print. Such a small amount of printing is very suitable for four-color proofing and multi-variety printing at a reasonable price.
Although it is a useful supplement to traditional printing, doing short-run business is a specialty of digital devices, but it does not mean that this is the only advantage of digital printing. Opening up new profit margins that break through the limitations of traditional printing processes is the true meaning of many businesses pursuing digital. The market positioning of digital printing mainly lies in "on-demand, short-run, personalized", including custom printing, variable data printing, and internal printing.
As we all know, the entire printing industry is in a period of change from traditional large-scale production to shorter versions, more flexible, personalized, and digital production. Users should not only use high-quality, short-run, full-color printing when choosing printing services. Moreover, considering fast delivery and reasonable price, the production color digital printing machine can meet all these requirements while ensuring efficient productivity and reasonable profit margin, and promotes low-cost, high-efficiency short-run printing and personalized printing. Applications in the fields of full-color books, personalized marketing brochures, and financial statements.
It is understood that in the field of flexible packaging in foreign countries, digital printing mainly has the following applications: test packaging of products, standard boxes of small batches, and packaging with special requirements customized by users. Digital printing will have a very good market development space in small batches of standard boxes and custom-made packaging with special requirements. China's digital printing is different from foreign countries, mainly by introducing foreign technology to apply it. The gap between technology development and foreign countries is relatively large.
Although China's digital printing market is very large, its development is very fast, but it is not very mature, regional development is not balanced, and the application of digital printing is still polarized. One type is the low-end market, the investment of the practitioners is small, and the equipment used is a non-production type laser printer. Most of the jobs received are mainly short-term black and white, but because of the increasing number of practitioners and fierce competition, even now printing The amount is much higher than before, but the profit is getting lower and lower; the other is the high-end market. The scale of investment by practitioners is relatively large, and the equipment is mainly for production-type digital printing machines. Most of the business is mainly short-run color. There are also a lot of personalized, variable data color prints.
Stand up pouch
Stand-up pouch packaging is considered to be the most widely used form of packaging compared to other "brother" packaging containers. Because products packaged in soft plastic containers are very convenient for shoppers, the use of stand-up pouches can be considered as the best packaging solution for other packaging containers. With the introduction of high-capacity bagging automation equipment, the development potential of flexible packaging stand-up pouches is growing, which is an excellent market opportunity for soft plastics manufacturers.
According to the survey, the reason why the upright bag has gained an increasing demand market is because of its shelf life, displayability and cost advantages. Advances in materials and processing technology have played a decisive role in securing shelf space for flexible packaging bags, and shelf life of food and beverages packaged in stand-up pouches has been extended at room temperature. Consumers believe that products in stand-up pouches have a good brand image and are very convenient to use. If a zipper is added, the stand-up pouch can be repeatedly sealed, and the self-supporting pouch for the tube mouth makes it easier to pour out the food, while the tear-opening is an ideal package for liquid foods such as beverages and dairy products.
Taking into account the cost issue, the industry generally believes that stand-up pouches have the following advantages. There are many choices of raw materials (PE, PP, multi-layer aluminum foil composite or nylon composite); perfect print quality can help retailers attract consumers' attention; because of soft plastic packaging, light weight, not easy to break, reduce sales And the cost of storage; the disposal of discarded stand-up pouches is easier than bottles and cans, and the packaging regulations are less restricted.
All of these advantages make stand-up pouches one of the fastest growing packaging formats in the packaging industry.
RFID
As one of the top ten technologies with the greatest development potential in the 21st century, RFID technology will bring great market opportunities for the electronic information industry and including suppliers. The industry believes that RFID technology is the most promising of many identification technologies. It is a complete system consisting of software design, reading and writing tools, and labels. It is different from contact recognition technology such as magnetic cards and IC cards.
RFID itself contains a small tag, which in turn contains a silicon chip and an antenna. The authorized browsing device can receive the data stored in the data chip in the chip and can include the physical description of the item, such as quantity, style and size. And color, as well as information such as the origin of the goods, shipping and distribution, retail, etc. RFID tags and readers do not require physical contact to complete the identification, and compared to bar codes, RFID not only does not need to be targeted to identify, but also can identify multiple targets, but also for logistics Automated supervision, as well as factory assembly line management.
The advantages of RFID technology have a wide range of applications, mainly in supply chain management, such as the use of RFID systems for the management of goods in intelligent warehouses, which can not only handle the number of goods, but also supervise all the information of these goods; It can effectively save labor costs, improve work accuracy, ensure product quality, and speed up processing. At the same time, it is also possible to prevent the goods containing the RFID tag from being stolen, the loss and the quantity being incorrect by the reading device of the device of the logistics center.
In addition, RFID tags can effectively track the dynamics of logistics and retail throughout the entire logistics and retail process. For example, when the goods are shipped to a retail wholesaler or retail store, the information is transmitted through the scanner above the unloading area, without the need for people to open the box to view the goods. The store can also monitor the inventory through a scanner mounted on the shelf; and when the consumer purchases the goods, there is no need to queue at the collection, the scanner at the exit automatically recognizes the goods purchased and displays the amount due and many more.
At present, price is the biggest bottleneck affecting the development of the RFID tag promotion application market. EPC's main role in the supply chain is the logistics information technology means of the upstream and downstream enterprises. From the perspective of the enterprise itself, it mainly plays a role in the logistics process. It is understood that at present, the lowest price of an electronic label in the United States is about 20 cents. Obviously, such a price cannot be applied to some low-value single-piece products in the supermarket. If it can be reduced to less than 3 cents, it is possible to apply it to a single item on a large scale.
Therefore, the industry believes that in the current situation, in addition to a very high value-added products, most companies' products are difficult to withstand the cost of RFID tags. In the near term, it is not realistic to expect companies and retailers to use RFID tags in their logistics.
In addition, the lack of mature application models and industry standards, as well as the inconsistency of related product standards, is also one of the reasons that affect the large-scale production and production of RFID. It is understood that the current electronic label has not yet formed a unified standard in the world, and many countries are also taking the time to formulate their own standards.
As a global manufacturing base and one of the major markets for RFID, China will be the largest user of EPC. In the future, China will become the leading force in the application and development of RFID technology. The China National Standardization Association said that China will play an active role in the development of RFID standards. And an important role.