Waitrose vow to halve packaging concerns the sector
The warning was prompted by last week’s announcement the supermarket was relaunching some of its ranges of prepared meals, snacks and sandwiches as part of a new “Waitrose Way Commitments” corporate social responsibility initiative. A Waitrose spokeswoman said: “The relaunch of ranges of prepared meals and snacks was a great opportunity to relaunch the packaging. Our in-house graphic design team and internal packaging team will have worked very closely with suppliers.” The supermarket is to reduce sleeve sizes, increase plastic window sizes and remove trays in a bid to cut packing by 100 tonnes every year. But previous attempts by others to reduce packaging have backfired, experts warn. Chesapeake head of marketing Bob Houghton said: “This is very ambitious but will it work? People have tried reducing packing before, such as toothpaste cartons, only to find the product didn’t display very well and have to revert back quickly. “Packaging is there for a reason, such as protection and display of information required by law. It also adds gift value, so if you take it away you take away some of the value, which sounds odd for Waitrose, which sells high-value items.” He added: “Impact on the industry is hard to say; inevitably there will be lower volumes for the sector. It could prompt innovation from packagers, but I’m concerned this is a green initiative that makes good headlines but might not deliver.” BPIF Cartons general manager Neal Whipp said: “Waitrose is likely to increase food waste in preparation by reducing packaging. It’s always possible to cut packaging but there will be consequences: packaging is not waste, it’s part of the product. Reductions in packaging weight have already been carried out by most manufacturers.” The Menu from Waitrose has been relaunched with new packaging for all 49 products in the range. Width of sleeves has been decreased to cut 33 tonnes of packaging per year, equivalent to a 20% overall weight saving. “It is also the first time that a retailer has introduced aluminium trays, lacquered both internally and externally, for ready meals, allowing customers to cook and serve meals in the same tray and are still able to recycle it after use,” said the retailer’s spokeswoman. The Good to Go range of 190 snacks meanwhile was re-launched to cut packaging by 25 tonnes per year. Changes include increasing the size of clear windows to allow better visibility of the product, cutting 11 tonnes of packaging per year. Pre-printed bags for fruit portions were also changed, saving 60% of the weight by taking off the label. Flow wrap has been rolled out for all meat including lamb and pork. Removing the tray saves 38 tonnes of packaging per year – a 70% saving. Waitrose packaging and reprographics manager Karen Graley said: “We are always working hard to reduce packaging where we can, to decrease the waste reaching our customers’ bins and ensure they can recycle as much as possible. “Relaunching a range is a fantastic opportunity to do this and cutting packaging by nearly 100 tonnes per year is a great result to have achieved on our journey to halving packaging by 2016.” Waitrose head of sustainability and ethical sourcing Quentin Clark said: “As a nation we’re getting busier, and lack of time means we need to be able to...
read moreEFG lending improves
Unveiled in 2009, the EFG is a loan guarantee scheme whereby the government pledged at the time it was launched to lend £1.3bn of guarantees to banks lending to companies with a turnover of up to £25m and that were unable to obtain loans through traditional means. Since its launch the scheme has been criticised for being ineffective and not getting through to those companies that need it. In response, over the last 12 months the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), which administers the scheme, has changed the eligibility criteria to try to improve its performance. Adjustments include increasing company turnover to £41m, replacing the £1m per business lifetime scheme limit with a rolling £1m outstanding limit and raising the level from 13% to 20% of the lenders’ annual lending portfolio to which the government guarantee applies. Additionally business minister Michael Fallon wrote to all subscribed lenders, of which there are more than 40, urging them to improve lending levels and publicly named those that were failing to make full use of the scheme. According to new figures the combined lending of all those participating in the scheme rose from £71.6m in Q3 2012/13 to £91.7m in Q4, the highest level since September 2011. The total number of loans offered increased from 767 in Q3 to 885 in Q4. However a year-on-year comparison showed that lending was up just £7.2m on Q4 2011/2012 with 92 more offers. Bank of Scotland (BoS) and Santander, which were among the worst performers last year, reported “significant increases” in lending through EFG, offering 20 and 31 loans respectively in Q4 2012/13 compared to just seven and one in the same period last year. This still compares poorly however to the likes of HSBC, Lloyds and Barclays whose loan offers during those periods were in the hundreds. Fallon said the increase in lending through the EFG that banks were reporting must remain steady: “This is an important step towards increasing the finance small firms can access. Some banks are working harder, and they should be recognised for that. “It’s important this isn’t a one-off. Banks must continue to improve their use of EFG. Access to finance is a crucial issue to SMEs and economic growth will depend on businesses having the certainty that banks are lending. “This increase needs to be maintained to improve business confidence and demonstrate that responsible lending can still take place.” Since its launch total EFG lending stands at £2.14bn with 20,903 SMEs having been offered loans....
read moreHeidelberg on track with profit plan
The preliminary figures for the year to 31 March 2013 were described as a “key milestone” on the route back to sustainable profitability by chief executive Gerold Linzbach. Sales at the group rose 5% to €2.7bn (£2.3bn), while operating profit prior to special items jumped from €3m to €28m. Costs of €65m associated with its Focus 2012 restructuring programme, together with other as-yet-unspecified charges, put the manufacturer’s preliminary loss for the year at €110m. In the prior year Heidelberg lost more than double that, at €230m. The group’s fourth quarter results for the three months to the end of March also showed a marked improvement, with sales rising 5.7% to €830m and operating profits prior to exceptionals increasing from €22m to €60m. Linzbach said that in meeting its forecast for the year, Heidelberg had reached “a key milestone on our way to profitability”. “Focus 2012 lays the foundation for us to start making a profit again from financial year 2013/2014 onwards,” he stated. During the period Heidelberg “intensified” a number of Focus 2012 measures to secure its profitability targets. Spokesman Thomas Fichtl explained that this included additional actions such as rationalising the sales and service operation in its home market. “In the process of executing the programme we saw other opportunities. For example, in Germany the number of sales regions has gone from five to three, making it more efficient and flexible,” he said. Year-on-year Heidelberg reduced its workforce by a further 1,200 positions, to 14,215. Heidelberg’s share price had risen to a 52-week high of €2.22 in February (low: €0.94). The shares have subsequently slipped back, and were at €1.80 at the time of writing. Heidelberg will publish its full results on 13 June....
read moreWaitrose vow to halve packaging concerns the sector
The warning was prompted by last week’s announcement the supermarket was relaunching some of its ranges of prepared meals, snacks and sandwiches as part of a new “Waitrose Way Commitments” corporate social responsibility initiative. A Waitrose spokeswoman said: “The relaunch of ranges of prepared meals and snacks was a great opportunity to relaunch the packaging. Our in-house graphic design team and internal packaging team will have worked very closely with suppliers.” The supermarket is to reduce sleeve sizes, increase plastic window sizes and remove trays in a bid to cut packing by 100 tonnes every year. But previous attempts by others to reduce packaging have backfired, experts warn. Chesapeake head of marketing Bob Houghton said: “This is very ambitious but will it work? People have tried reducing packing before, such as toothpaste cartons, only to find the product didn’t display very well and have to revert back quickly. “Packaging is there for a reason, such as protection and display of information required by law. It also adds gift value, so if you take it away you take away some of the value, which sounds odd for Waitrose, which sells high-value items.” He added: “Impact on the industry is hard to say; inevitably there will be lower volumes for the sector. It could prompt innovation from packagers, but I’m concerned this is a green initiative that makes good headlines but might not deliver.” BPIF Cartons general manager Neal Whipp said: “Waitrose is likely to increase food waste in preparation by reducing packaging. It’s always possible to cut packaging but there will be consequences: packaging is not waste, it’s part of the product. Reductions in packaging weight have already been carried out by most manufacturers.” The Menu from Waitrose has been relaunched with new packaging for all 49 products in the range. Width of sleeves has been decreased to cut 33 tonnes of packaging per year, equivalent to a 20% overall weight saving. “It is also the first time that a retailer has introduced aluminium trays, lacquered both internally and externally, for ready meals, allowing customers to cook and serve meals in the same tray and are still able to recycle it after use,” said the retailer’s spokeswoman. The Good to Go range of 190 snacks meanwhile was re-launched to cut packaging by 25 tonnes per year. Changes include increasing the size of clear windows to allow better visibility of the product, cutting 11 tonnes of packaging per year. Pre-printed bags for fruit portions were also changed, saving 60% of the weight by taking off the label. Flow wrap has been rolled out for all meat including lamb and pork. Removing the tray saves 38 tonnes of packaging per year – a 70% saving. Waitrose packaging and reprographics manager Karen Graley said: “We are always working hard to reduce packaging where we can, to decrease the waste reaching our customers’ bins and ensure they can recycle as much as possible. “Relaunching a range is a fantastic opportunity to do this and cutting packaging by nearly 100 tonnes per year is a great result to have achieved on our journey to halving packaging by 2016.” Waitrose head of sustainability and ethical sourcing Quentin Clark said: “As a nation we’re getting busier, and lack of time means we need to be able to...
read moreSwan Mill fined after employee crushed
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, was working at Swan Mill’s Swanley warehouse when he was crushed against a pallet of paper goods by a reversing forklift truck. The accident, which happened in October 2011, resulted in the member of staff suffering three fractures in his right ankle and two fractures in his left leg. He returned to work on 9 January this year. Swan Mill Paper Company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £3,069 in costs at Sevenoaks Magistrates Court on 7 May, after admitting a breach of workplace regulations. HSE Inspector Guy Widdowson said the incident had been entirely preventable. “Swan Mill Paper Company failed to make sure that there was a safe vehicle and pedestrian system of work in place within their warehouse,” he added. “Such a measure would have prevented vehicles being able to access areas where workers on foot were moving around. Such a system was entirely possible without any detriment to the work being done.” Widdowson said that the risk of a collision between a moving forklift and a warehouse operative while both were working in the same location was significant and as such “should have been obvious to the company”. A statment issued by Swan Mill said: “On 12 October 2011 a Swan Mill Paper Company employee was injured in an incident at our site. The welfare of our staff is of the utmost importance and we deeply regret this incident. “We are a family-run firm and we take the safety of all of our 231 employees very seriously. This is the first time such an incident has occurred on our site. Our employee has returned to work with our full support. He continues to recover from his injuries and we are doing all we can to support and assist him. “The health and safety procedures that applied on the day of the incident have been in place for many years and there had been an estimated 26 million truck movements without incident prior to his unfortunate accident occurring. “We took immediate remedial action at the site and have cooperated fully with the HSE. One of our first steps was to make a proactive recommendation to the HSE about additional safeguards. These were accepted in full by the HSE. “As today’s ruling makes clear, we have not contested the charge. Welfare and safety of our staff is paramount and we now have even more robust health and safety procedures in place.”...
read moreSwan Mill fined after employee crushed
The employee, who wished to remain anonymous, was working at Swan Mill’s Swanley warehouse when he was crushed against a pallet of paper goods by a reversing forklift truck. The accident, which happened in October 2011, resulted in the member of staff suffering three fractures in his right ankle and two fractures in his left leg. He returned to work on 9 January this year. Swan Mill Paper Company was fined £5,000 and ordered to pay £3,069 in costs at Sevenoaks Magistrates Court on 7 May, after admitting a breach of workplace regulations. HSE Inspector Guy Widdowson said the incident had been entirely preventable. “Swan Mill Paper Company failed to make sure that there was a safe vehicle and pedestrian system of work in place within their warehouse,” he added. “Such a measure would have prevented vehicles being able to access areas where workers on foot were moving around. Such a system was entirely possible without any detriment to the work being done.” Widdowson said that the risk of a collision between a moving forklift and a warehouse operative while both were working in the same location was significant and as such “should have been obvious to the company”. A statment issued by Swan Mill said: “On 12 October 2011 a Swan Mill Paper Company employee was injured in an incident at our site. The welfare of our staff is of the utmost importance and we deeply regret this incident. “We are a family-run firm and we take the safety of all of our 231 employees very seriously. This is the first time such an incident has occurred on our site. Our employee has returned to work with our full support. He continues to recover from his injuries and we are doing all we can to support and assist him. “The health and safety procedures that applied on the day of the incident have been in place for many years and there had been an estimated 26 million truck movements without incident prior to his unfortunate accident occurring. “We took immediate remedial action at the site and have cooperated fully with the HSE. One of our first steps was to make a proactive recommendation to the HSE about additional safeguards. These were accepted in full by the HSE. “As today’s ruling makes clear, we have not contested the charge. Welfare and safety of our staff is paramount and we now have even more robust health and safety procedures in place.”...
read moreDigital Imaging Services on NY catwalk
The Midlands-based exhibition, point-of-sale and signage print specialist continued a three-year relationship with the British Fashion Council that has so far involved the company printing and installing branding for the pop up London Show Rooms event in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris and London. Aimed at helping fashion designers to promote themselves across the globe, each London Show Rooms event requires different printed elements. For the latest showing in New York the team at Digital Imaging Services were given five days to produce a series of interior and exterior wall and walkway branding using vinyl graphics, graphic panels, digital projections as well as a number of lightboxes, at its Wolverhampton site. Hexis Brick and Mactac 5828R were used for the cut vinyl lettering, while the lightboxes were created by printing spot white onto polycarbonate sheeting with black lettering printed over the top. Print work was produced on Digital Imaging Services’s Vutek QS3220 and its recently installed Oce Arizona 480GT, with vinyl lettering cut on the firm’s Summa T-Series cutter and acrylic on its Esko Kongsberg digital cutting table. The first plan had been to buy and create the light boxes in New York, but Digital Imaging Services production manager Dave Purcell said the price was prohibitive so they had decided to produce them all in the UK and ship them out. Arriving on site in Manhattan at 8am, a team of three from Digital Imaging Services completed the installation for the event, which was due run for a week, by 8pm the same day. Purcell said: “With this brief we needed to make sure what we did really wowed the audience as soon as they arrived so we needed to make sure everything was perfect. Sometimes the brief can actually change while we are on site so that can be a challenge, but never anything we’ve not been able to meet.” Commenting on the results of its latest installation, a British Fashion Council spokesman said: “We’ve worked with Digital Imaging Services on several of our London Show Rooms events and they have helped us turn neutral spaces into creative and innovative environments where our fashion designers can proudly showcase their collections.” The 14-staff print firm operates from a 1,400m production and warehousing facility in Wolverhampton....
read moreDigital Imaging Services on NY catwalk
The Midlands-based exhibition, point-of-sale and signage print specialist continued a three-year relationship with the British Fashion Council that has so far involved the company printing and installing branding for the pop up London Show Rooms event in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Paris and London. Aimed at helping fashion designers to promote themselves across the globe, each London Show Rooms event requires different printed elements. For the latest showing in New York the team at Digital Imaging Services were given five days to produce a series of interior and exterior wall and walkway branding using vinyl graphics, graphic panels, digital projections as well as a number of lightboxes, at its Wolverhampton site. Hexis Brick and Mactac 5828R were used for the cut vinyl lettering, while the lightboxes were created by printing spot white onto polycarbonate sheeting with black lettering printed over the top. Print work was produced on Digital Imaging Services’s Vutek QS3220 and its recently installed Oce Arizona 480GT, with vinyl lettering cut on the firm’s Summa T-Series cutter and acrylic on its Esko Kongsberg digital cutting table. The first plan had been to buy and create the light boxes in New York, but Digital Imaging Services production manager Dave Purcell said the price was prohibitive so they had decided to produce them all in the UK and ship them out. Arriving on site in Manhattan at 8am, a team of three from Digital Imaging Services completed the installation for the event, which was due run for a week, by 8pm the same day. Purcell said: “With this brief we needed to make sure what we did really wowed the audience as soon as they arrived so we needed to make sure everything was perfect. Sometimes the brief can actually change while we are on site so that can be a challenge, but never anything we’ve not been able to meet.” Commenting on the results of its latest installation, a British Fashion Council spokesman said: “We’ve worked with Digital Imaging Services on several of our London Show Rooms events and they have helped us turn neutral spaces into creative and innovative environments where our fashion designers can proudly showcase their collections.” The 14-staff print firm operates from a 1,400m production and warehousing facility in Wolverhampton....
read moreAntalis aims to cut a competitive edge with substrates at Fespa
The distributor said it would demonstrate applications using the latest substrates to show how products from its Coala, Orafol and 3A Composites ranges could be transformed into floor and window graphics, table wrappings and wall décor. Product marketing director James Jarvis said visitors would see how the use of cutting-edge substrates could deliver the good outputs to give an “all-important competitive edge”. He added: “Our visual communication business offers the widest range of flexible and rigid media and consumables for the large-format digital printing market, the display market and the signage market.” Antalis will be exhibiting some of the 74 products from its Coala collection for large-format printers, which will be displayed as table wrapping, exhibition and display material and window and floor graphics. The collection, which includes 20 products for water-based inks and 54 for solvent, UV and latex ink, features substrates for both indoor and outdoor applications, including papers, self-adhesives, banners, textile, wallpapers and specialty media. The Orafol range of plotter vinyls, digital vinyl and laminates will be used to decorate parts of the floor, windows and wall. These are suitable for indoor and outdoor applications, vehicle wrap, glass cover and illuminated installations. Meanwhile its digital vinyls include soft PVC, special PVC, polymeric and case material with Oraguard laminates. Also on display will be products by 3A Composites, including the Smart-X, Dibond, KAPA and Forex ranges....
read moreAntalis aims to cut a competitive edge with substrates at Fespa
The distributor said it would demonstrate applications using the latest substrates to show how products from its Coala, Orafol and 3A Composites ranges could be transformed into floor and window graphics, table wrappings and wall décor. Product marketing director James Jarvis said visitors would see how the use of cutting-edge substrates could deliver the good outputs to give an “all-important competitive edge”. He added: “Our visual communication business offers the widest range of flexible and rigid media and consumables for the large-format digital printing market, the display market and the signage market.” Antalis will be exhibiting some of the 74 products from its Coala collection for large-format printers, which will be displayed as table wrapping, exhibition and display material and window and floor graphics. The collection, which includes 20 products for water-based inks and 54 for solvent, UV and latex ink, features substrates for both indoor and outdoor applications, including papers, self-adhesives, banners, textile, wallpapers and specialty media. The Orafol range of plotter vinyls, digital vinyl and laminates will be used to decorate parts of the floor, windows and wall. These are suitable for indoor and outdoor applications, vehicle wrap, glass cover and illuminated installations. Meanwhile its digital vinyls include soft PVC, special PVC, polymeric and case material with Oraguard laminates. Also on display will be products by 3A Composites, including the Smart-X, Dibond, KAPA and Forex ranges....
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