Meadwestvaco upgrades premium secondary packaging

Connecticut-based MeadWestvaco has launched an enhanced version of its Crescendo gradeline paperboard that improves print quality and overall appearance of secondary packaging, as well as adding more diversity to the range.

Featured in the latest Nivea Renewal Night Crème and Reshaping Treatment, on top of enhancing quality, the packaging is now available in a broader grammage range, as well as the addition of a coated-two-side (C2S) offering that is said to improve the on-press appearance.

The company says that the sheet's high brightness and blue white styling have not changes, but that the physical properties have been improved through key changes in the production method.

"We took a market-driven approach, leveraging our knowledge and experience to enhance Crescendo in ways that meet our customers' existing and emerging needs," said Andy Luke, senior marketing director, packaging, for MeadWestvaco's Packaging Resources Group.

The changes to the production method took place following a strategic decision to shift production of Crescendo to MeadWestvaco's most modern paperboard machine, where the company says that enhanced capabilities and greater capacity could be wrought.

This, in turn has allowed the company to start offering 350gsm sheets, which in turn allows it to offer end manufacturers more of an opportunity to meet a broader spectrum of packaging requirements - providing packaging for other products in the same line, for example, or else products with a different market positioning.

In addition there is also the new C2S version, which provides more marketing opportunities. Because it is a two-sided paperboard this provides greater marketing and branding opportunities, allowing companies to print messages, designs and labeling on both sides of the packaging.

Likewise the C2S version is also said to provide improved backside performance in demanding print-production techniques.

In anticipation of a significant growth in demand for the newly broadened Crescendo range, the company says that it has doubled its capacity for the paperboard to meet the growth in anticipated consumer demand.

Technological improvements in the production method include online process controls, which the company claims has lead to a dramatically smoother printing surface for both sides of the cardboard, enhancing overall appearance, as well as providing added converting efficiencies.

Luke added that the end result is a sheet that satisfies customer styling requirements, as well as providing more opportunities to meet their requirements for product expansion in a manner that helps to unify the brand..

Aimed at a variety of luxury product areas, the company says that for the personal care range it is likely to suit premium skin care and fragrance ranges, providing added protection for products that are liable to discoloration or that might lose their scent easily.

Available globally, Crescendo C1S is offered in 190 - 350 gsm and 92 brightness, while Crescendo C2S is offered in 210 - 460 gsm and 92 brightness.