Even when facing recessionary and environmental pressures, the luxury cosmetics industry still needs to stand out with distinctive and innovative packaging solutions. Blandine Roger outlines how RPC is adapting to be more responsible without compromising on quality
Look up ‘luxury’ in the dictionary and it means “the possession and use of costly, non-essential things for enjoyment or comfort”. In difficult times, logic would suggest that luxuries, as something “non-essential”, are the first things to go, but that doesn’t account for people’s need for “enjoyment or comfort”. No wonder then that the luxury cosmetics industry tends to weather the storms that affect other sectors.
Yet there is a sea change in the attitudes of consumers that brands can no longer ignore. The watchword these days is not indulgence but responsibility. Consumers still want their luxuries, but their choice is governed by increasingly ethical considerations, particularly environmental ones. Brands too cannot afford to be so profligate when financial belts must be tightened, and a newfound frugality is visible in development as manufacturers attempt to deliver traditional opulence on a budget.
For high-end cosmetics, the paradox is obvious. Greener, more cost effective packaging is great, as long as it doesn’t diminish the sense of enjoyment and comfort that consumers associate with the brand. Anyone can pack their product in a recyclable, low cost, functional container, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anybody will buy it.
These are amongst the challenges that cosmetics packaging manufacturers face, alongside the wider issue of sustaining profitability against the backdrop of recession and wildly fluctuating energy and material costs. Accordingly, the industry must adapt if it is to remain productive at the same time as reacting to these parallel but somewhat contradictory impulses towards luxury and responsibility.
EFFICIENCIES OF SCALE
One method is for larger manufacturers to rationalise production, concentrating activities into fewer, larger factories to improve efficiency. By investing in a few sites, or better still a single site, it becomes possible to use automation to feed high speed, high capacity production, thus unlocking the big volumes that enable a healthy return on that investment in expensive equipment. While automation is traditionally associated with the mass market rather than the luxury cosmetics sector, where there is a premium on uniqueness, there is clearly a case to be made for the cost effectiveness of applying industrial manufacture to achieve distinctive pack decoration.
This is certainly the case at RPC, where our luxury cosmetics operations, previously split between two sites, have been streamlined into a single factory in Marolles, France. The process – involving significant investment and the consolidation of operations from Marolles’ recently closed sister site in Mozzate, Italy – is aimed at offering shorter lead times and faster response to customer orders and developments through greater manufacturing efficiency.
Key developments at RPC Marolles include the opening of a new 1200m2 building, which will house the company’s latest high speed, fully robotised assembly and decoration lines for lipstick, lip gloss, mascara and fragrance closures. The company has also expanded its injection-moulding workshop with the installation of new equipment. RPC beauté has already invested significantly in Marolles’ electroplating operation with the automation of the loading and unloading process leading to an increase in the line’s capacity and enabling the site to open up its high quality, cost effective plating facility to external companies.
It is obvious that if investment increases then the market opportunities must also increase to maximise that investment. The responsible thing in this context is to try to develop techniques that can cross the board from high-end limited editions to million-unit blockbuster launches, and one of our latest innovations clearly demonstrates what can be achieved.
HotFix (above) is an exciting new decoration process developed in partnership with jewellery brand Swarovski, enabling patterns of Swarovski stones to be affixed to plastic cosmetics packaging. Traditionally, cost has been the biggest obstacle to the placement of gemstones into plastic containers because the technique required individual application by hand – an expensive process. HotFix represents the first time that the placement of gemstones into plastic has been achieved on an industrial basis.
This opens up opportunities in both high-end and mass market applications. The mainstream is constantly seeking to improve its packaging to reduce the gap with the top end of the market and the uniformity of cost in affixing stones to the pack will certainly help. Nonetheless there remains one significant variable whereby premium brands can reinforce their luxury image: the stones themselves, which are priced by Swarovski at market rates.
SUSTAINABILITY
At the same time as maintaining the need to constantly upgrade packaging appearance and perceived value, packaging manufacturers must also look towards the delivery of more environmentally responsible packaging. Luxury by its very nature tends to favour the lavish and excessive, but growing awareness of green issues means that alongside opulent appearances, packaging manufacturers must look into improving sustainability.
At the moment brands are making small gestures towards lowering their carbon footprints, such as using recycled materials where possible or reutilising existing packaging rather than manufacturing new styles, although of course this decision is as financially minded as it is environmentally motivated! Nonetheless, with improvements in technology, new decoration techniques can be adopted that deliver the luxury image expected without harming the planet.
The new EcoCoat process for example (above) offers an environmentally-friendly alternative to varnishing through a creative use of overmoulding. Whereas traditional overmoulding is intended to achieve high thicknesses, the objective here is to achieve a coating using only an extremely thin skin of transparent polymer, of no more than a few tenths of a millimetre. Logistics and handling are significantly simplified and reduced, while EcoCoat avoids the emission of greenhouse gases and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) associated with varnishing, but crucially a high gloss and depth of finish can be achieved.
The thin coating can be specified in a number of styles, including clear, tinted, or incorporating metallic or pearlescent pigments. This offers great design flexibility in combination with the variety of classical treatments that can be applied to the substrate. EcoCoat can also be applied over any standard decoration technique, a significant advantage as the decoration is protected and enhanced by the added depth provided by the coating. For example, the application of EcoCoat over traceability marking or holographic labels protects these devices from tampering to provide excellent protection against counterfeiting.
While the future of the luxury sector looks secure, it is inevitable that changes need to be made to improve efficiencies of scale and sustainability. Alongside the streamlining of the RPC Marolles plant, the company has also consolidated its cosmetics and personal care operations, previously split between RPC Bramlage-Wiko (personal care and toiletries) and RPC beauté (make-up and fragrance), into a single entity under the RPC Bramlage-Wiko umbrella. The combined technical resources and expertise of the new operation is designed to deliver customer benefits in terms of sales support as well as product development and choice.
The result of such changes can only fuel new creativity in pack design, while continuing to enhance the traditional strengths of luxury pack manufacture. Responsible thinking, whether in terms of cost efficiency or environmentally minded ventures, can help ensure that brands and consumers can still enjoy the comforts of luxury.