Brand protection offering
Brand protection offering
Press release 16.11.2005 M-REAL BRAND PROTECTION OFFERING - IMPORTANCE OF PAPERBOARD SUBSTRATE AND CARTON PACKAGING Already in 1998, the International Chamber of Commerce estimated that approximately 5-7% of world trade is counterfeited or otherwise illegal products, a market worth of $350 billion. Since 1998, the figures have soared at double figure percentages per annum. And the losses due to counterfeiting are not only financial. Especially with beautycare and healthcare products, the low-quality or even harmful or toxic fake products pose a real danger to public health and safety, and may deteriorate brand image and reputation of the uninformed consumers. Means to fight counterfeiting In fact there are multiple approaches a brand owner can take in the fight against counterfeiting. The brand owner can take the direct approach and use dedicated task force to canvass the suspected market areas, and raid and stop the operation sites of counterfeiters. In addition, the brand owner can support new legislation (e.g. laws against offences to IPR), and through co-operation with enforcement organisations (e.g. customs) offer information and means to identify the products at the borders. The brand owner can also influence and educate the general public to identify the fake products and the risks they entail. However the technology to identify the real products from the fakes is a crucial tool to all of these approaches. M-real has multiple high quality technologies to upraise the level of security of paperboard substrates and carton packages. The most effective solutions are typically multilayered and thus have several security levels, functions and target groups of authentication. The solutions can be categorized as visual (overt), invisible (covert) and forensic technologies. They can be targeted for the consumers, retailers and shopkeepers, wholesale dealers, customs officers, and most importantly for the brand owner detection. Various technologies may offer different functions, such as plain authentication (yes/no), variable authentication (different combinations), track & trace (supply chain authentication) or even tamper evidence. No technology is alone secure, and the solutions always have a definite, limited lifetime. Therefore it is critical to understand the target. The M-real brand protection offering consists of overt, covert and track & trace technologies to match broad range of protection needs. Role of carton The technologies can be implemented to various parts of the total product: secondary packaging (e.g. carton), primary packaging (e.g. glass bottles), labels on the both before mentioned, and even to the actual product itself. In most of the cases, the suspected items must be rapidly identified on the site to apprehend the criminals. It is often more than adequate to use carton package as the authentication tool. In addition, non-destructive methods are favoured and typically the carton package does not even have to be opened for authentication. M-real Offering Customer commitment and end-use orientation have been the most important drivers to select brand protection solutions as one of the targeted application areas for M-real Consumer Packaging business. The work has been carried out already for some years for example at the M-real Technology Centres. The continuous work has resulted extensive competence in the area and a broad pipeline of security solutions. The output of the development pipeline - M-real brand protection offering - includes today of three exclusive technologies: Stars, Decolux and Origo. The Stars product is a security board substrate with integrated multicoloured UV-fluorescent features. The product is targeted for covert authentication. The security is embedded to the material in the board production, thus it is very hard to imitate by printing. The UV-fluorescent chemical is FDA and BFR approved, thus the Stars product can be used in various end-uses, such as beautycare, healthcare and cigarettes. The material is delivered through global supply chain of M-real. The Decolux product is a new, foil-free hologram, which can be produced by embossing directly to a varnish layer. The innovation enables overt security features in addition to the decorative image. It also enables new design possibilities of holograms, as well as more economic process workflow. The Origo is a printed RFID system for authentication and track & trace of product. It is capable to store up to 96 bits of information. The memory element is produced with flexo or inkjet printing method and with conductive polymer inks. Inkjet printing can even enable item level tracking of products. The memory element can be integrated to the carton structure, thus it is highly secure and cannot be tampered with. In addition to the exclusive technologies, M-real has collected a databank including over 200 technologies available at the markets. The databank is a good source of information for development total brand protection solutions consisting of combinations of M-real exclusive solutions and other available technologies. For more information Luc van Gestel, Vice President, Design & Print Management, M-real Corporation, mobile +32 (0) 475 23 43 62, e-mail luc.vangestel@m-real.com Riikka Joukio, Vice President, Marketing, M-real Corporation, tel. +358 (0) 1046 95295, mobile +358 50 5987 819, e-mail riikka.joukio@m-real.com Information on M-real Corporation M-real Corporation, headquartered in Finland and employing some 16,000 people, is a European paper and paperboard company, providing premium solutions for consumer packaging, communications and advertising end-uses. Through its worldwide sales network, M-real serves its customers who mostly comprise publishers, printers, paper merchants, offices and well-known consumer product companies and carton printers. M-real is listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange. Its turnover in 2004 was EUR 5.5 billion.