Mondi’s corrugated portfolio is now more accessible, transparent and user-friendly. Oriented to known and perceived customer needs, the portfolio consists of three clearly defined product lines: ECO, EASY, SMART. ECO stands for efficient material use and waste reduction to help conserve natural resources; EASY for convenience and easy handling combined with excellent design; and SMART for outstanding solutions with intelligent features. The emphasis is on clever product features that solve customer packaging needs, reflecting a broad spectrum of ingenuity in product development.
"With this new approach, we’re offering a greater number of products with increased added value and backing that up with the necessary service support," notes Thomas Ott, CEO Mondi Corrugated Packaging. "To accomplish that, we’ve strengthened the role of product development, and we’re cooperating with the customer more closely and at different levels. We’ve created a central database for information-sharing among plants and regions, and a platform for ongoing innovation activities."
The customer benefits in a variety of ways: cleverly designed products, especially those which are eco-optimised, tend to be more cost-effective than regular ones. Moreover, they are better suited for branding purposes and provide a higher degree of differentiation. Products with strong visual appeal are known sales drivers – a key requirement for shelf- and retail-ready packaging – while products with intelligent features that go beyond conventional packaging set trends and boost competitiveness.
"In a number of instances, our design teams have come up with genuinely unconventional solutions, while continuing to listen closely to customers’ needs," says Thomas Ott. "In the future our designers will play a more participatory role in sales activities by communicating to a variety of target audiences."
Within the three product lines ECO, EASY and SMART, individual product families target a broad range of industries. Appropriate IT infrastructure provides all necessary support, allowing interaction between local and regional design activities and ensuring that data can be pooled among plants and regions.
Mondi intends to push ahead with this emphasis on innovation in corrugated design, with a view to adding further product families and solutions accompanied by highly responsive customer service support.