Retail Ready Packaging (RRP)

RRP      

Retail Ready Packaging (RRP)

Retail Ready Packaging (RRP) is a high growth niche in the packaging market and, according to Pira International Research, its demand is expected to increase approximately 70% by 2016.

Although these systems are made from corrugated board, solid fibreboard or rigid plastic, RRP’s ability to reduce the amount of handling and save on the need for additional packaging materials while providing easy access to consumers makes it stand apart from other packaging solutions.

Many of our customers appreciate these savings. As an example, Walmart has told us that the Bosch Packaging RRP Pack provides them with a 36% cost savings from material alone.

The purpose of secondary packaging is to collate and protect the product. In order to call a secondary packaging “Shelf-Ready” (SRP) or “Retail-Ready” (RRP), additional packaging solutions need to be provided to assure functionality. Since the definition of SRP or RRP has been proven to be difficult to identify in the past, an agreement on common functional requirements was implemented by the Efficient Consumer Response (ECR) Europe working group.

The following five functional SRP requirements were identified and are applicable across Europe:

  1. Easy identification – to support store staff with the selection of the right products
  2. Easy open – to facilitate ease and speed of replenishment
  3. Easy dispose – with minimal material to save disposal time and for environmental considerations
  4. Easy shelf – with such characteristics as built in handles to help employees place the goods on the shelf and stackable designs to maximize shelf space efficiency
  5. Easy shop – to allow customers to easily located their product inside an SRP and remove it

  

Retailers and producers use retail ready packaging for the following core reasons:

  1. Identification of the product by the consumer is easier. This avoids potential problems when they are searching the shelves and the possibilities that they will change brand or not follow through with their purchase.
  2. Deployment time is reduced. The product can be unloaded, “unzipped” and put in place.
  3. Packaging material is reduced. Extra packaging such as cartoning and shrinkwrapping for shipping is negligible.
  4. Sustainability requirements are easier to meet than with other packaging methods. Reductions in materials and ability to use recyclable materials assist suppliers in meeting the “green” goals.

 

Plastic RRPs are expected to have the most significant growth in this industry, followed closely by die cut display containers and modified cases. The use of shrink-wrap trays and other materials will see reductions.

With all of these statistics and trends in mind, where does that leave us now? This type of pack design increases our need to be innovative. We’ve seen this as the growth in Europe for retail ready packaging has increased while becoming more complex in both appearance and performance. Plus, we cannot ignore the trend to diecut boxes. It’s become part of today’s standard packaging offerings.

Click on the links below to view a video of a RRP Split case demonstration.

 

View Video