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 Lil’®A1 & A2 cardboard envelopes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lil’®A1 & A2 cardboard envelopes represent the future of mail-order packaging.  The largest e-commerce companies are using these to replace their need for bubble envelopes  for a number of reasons:

1. Proven upto 25% faster to pack
2. Greatly reduces damage in transit/lost packages
3. Mailing cost savings
4. Upto 3 times as many envelopes per pallet
5. Environmentally sustainable (made from 98% recycled post-consumer waste)

A range of sizes available from stock or printed to customers special requirements and held in stock for immediate dispatch.

 

Danish Tea Bag Wallets

We were asked by Danske Tea and Coffee to develop a distinctive wallet that would hold 12 tea bags of varying flavours that would machine pack and would be environmentally friendly. The paper we chose was 200gsm Cyclus offset (100% recycled paper) printed with soya based inks with an emulsion varnish. The wallet style was given large gussets to give it a bag feel and to allow machine shoe loading of the pack (as discussed with their engineers). The distinctive feature of the pack was that it was suspended on the display rack on its corner and presented as a “diamond”. This all gave the product its uniqueness.

Through product testing of the various flavour bags, it was discovered that the bergamot oil in the orange flavour reacted with the PVA adhesive. A new adhesive was developed with the glue manufacturers. The project went ahead to become an enormous success.

4 Compartment Integral Fitting for TyRap Trays – for Thos & Betts

The customer had been using 3 sizes of crash lock bottom fold-over top trays with separate complicated fittings for many years and was looking to save money in pre-production assembly times, inventory and carton cost. Here, creative constructional work and the genius of a glueing machine operator found the solution – a one piece pack that did everything.

All-in-One Photo Processing Pocket

Here the brief was to cut cost by reducing the number of individual wallets and bags from 7 to 1. The pack had to have a detachable sequentially numbered voucher, a secure recess for the APS spool, space for digital flash cards and CD’s, take 35mm rolls and 72 prints, have the same number on the pocket for traceability, be re-sealable at least 6 times, be large enough to take the APS panoramic prints, print 4 colours and be writable anywhere. Quite a brief, but we did it, and saved them money. Printing on 170gsm pulpboard, twice through the gluer using a Domino numbering unit bought especially and a very clever adaptation of our peel and seal machinery.

Mainline Flatpacks Ltd Pushes the Envelope

There are many ways to make an impact with direct mail, and the envelope it’s sent in is one of crucial importance. At Mainline Flatpacks, they’re singing the praises of the cardboard envelope as a proven creative and colourful vehicle for hitting recipients of DM right between the eyes.

The company dedicates much time to the development of packaging design. Its 26 years creative expertise in cardboard engineering have created a reputation for introducing new packaging concepts based on the loosest of client briefs. Mainline are commonly asked by the major automotive clients to develop packs from cardboard in excess of 200gsm to replace existing 100gsm paper envelopes in order to maximise response rates from higher impact presentation.

Sales director Fred Lill quotes figures from a former agency client that suggests average response rates of 8% on campaigns using cardboard envelopes. When fixed capacity packaging is used, the success rate is even greater: 12% on average.

Mainline Flatpacks is one of the few manufacturers that can handle mass production of such packaging, which has seen it develop its own branded products for mail delivery. At the forefront of these is the Pecopak® brand of retention packaging, a concept that Mainline Flatpacks is keen to get in front of the nation’s agency creative directors, and which it showcased at IDMF last year. Like all good ideas, it’s incredibly simple, the cardboard packaging includes a thin polythene film stretched over an internal corrugated fitment, to minimise any movement of the item contained within – a mobile phone for example, as in the picture shown.

“Marketing agencies are always looking at unique methods of creatively mailing various size promotional items, such as keyrings , but often it’s difficult to present them in a professional way,” Fred Lill points out. “Pecopak® holds the gift securely so it doesn’t rattle or get damaged. I’ve even performed a successful postage trial with a raw egg ! There are lots of uses for this product that marketing agencies could take advantage of.”

Never standing still, Mainline is always adding new products to its range; whether it’s a completely innovative design or improvements on an existing one. Most recently the company redeveloped its “Amazon-style mailer” for their automotive clients to mail their new car brochures rather than commonly being used to mail books, DVDs & CDs.

Managing Director Barry Lill says “Our major activity is in manufacturing, with an array of printing presses and specialist gluing machines that give us unrivalled versatility and productivity against the rest of the world.”

The jewel in the crown is the company’s Bobst Alpina Gyro gluing system – a £600,000 investment in a market where gluing systems usually cost £120,000. It was a huge investment when purchased in 2005, but it has single-handedly revolutionised the capability of Mainline Flatpacks, and made the company able to compete with suppliers in the Far East.
“Prior to investing in the Bobst, three gluing processes were required to create a peel and seal cardboard envelope with red rippa strip. Now we can achieve all processes in 1 pass at twice the speed” explains Barry Lill.

“It is a huge improvement for efficiency and leadtime. With our other specialist equipment, we are the only company that we know of in this market that can fully manufacture these products under one roof without relying on subcontractors for printing or finishing. Thus enabling us to be the buyers’ preferred supplier of cardboard envelopes and specialist packaging.”

Such productivity, alongside the benefits of Mainline’s environmental accreditations of ISO14001 and FSC chain of custody, has seen Mainline Flatpacks grow substantially in recent years, especially overseas where its export business is growing at 400% annually.
Mainline have inserted a sample of their product in this issue. Their message is clear : “Follow their path to increased response rates and environmental improvement for direct mail.”