The packaging industry is constantly innovating as consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers seek to provide greater convenience and value to consumers. Shrink sleeves are one such packaging technology that has exploded in popularity in recent years.
Contact us to discuss your requirements of shrink sleeve cans. Our experienced sales team can help you identify the options that best suit your needs.
The research analysts at Mordor Intelligence have estimated the global shrink sleeve packaging market at $10.4 billion in 2020 and project it to reach $15.6 billion by 2026, a healthy 6.52% CAGR. The cost-effectiveness and fast production line speeds made possible by shrink sleeve packaging have made it an attractive option for consumer products.
First and foremost, shrink sleeves make custom-printed containers unnecessary. A microbrewery, for example, can buy blank cans (i.e., “brights” in the industry lingo) and have different shrink sleeves applied to the blank cans as their product mix changes. Thanks to shrink sleeves, pre-printed can waste is eliminated. However, this blog will explore four other critical advantages the CPG industry should consider.
4 Reasons Why Shrink Sleeves Stand Apart
1: Increased Shelf-Appeal
When compared to an ordinary pressure-sensitive label applied to a product or container, shrink sleeves offer the advantage of size. Full-body shrink sleeves enable brand messaging and vibrant, colorful designs to wrap the entire product from top to bottom and 360° around — regardless of the product’s dimensions or shape. The sheer surface area and design flexibility is invaluable when it comes to standing out on a crowded retail shelf.
This added surface area is also functional. The nutrition, ingredient and safety disclosures required for many foods, beverages and pharmaceutical products take up a significant amount of space. A shrink sleeve makes it easier to comply with these regulations while still leaving ample room for designs that catch the eye and build the brand.
2: Product Safety and Brand Protection
Shrink sleeves can also help CPG companies to protect the brand. Once applied to a product, they offer a physical barrier against various fraud schemes.
- Shrink sleeves can be used to provide a tamper-evident seal to protect consumers from possible harm. This is in addition to their natural moisture- and abrasion-resistant properties.
- Microtext and holograms can be incorporated into the design, providing a clear visual indicator of counterfeiting and helping to prevent fraud losses.
- Thanks to the large surface area available, QR codes can also be imprinted on a shrink sleeve that direct the consumer to deeper information about product safety or to information that confirms the authenticity of the item.
3: Packaging Versatility
Shrink sleeves are the Swiss Army knife of packaging solutions. No other packaging technology can be used so many different ways for so many different types of products.
Like the name suggests, the label shrinks to fit containers of nearly any shape or dimension. Whether it’s a bottle, jar, can or something else with a complex irregular shape, a shrink sleeve can be used to decorate it. Generally speaking, ordinary pressure-sensitive labels cannot adapt to shaped containers in the same way.
They make it easy and cost-effective for CPG companies to try different merchandising strategies. Want to cross-sell one product with another? Offer two for the price of one? Sell one product with a free sample of something completely different? Shrink sleeves are the answer. The shrink-to-fit flexibility allows multiple items to be joined together for easy marketing at the point of sale.
Digital print technology makes it possible to customize shrink sleeves with an endless array of special embellishments and textures. Light-blocking finishes can even be added to protect dairy products in transparent or translucent containers. When combined with the added surface area (see #1 above), this ability to customize the package’s design is a powerful tool in the marketer’s toolbox.
4: Environmental Advantages
Last but certainly not least, shrink sleeves can be used to minimize container waste, reduce carbon emissions and promote recycling.
The inherent strength of a shrink sleeve enables CPG companies to use thinner, lighter containers. Less weight results in fewer carbon emissions in the process of bringing the product to market.
Shrink sleeves can be designed with a built-in “zipper” feature that makes removal easy. The blank container can then be added to the recycling stream as usual.
Shrink sleeves also offer a solution to those who are caught with pre-printed containers of the wrong variety. Going back to the craft brewery example, leftover pre-printed cans for a seasonal brew no longer in production can be wrapped with an opaque shrink sleeve for a different product. A pre-printed can with no marketable use is suddenly given a second life through the application of a shrink sleeve.
Taylor: A Full-Service Provider of Shrink Sleeves
Taylor creates custom packaging and labeling solutions for top brands in a range of product categories. We offer shrink sleeves in a variety of formats including:
- Full-body sleeves
- Tamper-evident bands
- Neck bands
- Multi-packs
- Individual sleeves or rolls
Best of all, everything needed to take your product to market is available in a single source:
- In-house design and prepress services
- 3D proofs and prototypes
- Digital, web offset and 10-color flexo print production technologies
- Cold foil, holographic effects, matte/gloss varnishes and other special finishes
- Referrals to shrink sleeve application equipment and bottle decorators
Discover the many advantages of custom-printed product packaging from Taylor — including shrink sleeves. Contact your Taylor representative to learn more.
For more information, please visit PETG Shrink Film With High Shrinkage.
As you walk down store aisles, you see more and more shrink sleeve labels then ever before. Shrink sleeve labels are a fast-growing part of packaging for consumer products.
If you’ve been living under a rock, just go down the dairy and juice aisles of your local grocery store and you’ll see shrink sleeves wrapped around milk, juices, soda, drinkable yogurts and protein shake containers. Then go to the beer and spirit aisles, and you’ll see shrink sleeve labels on aluminum cans and glass spirit bottles. It doesn’t matter which aisle you walk down from household items to vitamins and nutraceuticals, tool and fasteners to yard and garden supplies, you will see shrink sleeve labels provide brand awareness and greater packaging functionality.
Packaging market research firm AWA estimates that shrink sleeve labeling will grow in excess of 5% a year through 2025.
How is a shrink label made?
First, each product’s artwork is expertly manipulated and distorted electronically to properly proportion the artwork to the container’s shape and contours. Shrink sleeve label film is then printed on using flexographic or digital technology. Then the printed film is seamed into a tube, inspected, and finished into the proper size roll.
After the shrink sleeve labels are applied over a bottle or package and cut to the proper length, the container is sent through either a steam or electric heat tunnel to conform the label precisely to the container.
Benefits of Shrink Sleeve Labels
As brands look for new ways to create shelf awareness and packaging with greater functionality, shrink sleeves offer many important benefits:
360-Degree Coverage — Going beyond the capabilities of a pressure sensitive label, shrink sleeves completely encapsulate the bottle. This gives packaging designers an even broader “billboard” for eye-catching artwork, brand storytelling, and product information.
Complex Shapes — Shrink sleeves can easily conform to even the most complex shapes, including curves, cutouts, bottle caps, and even the grip portion of a trigger spray bottle.
Versatility — Applying artwork to a container via shrink sleeve can produce the same effect as screen printing. This means that brands can easily change out that artwork. Instead of tying up a lot of capital with pre-printed containers, they can stock a generic container and adjust their shrink sleeve artwork to suit various changes. This is ideal for brands that offer seasonal and limited release items.
Tamper Evidence and Security — Shrink sleeves labels offer a way for brands to add tamper-evidence functionality to a container. This stands to be increasingly important in the era following the pandemic, as shoppers have developed an intensified interest in the safety and purity of their foods.
Informational Space — If your label needs a lot of space for nutritional claims and dietary benefits, plus regulatory and ingredient information, the 360 degree label format can provide the needed space for all necessary information.
Sustainability — In the past, shrink sleeves were not recyclable in standard recycling processes, even if the bottles they encapsulated were. That meant conscientious consumers had to peel shrink sleeves off their bottles, recycle the bottles, and throw out the sleeves. Now, however, recyclability is a key focus within the packaging and printing industries. New developments in the type of shrink sleeve label films produced let sleeves stay on PET plastic bottles and get fully recycled. This new PET shrink sleeve label material meets the Association of Plastic Recyclers Critical Guidance Protocol for Clear PET Packaging with label and closure requirements.
Another key development in shrink sleeve label material is the continued development of film with a significant post-consumer waste content.
Contact Us
For more information about shrink sleeve labels, to receive samples or talk with our sales and service group about a specific project, please contact us at info@lauterbachgroup.com
or call us at 262-820-8130.
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