4Pack, a powerful suite of product, packaging, and artwork management solutions, has announced a set of free business tools to help firms that produce packaging or distribute packaged goods to raise their game on packaging data management.
It has published a capability model, eBook and self-driven assessment scorecard designed around the challenges faced by food & beverage, consumer packaged goods and other businesses operating in the UK. The insights are based on its deep experience of helping companies in these sectors create clarity and control over their own packaging processes.
The “Taking Control of Packaging Data: the Clock is Ticking” eBook is a walkthrough of the issues surrounding packaging data for these firms. The Packaging Data Capability assessment enables companies to assess their readiness to cope. While the Packaging Data Capability Model explores 10 aspects of the practical challenge, from recognition of the data to ensuring clear ownership.
Together they form a valuable set of tools to help companies impacted by coming changes to recognise and comprehend their status, so that they can act.
Companies that manufacture, distribute, or sell packaged goods within the UK face a tidal wave of new packaging waste and other sustainability-related regulations. In the UK alone, new or pending rules range from Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) and plastic packaging taxation to increasingly stringent Environmental, Sustainability and Governance (ESG) reporting measures for larger organisations. There are likely to be more changes that impact packaging or labelling in the future. Bodies such as the Competition and Markets Authority are already considering anti-greenwashing rules. The challenge extends far beyond the UK with regulatory change happening in Europe and around the globe.
Helen Poole, Managing Director at 4Flying Ltd, said “Many brands and businesses that create or handle packaged goods have a big problem because they do not have control of their packaging data. The need to do so is becoming urgent. Leveraging validated packaging data enables better business decisions, delivers accurate reporting for declarations, provides added value to your clients and significantly saves time and cost.”
The tools are timed for release as leaders of CPG and related businesses around the world are realising that strategies in pursuit of sustainability, efficiency, and regulatory compliance may be at risk. It is becoming business critical to ensure easy access to complete and accurate capture and visibility of packaging material and waste factors across the complete brand and product portfolio. This drives a requirement for stringent, dedicated, and centralised management of packaging data including related packaging specification, procurement and production information.
It enables everyone across the organisation to make informed decisions, implement best practices, and strive for continuous improvement. Critically, it also allows companies to provide supply chain distribution partners with the information they in turn need for their own compliance and operational decision-making.
Companies that do not take appropriate action around packaging data may struggle to meet sustainability aims, with implications not just around reporting and compliance, but also in reputational terms as consumers expect companies to be responsible.
More information about the company can be found at https://www.4-pack.com