Issue Date: 5 January 2010

Payne, the world’s leading tear tape manufacturer, is experiencing growing demand within the biscuit category to provide easy opening and cost effective communication solutions across a variety of packaging styles.

Tear tape is easily integrated across both roll wrap and flow wrap biscuit packaging formats, ensuring that pack opening is both simple and fuss-free for the consumer and that on-pack branding and product information will not be damaged.

Quick, clean and easy access to products for busy consumers is not the only benefit of tear tape.  In a single cost-effective medium, tear tape addresses many of the marketing challenges faced by brands: consumer convenience, tamper evidence, product promotion and brand enhancement.  As such, while it undoubtedly offers the instant practical benefits of easy opening, these ‘added value’ benefits can help enhance a brand’s image and reputation. 

As an example, Payne’s printed tear tapes provide a highly effective opportunity for carrying branding and communications messages, particularly at the point of consumption. Payne’s printing technology allows superb-quality reproduction of text and graphics, whilst design origination and support gives biscuit manufacturers the flexibility to customise their promotional messages for their latest campaigns.

By using printed tear tape, manufacturers can also quickly and cost-effectively update their promotional messages to meet market needs without the continued expense and waste associated with updating their external pack designs.  Tear tapes’ in-line application at the point of the product being wrapped does not disrupt production and, as tape bobbins are small items to store, large amounts of factory space is not required.   

Global demand

Growth in demand for tear tape in the biscuit category is being seen globally. One Indian brand has increased its market share through a co-ordinated programme of on-pack promotions.  The company has recently added tear tape to its packaging specification in order to benefit from the medium’s versatility as a promotional tool.

In South America, a recent application has underlined the success of tear tape for use in variable data code promotions. Payne’s Supastrip VDP tape was designed to provide a unique number within over 28 million packs of roll and flow wrapped biscuits. Consumer response to the promotion was so overwhelmingly positive that the manufacturer ordered tape for an additional 15 million packs to extend the promotion into the year.

In Europe, United Biscuits have recently introduced Payne’s Communication Tab System to the new Jacob’s Cheddars cheese biscuit packaging, in order to provide enhanced access to the pack. By cutting a larger, U-shaped or horseshoe tab into the film during the application of the tear tape, the tab protrudes beyond the seal area to deliver a prominent opening feature that is easily visible to the consumer.

United Biscuits’ Packaging Systems Manager, Paul Cheeseman, is enthusiastic about the possibilities.  “Roll wrap is already one of the simplest and most efficient uses of packaging, and yet we believe that with the addition of Payne’s communication tab system we have managed to improve and enhance the overall product for the consumer.”

“We are constantly looking at how we can add value to our customers,” comments Mike Love, Payne’s Category Manager for tear tape.“ The biscuit market is a good example of how – by using our latest print and application techniques – we can deliver real benefits to the manufacturer, and support their drive for sales growth through more effective use of packaging and communications.”