Macfarlane Packaging, the U.K.'s largest distributor of protective packaging materials, has launched the "Macfarlane Packaging Innovation Lab," designed to create solutions for even the most demanding packaging challenges.  The company has invested £300,000 in the facility, located in Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire, England), to bring together for the first time the latest technology under one roof, including:

• Interactive touchscreen technology
• The latest protective packaging design software
• A state of the art printer/cutting table
• Modern packing benches
• A fully equipped packaging solutions showroom with the most recent innovations from global supply partners. 

Customers visiting the Macfarlane Packaging Innovation Lab will work with protective packaging experts from Macfarlane and its partners in a uniquely creative environment to:

• Fully understand the total cost of their packaging process
• Design packaging solutions that could address all of their protective packaging needs by: 

• Interact with packaging solutions that will be on site, including packing benches, packaging machinery and packaging consumables
• Significantly speed up the process of creating a bespoke packaging solution—ranging from a printed sample to a fully modeled new packaging process. 

The ability to achieve all of this in one location enables Macfarlane Packaging to speed up the process of creating for its customers bespoke, cost effective protective packaging solutions.

Ivor Gray, Commercial Director of Macfarlane Packaging, said that "the Macfarlane Packaging Innovation Lab is a stimulating, open, dynamic, and engaging place. Innovation starts with the people who work for us, and our Innovation Lab has been designed to ensure that there are no bounds to their imagination when seeking out smart solutions for our customers. We want to convert our customers' challenges into ideas." 

 

Donna Lynch, new business development director of Macfarlane Packaging, said that "for the first time, customers will be able to access in one location the latest technology and expertise in a creative environment designed to solve the wide range of packaging challenges they face in their business, whether that be storage, transport, packing, damages and returns, or customer experience.

"Our Macfarlane Packaging Innovation Lab has been designed to problem-solve from start to finish in one location, providing creative solutions that customers can touch, see, and take away with them—sometimes even on the same day. We're confident that this will help our customers to save time and money by providing a bespoke solution to their packaging challenges faster than ever before.

"We have already arranged creative days at the Innovation Lab with a number of customers, including Home Retail Group and FEELUNIQUE. We expect it to prove particularly suitable for online retailers, addressing such important areas as click and collect, damages and returns, customer experience, automation, load containment, and speed and ease of packing"

Lynch concluded.

 

Craig Wheeler, ecommerce/retail operations director of FEELUNIQUE, Europe's largest premium online beauty retailer, added that "I'm confident this facility could make a big difference to online retailers such as FEELUNIQUE, for whom the customer experience is vitally important. The online retail environment moves at a terrific pace, so being able to bring even our most demanding packaging challenges to Macfarlane and work with them in one location with access to the latest packaging technology and materials to create a solution that meets our needs is a major step forward."