ENTREPRENEURS BENEFITTING FROM EPAC

Jason Brown, managing director of ePac ANZ was joined on stage by one of his clients, Brian Nasr, founder of Healthy Food Crew, with the duo sharing how digitally printed packaging was giving SME producers control, freedom and opportunity.

They reeled off a succession of emerging SME food, nutritional and pet food entrepreneurs that were benefitting by having the packaging they wanted, at the time they wanted it, in the number they wanted, and showed the success their clients were seeing.

Typical of these was a small coffee company, which thanks to ePac is able to produce its coffee in 250g, 500g, and 1kg bags, and in three different flavours each, so nine styles in total, with ePac supplying 500 of each initially. From that start the company is now booming. Without the ePac offering the company would have had to order much larger runs, potentially limiting its versions, and with the likelihood of significant waste, or just stock to sticking labels onto standard pouches, and slowing down its growth.

Brown also highlighted another benefit, which is the means to seize opportunities. He used the example of Chappy Chips, which saw strong demand for its chips from pubs, and needed to replenish stocks for the pubs quickly, with ePac able to turn around the new packaging order in less than a week.

Both Brown and Nasr referenced Friedrich’s comments on eliminating friction points, and in fact one of the themes of the day was the way the many speakers, from many different areas, referenced each other’s comments throughout, highlighting the common energy, opportunity and focus that digitally printed packaging is providing.

Speaking from an entrepreneurial point-of-view, Nasr recommended start-ups try to remain as local as possible when sourcing packaging.

“You're bound into set criteria that's been set for a very long time, with that you lose an element of your control. Control for a startup is really, really important; and that comes down to the quantities of food products, packaging, graphic design – everything.

“You want to try and control as much as you can, and control as much as you can in Australia,” said Nasr.

Brown ended by saying he didn’t see his company as a packaging operation, but as a brand builder. He said SMEs were often focused on the product, but it is often the packaging that sells the product.

The ePac key takeouts were that digitally printed packaging gives control back to SME brand owners, it enables SME brand owners to amplify their businesses, and digitally printed packaging lets SME brand owners and entrepreneurs seize opportunities.