Amcor PET Packaging enters personal care market
San Francisco, CA - (December 15, 2005) - Amcor PET Packaging marks its entry into the personal care field with Method Home's new body wash line.
Method recently introduced its line of gel and cream body washes in 15-ounce, custom, tear-drop shaped polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles from Amcor.
"At first I didn't think we would be a good fit," explains Gerry Chesser, vice president of operations, Method. "As a small player we didn't want to be thrown in with the big boys."
Chesser was first made aware of Amcor's interest in entering the personal care market by Paul Davis, Amcor's business manager for the new venture.
Amcor recently established the Personal Care business unit as part of its Diversified Products division. The company's superior design skills and speed-to-market capabilities made evolution to personal care applications the next logical step.
"Paul came to me and told me that he was starting a 'company within a company'-one that was being set up to handle the needs of smaller, personal care marketers," Chesser continues.
"They proved to us that they were able to take the design and commercialize it within a very short time frame. It showed their ability to take on a small project and devote resources to it. The passion they showed for the product and engaging in the whole process was amazing," Chesser says.
Method used the services of well-known industrial designer Karim Rashid to create the look for its body wash line. (Innovative packaging design is one of the critical elements that drives Method's business.)
"Our marketing and creative folks give the designer a brief as to what the category and market proposition are. In this case, this was a body wash product and we wanted to do something innovative with ingredients," Chesser explains.
The next step is to work on commercially producing the design. A dialogue with the container supplier becomes critical in order to translate the concept into commercial products.
"This was another way that Amcor was very helpful during the process. They realized what we were trying to do and were very collaborative," he notes.
Brad Caszatt, a member of Amcor's design team, says, "Method supplied us with 3-D models. We had to take the model and make it workable from a blow molding point of view."
"The body wash design is an organic shape and less geometrical. It has more flowing, gently sweeping curves. That was a bit of a challenge, because most commercial bottle designs are geometric," he continues.
Amcor used a combination of state-of-the art design software, along with internet conferencing to help arrive at the final version as quickly as possible.
"On Amcor's side, our engineering and design team communicated frequently with the customer and their design house, to speed up the process," Caszatt says.
Method's goal on this project was to get the body wash brand from "product concept to shelf" within 18 weeks.
"A project of this nature typically would take twice that amount of time in the hands of a larger bottle manufacturer. And that's why we needed a true supply partner.
We set up project teams and worked together and met weekly. By having point people
on both sides and meeting frequently, we were able to deliver the product that we wanted.
It was a complete collaborative effort to get us to market fast," Chesser says.
The body wash line entered the market in the summer with four varieties-two gels and two cream products. Each features a tinted PET bottle to further support the brand-Mango Mint (orange), Cassis Flower (pink), Olive Leaf (green) and Lavender Thyme (purple).
The 24-410 finish is topped by a two-color disc top closure from Seaquist Closures. (The disc matches the bottle color, with transparent white being used for the closure skirt.)
The back bottle panel also features an embossed Method logo and a recessed area for the back label. (Both the front and back transparent pressure sensitive 4-color labels are supplied by Pamco Label.)
The line is geared toward upscale urban women and is being sold at mass merchandise retailers-most notably Target.
Since launching the body wash product, Method has gotten positive feedback on the product and package. "Our customers like the design and feel," Chesser says.
But the story doesn't end there. Because Method was so pleased with Amcor's ability to be a responsive company to a smaller marketer, it decided to also go with Amcor for its hand wash bottle business.
Originally launched in 2004, the hand wash is Method's biggest selling product. The company had been getting the bottle-an aesthetically pleasing light bulb-shaped bottle-from a couple of different overseas suppliers.
"Once we got a feel for what they could do on the body wash-consolidating our supply with Amcor was the next logical step. We are making them our true packaging partner," Chesser says.
By the end of the 2005, the hand wash line will be commercially available in clear PET bottles produced by Amcor. Currently there are seven different varieties-French Lavender, Sweet Water, Green Tea, Pink Grapefruit, Cucumber, Lemon Grass and Pomegranate.
Method was founded by Eric Ryan and Adam Lowry. They had met in high school and later became roommates in San Francisco. In 1999, Ryan came up with an idea. He had experience in style and branding, and he mentioned that he was thinking about introducing design to the home care industry. And he just so happened to have met a talented local graphic artist willing to work for deferred pay.
Lowry was a chemical engineer from Stanford University with a degree in environmental science. He realized that he could use his expertise to create naturally-derived, biodegradable formulas for the products Ryan had in mind. And Method was born. For more information visit: www.methodhome.com.
Amcor PET Packaging's Diversified Products division has been established to help consumer products companies achieve innovation, speed-to-market and product differentiation. The business unit focuses on bringing unique packaging solutions to market segments such as personal care, food and liquor.
Amcor PET Packaging is the leading manufacturer of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic packaging for the global beverage, food and non-food industries, with 70 manufacturing sites in 20 countries. Its parent company, Amcor Limited, offers a broad range of packaging solutions and ranks as one of the top three packaging companies in the world. Amcor's extensive operations have grown in 2005 to include 240 plants in 39 countries. It is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005, had sales revenues of US$8.5 billion. For further information, visit www.amcor.com.
Please forward sales inquiries to:
Ruth Ann Church
Marketing Director
Amcor PET Packaging
935 Technology Drive, Suite 100
Ann Arbor, MI 48108-8919
Phone: (734) 302-2272, 1-800-666-7741
Fax: (734) 302-2298
