Cosmopack offers look at molding in Instagram age

Hong Kong — Let's talk about beauty bloggers, shall we?

It may seem a strange topic for the plastics supply chain, but bloggers, those social media arbiters of taste, were on the minds of many manufacturers at the recent Cosmopack show in Hong Kong.

"The huge trend now are these bloggers and anything that's Instagrammable," said Simi Granda, senior director of new business development at New York-based Presto Packaging Solutions LLC.

"Bloggers are very influential now," said Damien Dossin, president of HCP Packaging USA Inc., a unit of Shanghai-based injection molder HCP Packaging Co. Ltd.

Interviews at the annual show — Asia's biggest dedicated to the cosmetics supply chain — revealed a surprisingly turbulent industry that's buffeted by the demands of rapid-fire social networks, cost-cutting and, increasingly, multicontinent launches.

Outside the ubiquitous Kardashians, beauty bloggers may be as mysterious to manufacturing as the far side of the moon, but their pull is enormous, Granda said.

"They can have 1 million or 5 million followers, and they want to launch a lip gloss. Before you know it, you're doing a million pieces of this lip gloss. Which is amazing," Granda said.

In the lingo of Silicon Valley, bloggers are "disruptive." In the less high-flown language of the shop floor, you'd better be able to manufacture and deliver a lot of product very quickly.

Increasingly, the packaging firms in cosmetics are also globalizing: China's Yuxing Plastic Packaging Co. Ltd., for example, opened Presto Packaging Solutions two years ago.

"We're trying to grow our U.S. market share by understanding American trends," Granda said.

Interest in sustainable packaging was more muted than in previous years, and it came with a twist: It's now being driven more by practicality than marketing.

For the most eco-conscious companies, there are more choices than ever.

Shanghai design and packaging consultancy Neuni Group's database of 10,000 materials includes plastics made from 100 percent recycled high density polyethylene panels and paper made from elephant or snail poop.

Like makers of toys and baby products, the beauty industry demands recycled resins free of heavy metals and other contaminants, but those come at a cost.

"The price is higher — sometimes twice as much" for recycled plastics, said sales manager Elisabetta Zuccotti of Crema, Italy-based Cosmei srl.

In this very appearance-conscious industry, plant-based polylactic acid isn't deemed as eye-catching as glossy jars made from ABS or glycol-modified PET that emulate the look and feel of glass.

"The challenge with green packaging is we're doing high levels of decoration and high complexity of assembly with different materials," said HCP's Dossin.

Still, HCP is imposing measures throughout its factories to lower its carbon footprint, including solar power and the use of recycled water.

"We're also trying to reduce the amount of packaging we use to ship product," Dossin said. "With the advent of e-commerce in Asia, cost is going up for people like us because these e-commerce companies are buying the same boxes that we are."

Careful design can reduce resin use, which is both eco- and bottom-line-friendly. Case in point: the caps offered by Hong Kong-based tube-maker Atlas Plastic Products Co. Ltd.

"We focus on very thin caps, which can reduce raw material and weight," said Managing Director Johit Das.

The company developed the polypropylene caps three years ago, for a very practical reason, as oil prices topped $100 a barrel.

"There was a lot of pressure to bring costs down," Das said.

Another driver was internal deadlines set by cosmetics vendors to reduce plastics waste and improve recyclability, Das said: "They have been focusing their R&D on bringing down their plastics usage."

Cosmopack, along with its larger sister show in Hong Kong, Cosmoprof, drew an estimated 78,000 attendees and 2,500 exhibitors over four days. Companies say it is a chance to catch a global audience.

"It's our fourth year at the show," said Jina Ahn, general manager at GLP Korea Co. Ltd., which specializes in multilayer bottles. "We're here to reach companies from Europe, Hong Kong and North America."

This year's show also attracted newbies such as Noida, India-based packaging powerhouse Uflex Ltd., which put in its first appearance.

The company, with annual sales of about $1 billion, is best-known for its films and food and industrial packaging, entered the tube business five years ago and now seeks new clients outside its South Asian stronghold.

"We want to meet new clients from anywhere," said Ish Dhawan, head of new product development.