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Your product is great, and it deserves great packaging. Learn what goes into choosing packaging for your product!
News
The Benefits of Corrugated Packaging
As a business owner, you have plenty to consider regarding how to protect, transport, present and sell your products. Packaging forms an essential part of your product’s journey from storage to customer, so choosing quality packaging is vital.
How Sustainable Is Corrugated Packaging?
Corrugated packaging is a traditional material used to protect and transport products. We can attribute its widespread adoption and growing popularity to its environmental friendliness and ability to reduce carbon footprints. Using sustainable corrugated cardboard packaging can attract environmentally conscious consumers and improve your brand’s reputation.
Understanding Eco-Friendly Packaging Certifications
As more people and organizations become environmentally conscious, businesses seek ways to demonstrate to their consumers and other stakeholders that they are part of the positive change. One of the areas a company can focus on is its packaging — the first thing a customer sees when they buy an item or their goods are delivered.
Oshkosh Sets a New Record in Their Safe Quality Food Audit
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh has completed its SQF audit for 2024 and is pleased to announce its renewal of the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Certification. This certification validates that Great Northern has robust food safety control systems effectively implemented in its manufacturing process. SQF is recognized by retailers and food service providers around the world who require a rigorous, credible food safety management system.
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Great Northern Wins a 2024 FTA Excellence in Flexography Award
Our Great Northern Chippewa Falls facility is pleased to announce its recognition as having produced one of the 52 award-winning print samples in Flexographic Technical Association’s (FTA’s) 2024 Excellence in Flexography Awards.
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Great Northern Earns American Institute of Baking Certification
The Great Northern Appleton facility has recently announced that it completed its AIB (American Institute of Baking) Certification audit. Being AIB certified allows the Appleton location to manufacture products for secondary packaging for customers. The Great Northern – Racine facility completed its audit earlier this year and is also AIB certified.
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The Role of Packaging in Shipping and Logistics
Shipping has made it possible for companies to transport goods and products quickly and efficiently over long distances. In turn, packaging plays a major role in shipping and logistics by protecting products during transportation, ensuring they arrive safely at their destination. Various types of packaging designs exist for different products along with protective packaging materials to provide extra support and cushioning.
What Is Corrugated Packaging?
Corrugated packaging is a layered material that creates affordable, lightweight, strong and eco-friendly packaging solutions. It’s highly customizable, providing different types, styles and sizes of packaging to facilitate the shipping of various products. Corrugated packaging is actually the most commonly used material for packaging and transportation in North America.
Great Northern’s Appleton Facility Maintains ISO Certification
The Great Northern Appleton facility has recently completed and passed its three-day ISO (International Organization for Standardization) re-certification audit and will be re-certified for another three years. The ISO 9001:2015 certification ensures a world class management system where an organization demonstrates its ability to consistently provide a product that meets customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. This certification also applies to Great Northern’s Chippewa Falls, Twin Cities (MN), and Racine facilities.
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Year Four of the Great Northern Collaborative Experience at UW-Stout Is Underway
Course Background
This year’s spring semester at the University of Wisconsin-Stout marks the fourth year of the Great Northern Corporation Collaborative Experience. Back in 2020, Great Northern announced that it would be investing in a four-year pilot project focused on advanced design and packaging. The sponsored course is an advanced design selective for graphic design students and a senior capstone for packaging students.
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Racine Facility Earns American Institute of Baking Certification
The Great Northern Racine facility has recently announced that it achieved its AIB (American Institute of Baking) Certification. Being AIB certified allows the Racine location to manufacture products for secondary packaging for customers. Racine joins the Great Northern – Appleton facility with the capability to provide certified packaging to food industry customers.
Environmental Impact of Single-Use Plastics
Single-use plastic products include plastic bags, straws and other plastic items that are generally thrown away after one use, creating more waste and impacting the environment.
The Benefits of Sustainable Packaging
Your businesses can contribute to a green future for the next generation with sustainable business practices, such as using eco-friendly consumer packaging.
2024 Packaging Trends
Packaging has become so much more than delivering products safely to consumers. How you package your products, what materials you use and their appearance can contribute to your business’ overall success in the long run. Companies are now using different types of packaging as marketing tools to increase brand awareness and form connections with their customers.
Alternatives to Plastic Packaging
Plastic is unhealthy, and it’s all around — from landfills to oceans, lakes and rivers. Between 19 and 23 million tons of plastic seep into aquatic ecosystems annually and harm marine and aquatic wildlife.
Complete Guide to Packaging Food in Custom Boxes
Packaging protects your products during transportation and storage while also playing a critical role in food safety. Therefore, it’s vital to package food products correctly, following Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) standards to ensure they arrive at their destination in optimal condition and meet food safety requirements.
Oshkosh & Twin Cities Plants Earn G7 Master Facility Re-Certification
Great Northern Packaging is pleased to announce that the Oshkosh and Twin Cities locations have been re-qualified as G7 Master Facilities and have both received a G7 Targeted designation for their digital and offset print presses. This qualification verifies that Great Northern’s digital and off-set presses meet G7 Targeted color specifications for grayscale colors, as well as primary and secondary colors (CMY and RGB).
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Oshkosh Location Renews Their Safe Quality Food Certification
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh has completed its SQF audit for 2023 and is pleased to announce its renewal of the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Certification. This certification validates that Great Northern has robust food safety control systems effectively implemented in its manufacturing process. SQF is recognized by retailers and food service providers around the world who require a rigorous, credible food safety management system.
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5 Signs It’s Time to Upgrade Your Packaging
Your packaging does more than ensure your products reach customers intact. It changes how consumers see and relate to your brand. There is a definitive link between packaging and purchase behavior, and many businesses know how to capitalize on this link to boost their sales, cultivate brand loyalty and differentiate themselves from their competitors.
Holiday Packaging Guide
During the holiday season, most stores explode into festive colors, and we owe much of that to holiday packaging. Limited-edition packaging can add a fun, exclusive touch to your product and appeal to seasonal sentiments, like the joy of spending time with family or the excitement of special peppermint flavors. Setting up holiday packaging can offer exceptional advantages with little risk, but only if you do it right. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of this technique and how to customize packaging for the holidays.
How to Make Products Stand Out on Shelves
With so many products on the market, having unique product packaging will ensure your products stand out among the rest. Whether you sell fun food products or want to promote your beauty line, the best packaging designs are unique and help to enhance your product. Explore how you can use packaging to catch a customer’s eye.
Requirements for Medical Device Packaging
Medical devices are essential pieces of equipment necessary for completing surgeries and evaluating patient symptoms. There are strict regulations for these items, as they must be sterile and in top-functioning condition for medical professionals to use them safely. These requirements make proper packaging essential.
How to Reduce Packaging Waste
Sustainable packaging has much to offer everyone — including your consumers, your company and the planet. If your packaging is wasteful, you aren’t doing anyone any favors. Still, reducing packaging waste can be challenging. After all, you need to protect your product and accommodate marketing materials. Fortunately, you now have extensive options for efficient, sustainable packaging. Let’s take a look at how you can reduce waste in packaging and better meet your sustainability goals.
How Is Club Store Packaging Different?
Before a product hits the shelves of a club store like Costco, Sam’s Club or BJ’s Wholesale Club, it goes through a unique journey. Club stores have specific packaging requirements, and their customers are shopping in a distinct environment. Packaging designers must keep these factors in mind as they prepare to work with club stores. Let’s explore what you need to know about designing club store packaging.
Packaging Trends of 2023
Packaging that communicates your brand’s image, mission and products or services comes in various shapes and sizes. You’re already offering your target audience exactly what they need — now, you need to grab their attention through trending marketing strategies. Your product packaging choices can speak to your audience, making a lasting impression and promoting your brand through visual appeal.
The new year is the perfect time to revamp your brand’s packaging and get a head start on reimagining how you market your products. Trends come and go over time, so it’s essential to reevaluate what your packaging says to your consumers. Consider whether upcoming trends fit your brand’s image or spark an idea for your business’s future marketing.
WEBINAR: Paper or Plastic: Which Solution Is More Sustainable?
It’s no secret that consumers today are more environmentally aware than ever before, and that includes the packaging of your product. Product protection and print capabilities are important when developing a package, but what kind of effect does package sustainability have on the consumer’s purchasing decision?
Our recorded Paper or Plastic: Which Solution Is More Sustainable? webinar reviews:
- Consumer’s impact on sustainable packaging
- Consumer’s impact on retailer sustainability programs
- The sustainability of paper vs plastic in each stage of the packaging life cycle
Great Northern Packaging Claims Two PPC Excellence Awards
This year marked the 79th annual North American Paperboard Packaging Competition for carton manufacturers involved in the concept, design, print, performance, and shelf appeal of paperboard packaging. Each and every year the best paperboard package designs from across North America are submitted and judged by a jury of packaging professionals, industry experts, and professors and Great Northern Packaging is pleased to announce it received two Excellence Awards!
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh Earns Safe Quality Food Certification
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh is pleased to announce its renewal of the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Certification. This certification validates that Great Northern has robust food safety control systems effectively implemented in its manufacturing process. SQF is recognized by retailers and food service providers around the world who require a rigorous, credible food safety management system.
Read More…
WEBINAR: PROTECTIVE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS FOR E-COMMERCE
In the e-commerce marketplace, it is not just your products you are protecting, it is also the reputation of your brand and the potential for future purchases. That is why package integrity is so important through the last mile.
Our recorded Protective Packaging Solutions for E-Commerce webinar covers:
- E-commerce and protective packaging trends
- Amazon’s requirements for Frustration Free Packaging
- Best practices to ensure your package integrity
WEBINAR: INNOVATIVE SHELF-READY PACKAGING FOR PRODUCE
With brick-and-mortar retailers requiring shelf-ready packaging in their stores and consumers paying more attention to packaging sustainability, the shelf-ready packaging market is soaring. Not only can this style of packaging benefit the retailer, but it can also benefit your brand on the shelf!
Our recorded Innovative Shelf-Ready Packaging for Produce webinar covers:
- Trends in produce snack and shelf-ready packaging
- Benefits for brands and retailers
- What qualities you should consider when choosing a vendor
WEBINAR: TARGETED PACKAGING TO MEET CHANGING MARKET NEEDS
The retail landscape continues to change dramatically. Learn how you can be responsive, flexible, and adapt to changes in the marketplace from a packaging perspective. We also shared case studies that show examples of how to lower packaging costs and optimize packaging inventory.
This webinar covers:
- Trends – The rapidly changing face of retail from shopper, consumer brands, and retailer perspectives
- How you can be responsive, flexible, and adapt to changes in the marketplace
- Case studies that show examples of how to lower packaging costs and optimize inventory
WEBINAR: BEER PACKAGING SECRETS TO GET YOUR PRODUCT TO MARKET QUICKLY
The demand for craft brews continues to rise at retail. To keep up with demand, how can you get your products to market more quickly?
We recorded our webinar which discussed what you need to know about packaging to shorten your lead time and get your products to market faster. The webinar covers:
- Trends that are driving the need for speed to market
- Packaging structure options that are available to you
- Package graphic designs and things to look for in the design element
WEBINAR: BEVERAGE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS
The alcoholic beverage market is more competitive than ever due to the emergence and growth of new segments. That is why getting your product to market quickly is critical to your brands success.
Our recorded Beverage Packaging Solutions webinar covers:
- Current trends that are affecting the alcoholic beverage market
- How to choose the package structure that is right for your timeline
- Package graphic design and printing options that are available to you
- What qualities you should consider when choosing a vendor
Great Northern Packaging – Oshkosh Facility Earns G7 Targeted Certification
Great Northern Packaging is pleased to announce that the Oshkosh and Twin Cities facilities have both been recertified as a G7 Master Facility. The Twin Cities facility also received a G7 Targeted designation for its offset press while the Oshkosh facility received a G7 Targeted designation for both its digital and off-set print presses. This certification verifies that Great Northern’s digital and off-set presses meet G7 Targeted color specifications for grayscale colors, as well as primary and secondary colors (CMY and RGB).
First Year of Collaborative Course Produces Sustainable Packaging Designs
Introduction
At the beginning of the 2021 fall semester at UW-Stout, the Great Northern Corporation Collaboration Experience kicked off. Six teams of packaging and graphic design students in the course were tasked with creating new, sustainable packaging for Reckitt, a client that makes Air Wick plug-in scented oils and diffusers. When the fall semester wrapped up, the students presented their final projects to not only the class, but also to industry professionals.
Each team was to design a single sustainable package that meets club store and Amazon packaging requirements for in-store display and online retail, while improving customer experience. During their research, the teams found Air Wick’s packaging to be unsustainable, difficult to open, and it didn’t have storage for oil refills once opened.
4 Ways Digital Printing Can Add Value to Retailers
Retailers are always looking for new ways in which they can differentiate themselves from their competition and draw more shoppers to their store. Digital printing provides retailers with new opportunities to interact with shoppers, be that through retail customization, local and channel promotions, or market segmentation. The use of digital printing on packaging also offers opportunities for you to help retailers accomplish their goal in the following ways.
4 Ways Digital Printing Can Add Value to Your Brand
Standing out on a crowded shelf has never been more important, or more difficult. As competition increases, so must your brand’s marketing strategy and ability to grab the shopper’s attention. Being able to stop the shopper at the shelf and convert them into a sale is made even more challenging by the depth of our shoppers’ omni-channel experience. With messaging coming from all different directions, how do you get YOUR brand noticed by the shopper and make them pay attention to your message? Digital printing is expanding the ways retail packaging can communicate your message to shoppers. Here are four ways digital printing can help your brand.
Great Northern Corporation Collaboration Experience is Underway
Earlier this fall, University of Wisconsin-Stout and Great Northern Corporation kicked off a four-year pilot project called the Great Northern Corporation Collaboration Experience. This sponsored course is an advanced design selective for graphic design students and a senior capstone for packaging students. The course is to be held four times over four years and is co-taught by packaging and graphic design faculty.
The inaugural collaborative experience has 24 students working together in cross-disciplinary teams. “It’s an opportunity for students to better understand and grow in appreciation of each other’s majors, skills and methodologies. It’s a chance for them to challenge each other and compromise in order to develop a package that meets the needs of the customer, just like in the industry,” said Robert Meisner, packaging program director.
Millennials Impact on Sustainable Packaging
It’s no secret that shoppers are more environmentally aware now than ever before, and the millennial generation is helping drive this trend. In fact, one of the main factors affecting the Millennials purchasing decisions is packaging, especially when it comes to the food and beverages they consume daily.
Findings from the EcoFocus Worlwide 2019 U.S. Trends Survey suggest that millennials are rewarding brands that align their packaging with eco-friendly needs more than any generation before them and they expect brand owners to follow their lead. Here are five examples of how millennials will change the packaging aspect of businesses for years to come.