Premium Beauty News - What is the outcome of the year 2008 so far? What is your vision of the next six months?

Gérard Perrin - The beginning of the year showed a very dynamic growth of “Health and Beauty” markets, and the growth of “Household Products” was just a bit slower. As the economy is becoming a global issue, cost efficiency will be top of mind among everyone in every industry however MWV is well positioned with a broad range of products and our integrated global platform to deliver extremely efficient and cost effective solutions to our customers.

Premium Beauty News - What about innovation in the health and beauty industry? What are the new products you are working on?

Gérard Perrin – As we have done in the past in personal and beauty care, we will continue to push the boundaries on design flexibility, materials reduction and delivery of both ultra-luxury and mass market packaging solutions that enable maximum creativity and cost efficiency. Packaging is a critical component of our customers’ marketing mix and continued innovation is a key to delivering value-added propositions to the market. We design, develop and manufacture innovative packaging solutions that deliver on a wide range of needs and benefits—standing out on store shelves; providing strength and durability; delivering on key brand equities such as sustainability; and, most importantly, functionality.

MWV’s Center for Packaging Innovation (CPI) is a catalyst for next-generation packaging innovation, and provides us with the ability to truly partner with our customers on a global basis throughout the packaging development process.

Premium Beauty News - Environment and sustainable development are the new buzzwords in the industry. How do you address these challenges?

Gérard Perrin - Sustainability is part of MWV’s DNA. We continually improve and enhance processes and products with sustainability in mind which is why we have been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for five years in a row. We work directly with our customers to set and achieve sustainability goals for their products throughout the supply chain from sourcing, to manufacturing, design, shipping, consumer use and end of product life. It represents a focused, ongoing commitment to make responsible business decisions that benefit our people, our society and our environment.

We recently conducted an in-depth study to uncover how sustainable packaging influences consumer purchasing decisions. We are leveraging this insight to help our customers develop solutions that will meet their branding objectives and their consumers’ needs.

Premium Beauty News - As a consumer packaging solutions provider, in a context where your customers tend to externalise most of their production with a massive use of subcontractors, what is your opinion about “full service” ?

Gérard Perrin - Our goal is to simplify the process for our customers by being their full service provider of packaging solutions. Our global footprint, range of capabilities, areas of expertise and market knowledge enable us to partner with our customers on every level of the packaging process. As many of our customers find themselves entering new and emerging markets, this global capacity continues to serve us, and our customers well.

Premium Beauty News - What about counterfeiting? Are you impacted by the phenomenon and how do you fight it?

Gérard Perrin - Product counterfeiting for one has become a significant issue, costing brand owners valuable time and money to combat, as well as to regain consumer trust. Counterfeiters strive to replicate this “intimate connection” between a consumer and a brand for illegal profit. Through the power of security packaging, brand owners can protect their product as well as their brand with authenticity and anti-counterfeiting features.

One such example, for premium products and product lines at high-end, luxury outlets, is anti-divergent packaging technology. This covert packaging solution uses barcodes and serial numbers (also known as serialization) for brand-owners to track their product shipments to ensure they arrive at their predetermined destination. In other words, this technology helps avoid products from diverging off their planned shipping and delivery paths. The high-end fragrance market, where licensing agreements specify exclusive logistics and sales partnerships, is known to invest more in this technology because its well-known products have a higher potential for counterfeiting.

Tamper evidence solutions are another way that MWV enables its customers to distinguish their products from counterfeits. MWV has identified a trend towards tamper evidence solutions for pump, sprayer, closure, and dispenser applications that assure customers their products are legitimate and will arrive for their use in their original state. Consumers are more inclined to purchase a product that has visible tamper evidence features which provides assurance that the product was untouched or unused by someone before. In the personal care and cosmetics industry for example, product tampering, such as for body lotions, liquid soaps, hand creams, fragrances, lip balms, and other items, is costing distributors millions of dollars due to lost sales revenue.