250 employees, 22 injection machines, 3 air-blown injection machines, a Pump assembling department, 5 decorations departments, EUR 30 million in turnover last year (against EUR 33 million in 2008) but a forecast of 38 million for 2010, the firm is typically the very picture of the Italian packaging industry comprising most essentially family-owned SMEs. Created in 1975 with as a first goal to market cosmetic containers, Lumson operated a first important shift in 1985 when it decided to start producing them. Six years later, the company was designing its own models and was developing its first standard ranges in glass and plastic.

Stefano Focolari, Marketing Director, Lumson

In 1999, again another shift with the start up of the first manufacturing and assembly line of dispensers for body care products and in 2003, the company launches its first cosmetic pump. “Our USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is to offer complete standard cosmetic packaging collections, decorated and ready to fill”, says Stefano Focolari, Marketing Director. “For us a complete collection means that from one design we develop both plastic and glass bottles and jars in different sizes, with different kind of closures and pumps, that can be combined from other designs or collections, and of course a wide range of decorations to customize the product in different and creative ways. Obviously, this creative process requires time, and this is why we only launch one complete line per year”.

Lumson can currently rely on twenty complete standard packaging lines, all of them with original design, and more than a hundred different accessories. “One of our slogans is: ‘make it easier for the customer’,” says Matteo Moretti, CEO, “we offer a ‘Full package Ready to fill’ service. A formula that has encountered quite a lot of success, and that’s even getting increasingly popular, lately there has been a growing demand for a360° full service”.

Matteo Moretti, CEO, Lumson

The Bio Nike illustration

An example of this successful formula is the latest product launch done by ICIM, an Italian company that, with its trademark “Bio Nike” is a leader in the production and marketing of cosmetic products dedicated to the pharmaceutical channel, that has chosen Lumson packaging for its line "Defence Body". As a matter of fact, the entire line of products for body care "Bio Nike – Defence Body" will be launched on the market using a standard packaging collection fully designed, manufactured and decorated by Lumson.

For "Defence Body", which launch will be supported by a massive advertising campaign, Bio Nike’s management team has selected the packaging out of twoLumson’s standard collections: “Collezione Indy” and “Collezione Victoria”.

Oval accessories that match the shape of the bottles by following the overall design, pearly green or translucent colour tones and decorations like shiny silver hot stamping and tampo printing were chosen to create “a complete product line, with a uniform and consistent image, recognizable, fresh, professional, reassuring and elegant”.

For the Anti-cellulite 2 different packaging solutions were chosen from the Collezione Victoria: a 400 ml bottle with a flip top cap for extensive body applications and a 200 ml bottle with a pump for more targeted applications.

For the Moisturizing oil was chosen a 200 ml bottle in translucent PET from the Collezione Indy with a pump.

The Breast Firming Cream is offered in a 100 ml bottle from the Collezione Victoria, with a pump for a targeted and precise application.

Going "airless"

"It’s to meet growing demand from a number of our customers," explains Matteo Moretti, "that we decided to get involved in this airless project. Obviously, product formulations becoming more and more sophisticated were calling for such a system. Formulas were also more fragile with more sensitive ingredients. Organic products were getting more and more popular. On the other hand, existing airless systems weren’t fully satisfying, both in terms of complete preservation of contents against external agents but also in terms of full product restitution. Finally, on an aesthetic point of view with theTag-System we were able to combine the beauty of a glass bottle with all the technical and functional advantages of an airless system".

It took four years to develop theTag-System concept, an airless system with a pouch combining both a glass container and an extruded pouch. A patented manufacturing process which looks in fact like a preformed with a rigid collar and a flexible body. Another smart device, is the "Eco-Lock" system which allows you, after total product dispensing, to unscrew the pump and separate the entire dispensing group and its plastic parts, from the glass bottle, this allows an easier recycling of the product: glass with glass and plastic with plastic.

"Finally, underlines Matteo Moretti, while we were at it, we also decided to invest in a new decoration, only possible with our Tag-System. It is called Glass Enhancer and it consists in applying a water lacquering inside the bottle to enhance the beauty of glass. This is only possible because the formulation inside the pouch never gets in touch with the glass. So there is no contamination risk associated with the lacquering. Furthermore we developed another innovative decoration that we called: Mirror Effect, thanks to the use of a metallic lacquering also applied inside the bottle, we are able to offer a glass bottle with a metalized/mirror effect in the inside. In addition to the three lacquering/varnishing lines installed at the Capergnanica plant, we just added a new line specifically dedicated to this unique decoration process”.

And as you know, it’s this airless container that Collistar, a leading Italian cosmetic brand, recently chose for the launch of its new product, ‘Perfection Serum’, which is part of the anti-ageing line, Perfecta”.