New Impact Centre in Erlensee, Germany

“VerpackungsRundschau“ – Germany’s well-known packaging publication recently printed an in-depth article about DS Smith’s upcoming Impact Centre in Erlensee, Germany. Below you can find a summary of the article in English.

The Display and Packaging Strategists at DS Smith offer their customers the opportunity to put their packaging and displays to the test under realistic point of sale conditions. The Impact Centre in Erlensee, Germany is opening in November 2016.

Packaging and displays are brand ambassadors at the Point of Sale worth millions in media equivalence and must meet a number of important characteristics: good stability to ensure intact products and satisfied customers, good handling to simplify logistics. Manufacturers and brand owners are always on the lookout for better solutions here and they can find them at the Impact Centre.

In order to accelerate creative cycles and to develop new ideas in display and packaging, manufacturers can experience realistic P.O.S. conditions at the DS Smith Impact Centre. From efficient storage logistics to ideal retail space positioning, to the decisive "moment of truth" at the shelf, all phases of the Supply Cycle are simulated in order to correct weak points before the products make their big debut at the real P.O.S.Furthermore, an area for e-commerce packaging is also planned in Erlensee.

Martin Greb, Impact Centre Manager

We recreate the entire value added cycle in the Impact Centre, so that the optimisations can be meaningfully understood and observed in association

— Martin Greb, Impact Centre Manager

With creative ideas in tow, a visit to the Impact Centre is followed by an appointment at the DS Smith PackRight Centre. Here designers work with customers on implementing ideas and developing tangible concepts. Various creative techniques are used here. To teach these, DS Smith even offers customers their own workshop. "In our PackRight Academy, participants learn how you can systematically produce ideas," says Greb. "You just have to move away from conventional thinking patterns."