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Port Sunlight might not seem the most obvious place to look for the future of packaging design, but this small, purpose-built town on the Wirral in Merseyside has always been forward thinking.

Its founder, William Lever, had a clear idea of what he wanted for his soap business, around which the town of Port Sunlight was built. In the 1890s, his stated goal was “that life be more enjoyable and rewarding for the people who use our products”.

This is not very different to the ‘Feel good, look good and get more out of life’ motto that appears, more than a century later, on the Unilever website.

It is this emphasis on vitality that, according to the employees, is still the driving force behind much of what the company does today. “It’s used as a lens to look at what we’re doing,” says Cameron Jones, Unilever’s global packaging leader for home and personal care products.

Among the departments at Unilever’s research and development facility in Port Sunlight is the firm’s Packaging Design Technology Centre (PDTC), which was set up to provide a single reference point to look at progressing packaging design for Unilever’s 400 brands. “Particularly in a global company, you need to build capabilities to improve,” says Jones.

Working together
Richard Parker, director of the PDTC, underlines the need for collaboration across the supply chain. “Packaging has to take the whole manufacturing process into account, as everyone in the value chain needs it to do some-thing different.”

A holistic approach to packaging design, particularly when the environment is a key driver, is something that the industry is keen to promote, to av-oid an unfair focus on packaging. For Unilever, this method is as true internally as it is externally. For example, the launch of Small & Mighty detergent packs was only possible through changing the concentration of the product while maintaining its functionality.

“Packaging is only one part of the product, and manufacturers should focus on the whole product offering,” says Steph Carter, packaging sustainability director. “The environment problem is not going to be solved by packaging alone.”

Small & Mighty was unveiled at Wal-Mart stores in the US in February 2006. The impact has been such that the retailer last year committed to work with all its suppliers to sell only concentrated liquid detergents from this month, some 800 million units in a three-year period.

It estimated the move would save around 400 million tonnes of water, 43,000 tonnes of plastic resin and 56,000 tonnes of board.

Carter admits that changing demographics and food waste are a challenge for the company, as is the need to maintain consumer interest in its products. But, he says, the packaging still needs to be fit for purpose. “The golden rule is to pick the right material for the job.”

Understanding materials
It is helping to pick the right material, or pack format, that best describes the function of the PDTC. “To be able to undertake in-depth studies of materials you need a real understanding of them,” says Parker. “We get involved in the production process as early as possible.”

In creating a skills database for Unilever’s packaging designers, advancing the capabilities of computer-aided design (CAD) and engineering is an important aspect of the PDTC’s work, although it does not neglect the need for physical prototyping to test products.

“The CAD system records who does what and shows us best practices that we can put into other designs very quickly,” says Parker. “That’s the difference between individual projects and building capabilities within the company: you can focus on tackling the right questions and avoid doing things for a second time.”

Virtual design and engineering programmes also enable Unilever to assess packaging ideas, such as how to achieve the best action for an aerosol spray or seeing how a pallet of products will survive in transit, early in the development process. The further development of these programmes comes through collaboration with firms such as Siemens, maintaining the focus on working with people who are highly skilled in their fields.

“In the past, we’ve had the same people do everything. With the PDTC, we now have the technical staff to support the brands’ project managers,” says Jones. “Ultimately, it’s all about people. If you have good people, you can do good things.”

• William Lever, later Lord Leverhulme, started manufacturing soap at the end of the 19th Century
• In the 1920s, Lever Bros merged with Dutch margarine manufacturer Margarine Unie and Unilever was born
• In the years following the Second World War, the company undertook an ambitious acquisition programme and moved into new markets
• In the 1980s, Unilever started to rationalise its product range to focus on core brands, but continued its geographic expansion into new economies, such as Eastern Europe
• Today, Unilever operates in around 100 countries, generating a turnover of £32bn in 2007. It owns some 400 brands worldwide including Wall’s, Comfort, PG tips and Pot Noodle