Consumables

Against counterfeiting and tampering: Fedrigoni introduces a full range of brand protection solutions

Tuesday 25. April 2023 - Paper and self-adhesive material solutions, designed across the Paper and Self-Adhesives divisions, for all printers and converters who produce packaging for luxury brands or goods whose integrity, originality and traceability must be guaranteed.

Assuring and tracking the authenticity and integrity of products in the age of e-commerce is a challenge for every industry. Where once it was mainly high fashion clothing and accessories that were counterfeited, in recent years the market for fake goods has expanded to include gourmet foods, cosmetics, toys and even pharmaceuticals. A product’s originality and exclusivity are a direct extension of the brand, an expression of its quality and prestige, and play a key role in consumers’ purchasing preferences.
This is why the Fedrigoni Group, a world leader in the production of high value-added specialty papers for luxury packaging and other creative applications, along with self-adhesive materials for premium labels, has gone one step further in the fight against fake products by introducing a unified range of paper products and self-adhesive materials for brand protection in the commercial sector.
The synergy between the Paper and Self-Adhesives divisions has enabled Fedrigoni to design highly customisable brand protection solutions, with different materials and multiple functionalities, which respond in a targeted manner to the anti-counterfeiting and anti-tampering objectives specific to each sector.
In more detail, Fedrigoni’s anti-counterfeiting offering covers all requirements for the creation of seals on self-adhesive materials and tamper-evident packaging. These include voids, which are customisable film products that transfer a design or text to the substrate when removed from the item and can no longer be repositioned; ultra-destructible materials, which break irreparably if an attempt is made to remove them after application; delaminating materials, which are destroyed by delamination; and holographic materials, which can be customised with different levels of security features for brand protection. Also available are tamper-evident solutions specifically designed to prevent the cardboard on which the seal is applied from ripping if an attempt is made to open the packaging, or security papers, in which fibres, confetti and other special pigments can be embedded to increase the level of authentication. Each product offers a different form of verification and authentication, depending on specific needs: from visible solutions, which are immediately recognisable by looking at or touching the label, to forensic solutions, which require highly specialised equipment for verification.
“The authenticity, safety and integrity of brands, products and packaging are every company’s goal and are a strategic asset from an economic and value point of view,” says Michele De Pascalis, Product Manager for security products. “It is the needs of large luxury and fashion brands, but also of gourmet food and pharmaceutical manufacturers, which have driven us to inform all printers and converters involved in the packaging of high-quality products about the importance of safety materials. By introducing this range, which has been developed as a joint effort between the Paper and Self-Adhesives divisions, we are responding to a growing and widespread demand for the protection of authenticity in the commercial sector.”
Drawing on extensive experience in the field of security, coupled with an R&D department committed to the development and testing of increasingly innovative technologies, Fedrigoni is committed to combating a problem that is damaging to brands and consumers, and thus to an entire economy: the issue is not simply that a counterfeit product costs the same price as the original – in addition to the fact that it can be dangerous to health when it comes to medicines, non-certified textile products, food or drinks – but also that goods that are for all intents and purposes originals are diverted into the so-called “grey markets” and out of the proper distribution chain.
There are many and varied resources available: for example, in the face material of self-adhesive labels, there are tamper-evident seals with the purpose of leaving an indelible mark that cannot be repositioned once removed or cause irreparable damage to the packaging if tampered with. Paper and cartons, on the other hand, have different properties that can contribute to the creation of boxes, shopping bags and certificates of authenticity that cannot be replicated outside the paper mill, as dyes, fibres and other elements are added to the pulp that are evident to the naked eye or through ad hoc techniques or surface treatments with reagents, inks, embossing and watermarks that do not affect their recyclability, in line with the company’s sustainability objectives.
The Fedrigoni Group has also made significant strides in brand protection through a number of specific transactions. In April 2022, it acquired the French company Tageos, a global leader in the design and production of RFID inserts and tags in self-adhesive labels (so-called “smart labels”, which can store all the data of a product and allow it to be tracked). Very recently, it has also taken over the Grenoble Research and Development Centre (formerly Arjowiggins), also in France, which will foster innovation in the field of printed electronics and advanced research on paper substrates based on RFID, with major benefits both in terms of brand protection and traceability and sustainability: smart paper can directly accommodate circuits and microchips, thus providing the “mono-material” strategy needed for better disposal and recycling.