LADY MAY WINES

Lady May is Glenelly'’s Flagship Estate wine, reputed to be one of the finest, most elegant Cabernet Sauvignons in Stellenbosch, maturing for two years in new French oak. Named after May de Lencquesaing, former owner of the famous Chateau Pichon Longueville Comtesse de Lalande in Bordeaux, who purchased Glenelly in 2003, Lady May was winner of a Gold for J Ryan at this year’s FTASA Print Excellence Awards in the Self-Adhesive Labels (Line/Tone) category.

Using Anthony Lane'’s beautifully sensuous design, J Ryan flexo prints the label using inks from Select Inks on its new Gallus EM410S on a delicate, pearlescent linen-like substrate named Constellation Jade Raster, manufactured by Manter and supplied by Seldenrod. Of interest is the fact that the Gallus is a relative new addition to the Ryan stable, complementing its more established sheet-fed litho division and placing the company in a position to offer label customers a one-stop shop. The matching bronze capsule is imported by Tokai-based Urban Packaging, while Syreline Process makes the plates.

UNIVERSAL VISION'’S ORGANIC HIMALAYAN CRYSTAL SALT

The never-tiring, ever-effervescent Janine Roberts of Pigs Can Fly fame has opened her own contract packing facility under the name Zimele Packing Solutions, established in August to address the needs of those requiring a niche hand-packing service for their products. There'’s an empowerment programme for unemployed women to train them in a HACCP environment, and thereby equip them with valuable skills and give them a chance to develop and grow!

After visiting the source of the Himalayan Crystal Salt, Anthony Posemann started Universal Vision in 2004. Zimele contract packs Universal Vision’s range of Himalayan Crystal Salt products, which provide a healthy alternative to ordinary table and bath salts and includes coarse and fine salt for flavouring food. Using Anthony Posemann’'s own design, Pyraprint prints the labels, Colpak supplies the clear tamper-evident sleeves, and the bottles and head grinders are ex Global Grinders.

NEW MICROWAVABLE BACON FROM ENTERPRISE

Over the last two weeks, I’'ve been introducing family, friends and clients to the wonders of Enterprise Microwavable Bacon. Depending on the wattage of your microwave, a pack (you can choose between Streaky and Back Bacon) cooks in three to four minutes. Just place the pack on a paper serviette or sheet of roller towel on a plate, dial/press in the time, and watch it puff up and release steam; allow the pack to cool for a minute before it cutting open. It’'s become my favourite party trick! If you’'re pressed for time and want a quick snack, try it between slices of toast, on its own, or with scrambled eggs.

Dave McFarlane'’s Forte Plastics, a specialised plastics company that trades in high-technology barrier films to the food industry, developed the microwavable film in conjunction with Du Pont Teijin films and Polyslit Converters. It is FDA and EU approved for these applications. The polyester film self vents and is freeze-thaw stable from -70°C to 220°C. Using inks from Hi-Tech Ink and Design Oval’'s graphic work, Flexothene does the printing.

STELLAR ORGANICS' MANDALA LABEL

Stellar Winery, South Africa'’s largest producer of fine organic wines, processes over 4 500 tons/year of organic grapes for local and export markets. Grown in the Namaqualand hamlet of Trawal, grapes are drawn from farms straddling the northern boundary of the Olifant’s River wine region and Namaqualand, an area well known for its daisy-carpeted spring flowers.

There’'s a sense of spirituality about the Mandala label, conceptualised and painted by Lee Griffin (Stellar Winery) & Jo Glover (The Worx). Mandalas are powerful circular designs symbolic of the never-ending cycles of Life - which represents the essence of Stellar. The label was printed on Cast Gloss Premium supplied by UPM Raflatac, but what makes it so impressionable is the use of a new technology:– Starmist glitter inks developed by Select Inks and Rotolabel. The label uses copper glitter to highlight the design and is finished off with online bronze foiling. Rotolabel won Best Label Overall in the Wine Category at in UPM Raflatac’'s 2010 Wine & Spirits Label Awards for the Stellar Organics label.

NANDO'’S NEW RANGE OF COOKING SAUCES

There’'s a long list of credits for Nando’s new range of cooking sauces. Using an ordinary 375ml generic jar from Consol Glass, a black lid with an Escudo emblazoned in gold ink from Massilly, and semi-gloss paper labels printed by KB Labels with matt and gloss varnishes to create an old-fashioned paper-feel, Nando'’s ‘spin’ their magic to create six awesome cooking sauce variants:– Hot, Mild, Wild Herb & Garlic, Mediterranean Tomato, Lemon & Herb, Smokey BBQ; plus a seventh, Curry Coconut for international markets.

Using Cross Colours'’ design work, the labels are printed flexographically in eight colours by KB Labels on material from Labelcote using repro by Kiley Baker and inks from the Flint Group. Read more here

About Clive Glover

After many years in FMCG sales and marketing, and later in packaging as marketing manager of Kohler Plastics and then Kohler Flexibles, Clive formed his own packaging consulting company in 2000. He also started writing articles for various packaging magazines, and purchased his first digital camera to support his articles. Two weeks later was given his first professional photography assignment – and the rest is history.

Clive is now first-choice photographer for many FMCG and packaging companies as he has the valuable knack of working digital magic in the specialised area of pack photograpy.

Clive’s Column appears every month in PACKAGiNG & Print Media Magazine and covers new packs on shelf in SA.

First published in PACKAGiNG & Print Media Magazine, Nov/Dec 2010