Stora Enso expands RFID technology across wine, food and dairy markets

Speaking at the AIPIA (Active, Intelligent, Packaging Industry Association) Congress in Amsterdam (November 14-15), Juha Maijala, project director, intelligent packaging, Stora Enso, explained how the technology works.

Personalizing packages

He said the company partners with brand owners from package design to connectivity design using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and NFC (Near Field Communication), to integrate in-coding possibilities, personalizing each and every package.

“We work with the customer to provide the content that the brand owner wants to offer the consumer then we work with a converter and our own in-house team to integrate intelligence into the packaging, which is then connected to Stora Enso Cloud technology and analytics​,” said Maijala.

For example, at the AIPIA event, the company demonstrated its Latticini NFC-enabled baby milk powder. When a customer buys the product it can read the package using a smartphone and get data, videos, and user instructions on the milk powder.

Maijala said in return, the brand owner gets detailed information about how their consumers are behaving and what kind of user requirements there are to improve their business.

NXP Semiconductors

Stora Enso began working with NXP Semiconductors last year to integrate RFID technology into its packaging, opening an innovation center in Helsinki.

It showcased a champagne pack with intelligent functionalities at Luxe Pack Monaco 2015, which comes with illumination effects and serves as an ice bucket.

“The co-operation with NXP offers substantial business opportunities for Stora Enso. We have already worked on several concept cases with customers and partners within intelligent packaging. The co-operation with NXP will enable us to bring this development closer to market and provide faster scalability in intelligent paper and board solutions​,” said Karl-Henrik Sundström, CEO, Stora Enso.