Beauty Labeling Innovation: Great Lakes Veneer launches wood-grain paper

12-Oct-2020 - Last updated on 12-Oct-2020 at 15:33 GMT

Late last week, the Wisconsin-based wood products company announced a new veneer paper line called Naturis, designed to be used as labels for CPGs from beverages to cosmetics and personal care.

“With Naturís, label designers and brand marketers can go against the grain of traditional labels in favor of a natural, memorable tactile experience that gives them a true edge on the shelf,” say Nick Rogers, Product and Business Development Manager at Great Lakes Veneer, in his recent remarks to the press.

Newly acquired technology makes flexible, printable wood labels possible

Great Lakes Veneer recently acquired another Wisconsin-based veneer company called Graphic Woods Technologies, and along with it, the wood slicing tech behind the new Naturis line.

“This technology allows Great Lakes Veneer to bring its manufacturing expertise and on-time delivery reputation to new markets,” says Dave Williams, President of Great Lakes Veneer, says in this month’s media release.

“As demand for premium brand experiences increase,” he says, “we expect the use of wood paper, particularly wood labels, to follow.”

The machining technology in question slices wood veneer as thin as paper, allowing for the production of both rolls and sheets of pressure-sensitive labels, explains the release. And the resulting labels can effectively be used as a paper alternative, printed with all the same processes, such as offset, digital, flatbed inject, and letterpress. They can also be die-cut, embossed, foiled, laser etched, etc.

The popularity of wooden beauty packaging continues to climb

While Great Lakes Veneer isn’t situated squarely in the labeling or beauty industries (the company serves the flooring industry, the skateboard industry, the music industry, etc.), the new Naturis line of labeling products fits with current beauty packaging trends.

Wood (and even faux wood finishes) are now regularly used along side materials like glass, aluminum, and paperboard to communicate brands’ sustainability and eco chic sensibility to consumers.

Caps and collars and even full compacts, like the one APR Packaging Group showcased at the 2019 edition of MakeUp in New York, are increasingly common. Even more recently, Pujolasos has launched its new Woodle line of caps for jars and bottles; the collection is made with plastic inserts that are held in place without glue and are removable.

And this summer Virospack, known as ‘the dropper company’, launched Just Wood, a 100% wood dropper cap. Both Woodle caps and the Just Wood Dropper are available from SGB Packaging Group here in the States.