Market

Target market

We believe customers for the corruloc and corruclip fasteners and other Maxim Solutions ancillary product would fall in to three categories.

1 - Key manufacturers of heavy duty corrugated board (HDCB), mainly those which also 'convert' sheet board into transit cases, sleeves, wraps etc.

2 - Preferred and independent ‘converters’ of HDCB (many hundreds globally). Converters are specialist companies who purchase board from the key manufacturers and ‘convert’ it into product. We consider that they have the interests of their customers in mind and need to offer value for money to remain competitive. We consider that the ability to offer re-usability would be a boon to them and that this group of manufacturers will be an important marketing focus and customer base. Our research shows there are several hundred converters throughout Europe, the US and farther afield.

3 - End users of HDCB packaging comprise by far the largest potential customer base. This is the sector which we feel has the greatest vested interest in reducing transit packaging costs and we think these customers exist within electronics, engineering, defence, fine art, medical, aerospace, and the automotive industries, amongst others.

In short, any company globally which uses HDCB within its logistics operations represents a potential customer.

Characteristics of target market

The packaging industry is one of the largest manufacturing sectors valued at nearly £300 billion per annum globally. The UK packaging industry accounts for 3.3% of the global industry value and the UK paper/board market is worth £4.2 billion of the £9.2 billion total packaging market worth.

‘Paper and board will remain the single largest element of the (global packaging) market, growing at an annual rate of around 4% in real terms’ (Report - Market Statistics and Future Trends in Global Packaging).

We think that eco pressures are causing a global trend towards returnable, re-usable corrugated transit packaging.

Marketing strategy

Customers within the three categories (see Target Market above) would require different marketing strategies.

Sales to end users would be achieved both indirectly, via the key manufacturers of HDCB and independent converters which all have their own customer bases and also directly, by way of direct contact, industry periodical publicity, advertisement, web site and other representation.

Initially though the quickest route to sales would be to approach the key manufacturers and independent converters. Maxim Solutions has identified many hundreds of such companies globally, through extensive research and is building databases by territory in preparation to market to these companies.

Competition strategy

Maxim's fasteners would compete with products termed 'box clips'. We believe Maxim's fasteners are demonstrably superior to competing products in both fit and function, but would sell competitively.

We think the only direct competitor to Maxim's corruloc is the Rotolock fastener, which we consider exhibits problems in fit and function, as follows:

Whilst the product is available in 8mm (CP1) and 13mm (CP2), neither of these specifications properly fit the most commonly used HDCB board grades (AA and AAA at 10mm and 15mm respectively);

To fit Rotolock requires a special tool which manipulates board thickness during assembly of the product;

The pairs of components can be forced apart by pressure from the board's natural tendency to expand again;

Assembly of Rotolock is somewhat laborious with six separate component parts in two sizes and those components must be assembled in a specific alignment further complicating assembly;

Unless operators use care in using this fastener (once assembled in to the board panels) the components can be separated through misalignment whilst 'closing' the fastener;

When this happens, a component becomes 'lost' inside a 'filled' packing case and the fastener is rendered useless;

Rotolock offers poor ergonomic feedback to operators and it is difficult to ascertain whether the item has been closed or not;

Rotolock is much smaller than ideal ergonomically (particularly for gloved operators) and has no tamper evidence facility.

Prices are 55p (CP1) and 65p (CP2);

Maxim's products are designed to be superior in all the areas mentioned above and corruloc would be unique in offering a tamper evidence facility.

In all, we think Maxim's products would sell competitively against the competition, making them the 'no brainer' choice in the industry.

We believe Maxim's team can demonstrate skill in practical innovation and product design, and thus an ability to stay a step ahead of the competition.