Last week was the last Steering Committee for the LABELLING PROJECT. I am happy to announce that we reached the main objective for this project and as things are now back to normal for the impacted departments and all is now under-control, we agreed to close this project. This is a great opportunity to remind everyone what was achieved.

As a reminder, this project was initiated due to change in EU regulations for Biocides and Titanium Dioxide. In order to continue to meet regulatory labelling requirements, we had to update labels at Colart for the products sold in EU.

• Regulatory department has done a huge job to analyse and identify all the SKUS that were impacted by these changes. They were a total of 3 077 SKUS. 
• Artwork, Brand, Factories and Regulatory teams have then gone through the enormous work of updating all these 3 077 artworks and finding solutions to fit these new warnings on very small products sometimes.
• Factories, Procurement, Item Creation and Supply departments have created all these new components in our system, managed the change with suppliers and the switch from old to new artwork in production (incl. write offs), which is always a big challenge.
• Due to different constraints (AP seal, US warnings etc…) we had to make Business decision to duplicate 409 codes (NA version and ROW version) for some SKUS. Commercial, Marketing, Forecast, Item Creation and Customer Service teams had to reflect these code changes in the system, price lists/catalogues etc… and with customers.
• Shopper Marketing team have updated the POS materials (i.e shelf strips) to reflect the 409 barcodes changes.
• The Customer Service and the warehouse in LE MANS (DC9) have defined an entirely new process to overlabel products for the EU countries orders we did not manage to fit their official languages on pack. This is a very heavy process and we will continue to work to optimize it as much as possible.
• As decision was made that overlabelling ecommerce orders will not be viable, Digital team had to amend the ROW ecommerce website to reflect the countries where we can sell,

Even if we agreed to close this project, some new initiatives, identified along this project, will continue. For example :

• Ease and optimise the overlabelling process in DC9 with IT solutions and factory investigation
• Optimise artworks in the future to avoid overlabelling as much as possible
• Optimise internal processes in the factories to smooth the switch of old/new components when the scope is as large as the labelling project.
• Continue to follow what competitors are doing through competitor reviews
• Await decision to be made by the commission for the use of TiO2 in Kid’s products (potential impact of LB Enfants + Snazaroo)
• As we believe that Regulatory updates will be more and more frequent, we have now instaured a new “Annual Regulatory Update “process with key deadlines. This new process will start the 1st of June 2022 and will repeat on an annual basis to smooth as much as possible the number of artworks to change every year.

THANKS A LOT TO THE LABELLING TEAM MEMBERS who represented the different departments for every decision and joined every meeting for more than a year to ensure we progressed as planned.

THANKS TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO MADE THIS PROJECT HAPPEN.

THANKS TO THE STEERING COMMITEE for making quick and efficient decision when we needed support to progress.

Have a nice day,

Marine

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The Other Art Fair, London edition – Tickets 
Greetings! Between June 30th – July the 3rd, about 120 or so artists and yours truly (under my alias) land in the West Handyside Canopy, off Granary Square in Kings Cross.
If you\’ve experienced art fairs, The Other Art Fair is a lot more accessible, and generally less stuffy, compared to the likes of Frieze, with the work on show equally dynamic.
As an exhibitor, I\’ve been granted the use of a discount code, so please enjoy 50% off fair tickets using \”OTHERS50\” on the ticket page. More information and links below
Hopefully, see some of your faces there!
https://www.theotherartfair.com/london/
https://www.theotherartfair.com/london/tickets/
https://www.instagram.com/summers_paint/
All the best,
Ben…

Identifying and Understanding Greenwashing

I\’ve just finished this first short course as part of the new community courses, less than 5 minutes long, recommend to all the brand teams, as it gives a good all round understanding of what is acceptable in terms of environmental labeling, also great from a consumer perspective.…

The Journey – welcome Aboard

Traveling has always been a great source of inspiration. Taking notes and sketching plein air, watercolouring – leaving the immediate impression on paper has been a great way to not only preserve memories but also communicate adventures and discoveries with friends and family.​

​During the past months and years we have found ourselves confined to a limited radius. Our hearts and souls long to reach out to new adventures and places to discover.​

​Where do you want to go? ​

Join us on a Winsor & Newton Journey around Northern Europe!

The Journey; a 360 digital & sustainable campaign, will be hosted by several NE key retailers and local influencers who will invite their audience along; from the very start to final destination!

This trip is full of engaging ideas, inspiration and activation to support retailers’ promotions. We will join forces and strengthen communication by leveraging own, retailer and influencer media to attract new consumers, raise awareness and engagement and grow sales of Winsor & Newton Watercolour & Graphic Art products.

Retailers will benefit branded support and exclusive influencer content to raise awareness and encourage trial of new products, modernize Watercolours, expand their Graphic Art portfolio and drive sustainability. Teaming up with Tier 3 influencers to activate bottom-funnel and affiliate activations with custom coupon codes and links, allows us to complete the funnel.

For the next months, June – October, we will take you to various places in Northern Europe. From Warsaw, via Stockholm, to Frankfurt, Maastricht, Dortmund and Malmö, and back to Poland.

Keep an eye on the Wall and find out what your next location will be. @Lily Pislar, @Nadja Andersson, @Mirjam Martinovic and @Robert Rost will meet you there!

Safe travels!

Astrid
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