In a few short years, Swisse Wellness (Melbourne, Australia) has become a leading global wellness brand with market presence in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, U.K., U.S., Netherlands, Italy, and China. Many factors have contributed to the success of the Swisse brand, which was acquired by Health & Happiness International Holdings of Hong Kong for $1.7 billion in late 2015.

Swisse boasts a strong product pipeline and a portfolio of more than 200 innovative vitamins, sports nutrition, and skin care products that are manufactured in GMP-certified facilities and supported by a team of well-known brand ambassadors.

One key to Swisse’s enviable market position in China, where Swisse is a top online vitamin brand, is the willingness of many Chinese consumers to pay a premium for a trusted brand that delivers purity and authenticity in a market where low-quality or counterfeit goods remain common. But as demand, distribution, and retail exposure of Swisse products have grown, the brand has faced challenges from counterfeits. In response, Swisse adopted a series of packaging innovations to protect the authenticity and purity of its products worldwide.

Innovative Features
The first brand protection innovation was new product package labeling, first seen in 2016 and continuing to roll out on hundreds of Swisse products worldwide—more than 150 to date. Among other features, the company’s next-generation labels introduce a unique, scannable Swisse brand protection icon that the company said cannot be replicated.

The Swisse Product Authentication Mobile App, which was unveiled in 2017, uses world-class scanning technology that allows consumers to recognize and verify authentic Swisse labels easily by scanning these icons using their cellphones. The icon associated with the app cannot be replicated and uses the most advanced surface scan identification technology available.

Swisse customers in Australia now see another distinctive brand identification feature inside product containers. There, the company has introduced a new desiccant sachet with a printed Swisse logo, produced by Clariant Healthcare Packaging. When inserted into product bottles during the filling process, desiccant sachets like these help preserve the stability and shelf life of active ingredients in drugs, nutraceuticals, and dietary supplements by adsorbing moisture that can make its way into packages and degrade their contents. The new, branded desiccant sachets are now widely available in Swisse products sold in Australia and are expected to roll out to Swisse products globally in the near future.

Consumer Commitment
Managing Director Oliver Horn reinforced the company’s commitment to brand protection and consumer trust as an important responsibility. “Consumer trust in our brand is a key priority. Swisse has seen great success globally through our commitment to producing high-quality products, using premium formulas, but we know with premium, in-demand products, there are always likely to be individuals wanting to exploit. We have had a very considered approach to our strategy around anti-counterfeit, and have been working on developing our Product Authentication App for a number of years. This has been a large investment for our brand and something we wanted to make sure was spot on and easy for our consumers to navigate before we introduced to the market.”

The new Swisse-branded desiccant sachets complement the new packaging strategy, explained Harry Brooks, managing director of Alchemy Performance Packaging. Based in Brisbane, Alchemy is the Clariant Healthcare Packaging distributor that suggested the branded desiccant concept.

“Swisse sought solutions that reflected the brand’s high standards for premium, high-quality ingredients,” said Mr. Brooks. “So, instead of a typical desiccant sachet to protect the contents from moisture, Alchemy Performance Packaging proposed a Clariant desiccant sachet made with medical-grade Tyvek, filled with Clariant Sorb-It silica gel and a printed Swisse logo.”

In addition to protecting container contents, this distinctive desiccant solution would also meet the demands of Swisse’s production and supply chain—a vital consideration when one considers that all Swisse products are manufactured and packaged in facilities approved by Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), in compliance with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). The desiccant sachets comply with global food and drug regulatory requirements, as well as USP <670> requirements for packaging that has primary contact with solid-dose tablets.

The desiccants are sourced exclusively from Clariant Healthcare Packaging and produced in one of Clariant’s four worldwide ISO 15378 (GMP) certified desiccant production facilities, whose identical production capabilities assure uninterrupted product supply. The desiccants are produced and printed by Clariant in the form of Continu-Strip packets, which are wound onto a reel for continuous, automatic feeding, cutting, and insertion into containers by automated insertion equipment.

“We were particularly happy to collaborate with Clariant to produce a unique Swisse-branded desiccant, as we were able to solve multiple challenges simultaneously,” said Jane van Haandel, manager, existing product development, for Swisse Wellness. “This desiccant solution assists with the stability of our products, supports our brand protection measures, and contributes to the strength of the Swisse global brand.”