CPK - December 2017

BANDS ON THE RUN

Innovative banding solutions serve up a fresh new take on retail produce packaging and labeling

Story on page 14

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DECEMBER 2017

VOLUME 70, NO. 12

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DAMNED IF THEY DO OR DON’T

Ever get the feeling that the packaging industry just may be the victim of its own success? It seems every time the industry makes a significant breakthrough in packaging design or material construction, one can foresee a wave of inevitable backlash aimed at discrediting that innovation’s value, vilifying its environmental impact or even questioning the right of that package to exist at all.

Given that any perceived shortcomings are bound to be magnified to the Nth degree on social media these days, making a package that will please everyone all the time can feel like an impossible task.

And yet that is exactly the kind of goal that suppliers of packaging materials, machinery and design expertise must constantly strive to achieve for the greater good of the industry and society at large.

With consumers having more purchasing options at their disposal than ever before—in large part thanks to the so-called Amazon Effect unleashed by the burgeoning e-commerce sector—a package has to work harder than ever before to capture the consumer’s interest and attention.

For major consumer brands long accustomed to the old six-second rule stipulating that an average shopper will spend an average of six seconds scouting the retail shelf before making the final purchasing decision, the new reality of consumers finalizing their shopping list online before actually going to the store to pick up their stuff, or simply have it delivered to their door, can be unsettling.

And while there is no neat one-size-fits-all solution for each and every brand to overcome this challenge, market research experts at the once-mighty photog-

COVER STORY

raphy giant Kodak have identified a few promising market and consumer trends that just may point some of the FSMG (fast-moving consumer goods) brandowners in the right direction:

• Using smart packaging to strengthen connection to consumers. According to Kodak, flexible packaging printers must “continue to push the limits of innovation by seeking ways to enhance their packaging to be more appealing to consumers’ physical senses in the retail environment.

“This will include having packaging join the Internet of Things, so think of using packages to facilitate brand loyalty programs or to trigger offers to instantly repurchase products when sensors indicate they’re nearly used up.”

• Growth through variety, not volume. Brands should look to expand the product lines they sell, according to Kodak, but not necessarily the amount of product going on the shelves. In fact, packaging run lengths are decreasing.

“This creates an opportunity for printers to become more valuable partners by offering digital printing options to brands and packaging printers needing customization and efficiency.”

• Modern packaging for small and local businesses. With consumers increasingly looking to “shop small” and support local businesses, many of these businesses don’t have the volume to justify printing smart, customized packaging on newer technologies.

Says Kodak: “Basic digital capabilities, however, will now allow these printers to take on these short runs and bring smaller businesses into the world of smarter, more customizable packaging that will help them stay successful within their communities.”

Nothing wrong with that we say, nothing at all.

18 MANY SHADES OF GRAY By Andrew Joseph Hitachi inkjet coders making top grades for performance and reliability at a busy Ontario egg processing operation.

22 FREEDOM OF THE PRESS By Andrew Joseph

Fast-growing paperboard converter leverages proactive capital investment and exceptional customer service to thrive in a cutthroat marketplace.

26 READY TO DELIVER By George Guidoni

Fast-changing retail landscape paving way forward for more widespread adoption of retail-ready packaging formats across multiple channels.

32 iMOTIONAL RESPONSE By George Guidoni

German manufacturer of industrial thermoplastic solutions working hard to maintain rapid growth in the packaging sector through groundbreaking product innovation.

34 FROM FEED TO FORK

A preview to the upcoming 2018 IPPE meat industry showcase.

35 MAXIMUM RESULTS By Andrew Joseph

A new thermoforming system enables small Ontario meat processor to punch well above its weight in the local markets for gourmet-quality sausage and deli meats.

38 BLASTS FROM THEIR PASTS

Our readers recall the good old days in the packaging business in a historical retrospective marking our magazine’s 70th anniversary.

NEW CANADIAN OFFICE PUTS OMRON ON A FIRMER PATH TO GROWTH IN QUEBEC

Industrial automation and electronics group Omron Automation Americas has significantly expanded its presence in the Canadian market with last month’s opening of its new Montreal office.

Located in the prestigious Dorval business complex, the expanded Montreal test lab will provide Omron’s French-speaking customers with hands-on, proofof-concept testing of automation solutions with on-site access to operating robots, motion control, machine safety, HMI (human-machine interface), vision, sensors and control components.

“Our new offices will enhance customer interaction with our latest technologies as they seek solutions to their manufacturing challenges,” says Peter Brouwer, general manager of Omron Canada

“Now that we operate as a Pan-American business, we are able to provide uniform service and support for our French-speaking customers’ needs.”

Headquartered just outside of Chicago in Hoffman Estates, Ill., Omron Automation Americas has significantly boosted its product offering in the last couple of years through the acquisition of robotics manufacturer Adept Technology, Inc.; motion

control systems specialists Delta Tau Data Systems; and industrial barcoding systems developer Microscan Systems, Inc.

“The acquisition of Adept Technology is intended to integrate Omron’s strength of ‘Input, Logic, Output and Safety’ and Adept’s competence in ‘R’ (Robotics) to generate unique automation solutions for global manufacturers,” says Omron’s senior managing executive officer Yutaka Miyanaga.

LITEHOUSE BRAND SPREADING ITS WINGS WITH A REFRESHING PACKAGING UPDATE

Dip it, spread it or just pour it on, it’s hard to go wrong with the iconic Litehouse brand of dressings and dips literally made by people for the people at a 100-percent employee-owned company started up in Hope, Idaho, over 50 years ago as a small family restaurant catering mostly to summer tourists.

Today operating three U.S.-based production facilities to produce a broad array of dressings, condiments, sauces and cheese, Litehouse Inc. generates over US$100 in annual sales of its Litehouse brand products, mostly retailed in the refrigerated produce departments at most leading Canadian and U.S. grocers.

Already ranking as the top-selling RSD (refrigerated salad dressing) brand in both Canada and the U.S., the Litehouse product family is currently upgrading its traditional look with a refreshed packaging design for its core line of dressings and dips to cement its enviable consumer brand loyalty.

Working with renowned New York City-based branding agency

Wallace Church & Co. to design the new graphics, the company is aiming to introduce 53 repackaged SKUs (stock-keeping units) into the U.S. market by the end of the year, to be followed by a national rollout across Canada in February of 2018.

According to Litehouse, the company conducted extensive consumer research and testing to create the new trend-setting design and color palette that underscores its unwavering commitment to taste, freshness and real ingredients.

“The employee-owners of Litehouse take great pride in our products, and the new design highlights great taste, real ingredients and nutrition claims, as well as the versatility of our products, which we know is important

to consumers,” says Litehouse president and chief executive officer Jim Frank.

“We updated our branding with the consumer in mind, and invested in research to ensure the final product would appeal to brand loyalists and new consumers alike.

“The new design makes selecting Litehouse products easier than ever,” says Frank, citing the new easy-to-read flavor names printed in a big, bold, contemporary font, and vibrant color bands for quick and easy flavor identification. Featuring custom, top-down food photography to illustrate the high-quality natural ingredients inside the classy glass bottles and jars, “The packaging and branding refresh will help Litehouse stand out on-shelf and drive sales for the brand and RSD category,” Frank extols.

BE ON THE SAFE SIDE.

Balluff smart safety.

New: Safety over IO-Link

Automation demands safety. Because the only way to sleep peacefully is without any danger to people and production systems. Therefore, we have developed the Balluff Safety Hub. The first integrated safety solution over IO-Link! Easy to integrate, quick to react and frees up space in the control cabinet. And this is just one of our new safety components. In Balluff quality. www.balluff.ca

With the acquisition of Seydaco Packaging Corp. and Groupe Ecco, we have solidified our leadership position in the Canadian Marketplace.

With the addition of facilities in Québec and Ontario, we offer the best single-source solution for folding cartons, microwave cooking solutions and packaging machinery.

Our packaging solutions are part of a fully integrated global supply chain with coast-to-coast logisitics dedicated to giving your brand a competitive edge.

Expertise in the Canadian Food Marketplace, the Canadian Away-from-Home Market and Micro-breweries makes GPI your partner for success.

NETPAK PACKAGING ANNOUNCES MAJOR INVESTMENTS INSULATED BOX A WINNER

Because you’re ultimately only as competitive as the key customers you serve, investing in new automation technologies is a new manufacturing reality that Montreal-based Netpak Packaging Inc. is eagerly embracing.

Serving a growing customer base in the foodand-beverage, pharmaceutical and beauty product sectors with high-quality folding cartons, labels, POP (point-of-purchase) displays and printed corporate literature, the company’s Montreal plant is undergoing a multimillion-dollar capital upgrade to turn it into a highly-automated and flexible package printing and converting operation ready to turn on a dime, according to the company.

“The packaging converting sector is in a consolidation phase, and its domination by large multinational companies leads to longer lead-times for customers,” says company co-owner Carlo Cammalleri, who co-founded Netpak with business partner Salvatore Novello in 2003.

“Our clients are operating in a very competitive market, where short runs, fast turnover and flexibility are a key competitive advantage,” Cammalleri states, saying the new equipment will enable the plant to increase productivity, enhance quality and reduce lead-times.

According to Cammalleri, the capital investment projects include installation of two ABB palletizing robots (see picture); a fully-automatic wastepaper baler; and five Baumer hhs glue detection systems to be installed on each of the plant’s five folder-gluers.

As company co-founder Novello explains, “Netpak has become a strategic partner to successful brands by aligning its investment priorities with the requirements of the markets they serve.

“Thanks to our highly qualified employees, stateof-the-art technology and innovative practices, we are positioning our Montreal plant to become one of the most modern packaging converting facilities in North America.”

We’ll do the jobs you don’t want to. From pesticides to plant food and everything in between. Give us a call today.

FORMULATING FILLING

A box is rarely just a plain old brown box when it is made by Canada’s leading containerboard packaging manufacturer Cascades Inc.

Developed for shipping temperature-sensitive food products by mail, the company’s northbox isothermal container— made entirely of recycled materials—has been selected as this year’s winner of a Food Innovation Award from the Food Processing Council of Quebec (CTAQ ) in recognition of its technological innovation, product conservation and sustainable development attributes.

“The northbox is the fruit of a remarkable team effort, our culture of innovation, and more than 50 years of expertise in eco-packaging design,” says Luc Langevin, president of Cascades Specialty Products Group in Kingsey Falls, Que. “This packaging solution was developed entirely by Cascades in collaboration with our customers, which made it possible to meet their specific needs in a high-growth market.”

ON FAST TRACK TO A CLEANER FUTURE

Despite its well-earned praise and acclaim as one of Canada’s leading suppliers of sustainable packaging solutions, containerboard and tissue group Cascades Inc. is continuing to develop novel new ways to reduce its carbon footprint.

Late last month, the Kingsey Falls, Que.headquartered company launched a new employee incentive program to entice its staff to acquire an electric vehicle.

Initially limited to about 1,400 full-time workers out at the Kingsey Falls operations, the so-called “transportation electrification program” offers a $2,000 financial incentive for employees who acquire an electric vehicle in the next year—on top of existing government grants and incentives.

As part of the program, Cascades has installed 22 new 240-V charging stations, and one 480-V charging station, at its various plants in Kingsey Falls to allow participating employees to charge their vehicles for free.

With a total of 20 charging stations serving a population base of about 2,000 people, Kinsey Falls is now a de facto “most plugged-in” community in Quebec, according to Cascades.

“Since its beginnings, Cascades has been focused on innovation that reduces its environmental footprint and sets an example in sustainable development,” says Cascades president and chief executive officer Mario Plourde.

“Knowing that a change in transportation habits is required to make a substantial dent in GHG (greenhouse gas) reductions, we believe that this unique pilot project is an important gesture for the future.”

RECYCLING PROGRAM TAKES AIM AT FLEXIBLE PACKAGING WASTE

Many recyclers dread having to sort and separate plastic flexible packaging products from the wastestream, but few recyclers boast the earnest zero-waste mindset driving TerraCycle’s tireless waste collection efforts across North America and beyond.

Here in Canada, the recycling pioneer recently launched a major new initiative targeting nationwide collection of flexible packaging used for five core brands of the Hain Celestial Group, which includes the popular Yves Veggie Cuisine brand of meatless hot-dogs, burgers, sausage, delicatessen and other meat substitutes foods made with soy protein and plant-based ingredients.

Also targeting Hain-Clestial’s Earth’s Best baby food pouches, Europe’s Best frozen-fruit and frozen-vegetable plastic packaging, Tilda rice bags and pouches, and snack bags used for the Terra , Sensible Portions and Garden of Eatin’ brands, the program encourages individual consumers, charity groups and schools to collect the discarded packaging used for these brands and ship them to TerraCycle Canada, ULC in Toronto,

For every pound of waste shipped to TerraCycle, collectors can earn $1 to donate to a school, a non-profit or a charitable organization of their choice.

NOTES & QUOTES

Zund America hires Heather Roden as Strategic Account Manager for Graphics & Packaging

Zund America, North American distributor of the Zünd digital cutter and software portfolio, has announced the appointment of Heather Roden to the newly created role of Strategic Account Manager – Graphics & Packaging. With immediate effect, Heather will be serving key accounts currently in the customer base as well as seeking new partnerships with graphics and packaging providers.

Based out of the greater Chicago area, Heather comes to Zund America with extensive experience in the print industry, having held a variety of positions in prepress management, art direction, publishing, and in-house marketing. Most recently she was a product manager for a wide-format device portfolio which included a series with one of the largest global install bases. She is a member of Girls Who Print, former award winner of Graphic Design USA American Inhouse Design and Mature Media, and has spoken for SGIA at Graphics Canada.

Says John Cote, Zund America’s National Sales Manager: “We look forward to having Heather coordinate our efforts interdepartmentally in graphics and packaging and manage the special support systems required for large, nationwide accounts.”

As for Heather, she is thrilled with the opportunity to continue serving the PSP and packaging communities with the most reliable and productive finishing system on the market.

nAtlanta, Ga.-headquartered paperboard packaging group Graphic Packaging International, Inc. has reached an agreement to acquire the Mississauga, Ont.-based folding-carton producer Seydaco Packaging Corp. and its affiliates Groupe Ecco Boites Pliantes Ltée of St.-Hyacinthe, Que. and National Carton and Coating Co. of Xenia, Ohio. With annual converting capacity of about 20,000 tons of paperboard, Seydaco serves a well-established client base in the foodservice, food, personal care, and household goods markets, generating annual revenues of approximately $40 million. Pending the passage of related regulatory approvals, expected to be completed before the end of the year, Seydaco will operate as part of Graphic Packaging International Canada , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Graphic Packaging Holding Company. “We are delighted to join Graphic Packaging [and] our employees and customers will truly benefit from this transaction,” says Seydaco president David Seychell. “Our history of providing customers with high-quality, value-added packaging solutions and our speed-to-market philosophy, combined with Graphic Packaging’s strong global position, will bring much added value to the paperboard packaging marketplace.”

nTonejet Limited, U.K.-based manufacturer of digital printing technologies and Rockwell Automation, Milwaukee, Wis.-headquartered automation technologies giant, have been announced as winners in the Innovative Partnership category at last month’s Innovation Awards gala at the InPrint 2017 industrial print exhibition in Munich, Germany, for the companies’ collaboration in the development of the Tonejet Cyclone digital two-piece can decorator for direct-to-shape metal can printing. Incorporating Tonejet’s advanced electrostatic DOD (dropon-demand) digital print engine and Rockwell’s iTRAK intelligent transport system combining linear and rotary motion, the Tonejet Cyclone was designed to overcome limitations of conventional can printing production related to a lack of flexibility in transport and handling processes, where the slowest process dictates the indexing time and the largest operation dictates the overall size of the machine. Said to offer virtually limitless product customization and personalization possibilities for beverage producers, the Tonejet Cyclone deploys the iTRAK system to accurately transport the cans

during the print process automatically—yielding higher productivity and print quality. “Winning the Innovative Partnership Award honors the incredible work that has gone into developing the Tonejet Cyclone,” says Tonejet’s vice-president of sales and marketing Simon Edwards. “This system represents a huge leap forward in direct-to-shape metal can printing with features that enhance quality and efficiency, while radically reducing time-to-market.”

nSt. Louis, Mo.-headquartered plastic bottle blowmolder Alpha Packaging Inc. has completed the acquisition of a bottle manufacturing facility in EttenLeur, Holland, from Graham Packaging Company as part of Alpha’s ongoing expansion into the European markets, specifically in the rigid-plastic food packaging segment.

nSt. Louis, Mo.-headquartered rigid plastic products group TricorBraun has acquired the assets of Richmond, B.C.-based flexible packaging solutions provider Taipak Enterprises Ltd., which supplies a comprehensive range of flexible pouches, bags and boxes to clients in the food-andbeverage, pet-food, frozen-food and coffee-and-tea markets. “This acquisition represents a true milestone for TricorBraun, being the very first time in our more than 100-year history that we have entered the flexible packaging industry,” says TricorBraun’s executive chairman Keith Strope. “It’s a move that significantly increases our product offerings and capabilities.”

nBatavia, Ohio-headquartered labeling products and materials group Multi-Color Corporation has completed a US$1.3-billion acquisition of the Labels Division business of leading Austrian packaging products group Constantia Flexibles GmbH, significantly expanding its European market presence and strengthening its existing footprint in Asia.

nEvansville, Ind.-headquartered plastic products manufacturer Berry Global Group, Inc. has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Clopay Plastic Products Company, Inc., a subsidiary of Griffon Corporation specializing in breathable plastic films and laminates for healthcare, hygiene and industrial protective apparel applications, for US$475 million in an all-cash transaction. “The proposed acquisition is directly aligned with our fundamental strategic initiatives [and] we are extremely excited with what Clopay’s global capabilities and unique technology platform will add

to our organization,” says Berry’s chief executive officer Tom Salmon. “The combination of Clopay with Berry’s Health, Hygiene, and Specialties division broadens our position within the faster-growing health and hygiene markets, where Clopay is a known innovator with patentprotected breathable hygiene films.”

nNorcross, Ga.-headquartered paper packaging products group WestRock Company has announced plans for a US$410-million capital upgrade at its kraft linerboard mill in Florence, S.C.—boosting the mill’s annual production capacity to 710,000 tonnes. To be conducted over the next two years, the modernization project is centered on the installation of a state-of-the-art, 330-inch-wide kraft

NOTES & QUOTES

linerboard machine and related infrastructure, which will replace the mill’s three existing narrow-width machines. In addition, WestRock says it will spend about US$60 million over the next five years to support the new machine and other mill projects. Combined with the recently-modernized on-site woodyard, the Florence mill will become one of the lowest-cost kraft linerboard mills in North America, according to WestRock. “This investment will make our Florence mill a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, sustaining good manufacturing jobs and promoting the long-term success of the mill,” says WestRock’s chief executive officer Steve Voorhees, adding the new machine is expected to be fully-operational by the first quarter of 2020.

FIRST GLANCE

BAGGING TO DIFFER

Designed for automatic opening, filling and sealing of pre-made bags and standup pouches at speeds of up to 2,500 bags per hour, the Swifty Bagger machine from WeighPack Systems, Inc. comes equipped with a horizontal infeed conveyor and an easy-load bag magazine to ensure that the pouches enter the machine consistently and perfectly positioned every time. Featuring a photosensor for bag opening detection, funnel clog sensors, variable speed control and an Allen-Bradley PLC (programmable logic controller) touchscreen, the bagger’s innovative inline design makes maintenance hassle-free, according to the company, with easy access to all parts and allowing operators to monitor the entire filling process without any blind spots.

WeighPack Systems, Inc.

BEST LINE OF DEFENSE

ing and a 10.4-inch color touchscreen display with large intuitive buttons and status indicators, the user-friendly Model 88S Secuity features OneTouch single-step operator functions to reduce operator steps and to extend time between human interaction.

Weber Marking Systems

SMART BY DESIGN

duction performance, and comprehensive monitoring throughout the packaged converting and printing process.

AVT

TUBULAR BELLES

Distributed in Canada by Weber Marking Systems, the Model 88S Security product coding system from BestCode was developed as a cost-effective solution for product traceability, security, counterfeit avoidance and brand protection applications. Designed for use with invisible inks that can only be seen when fluoresced with UV light—activating the product codes and marks to light up a bright blue color—the on-demand printer can print real-time linear, two-dimensional (2D) barcodes like Datamatrix and QR (quick-response) codes, which can also be encrypted with company and product-specific serialization information. Designed for the world market, the Model 88S Security features more than 20 operational and print languages, with capabilities to print over 65,000 different characters and symbols. Equipped with CleanStart technology for automatic printhead clean-

The new compact-footprint SmartFlex Helix conveyors from Dorner Mfg. Corp. feature tight turns and fullyadjustable infeed and outfeed to provide plant operators with greater layout flexibility across a broad range of accumulation, buffering, product cooling and other applications. Using Dorner’s patented chain design to reduce friction and ensure sooth product handling, the Helix conveyors can be set at incline angles of up to seven degrees with a flat top chain, up to 10 degrees with a friction top chain, and be customized to fit specific application requirements with optional features such as a roller transfer plate, or a powered transfer plate for smooth transfer of smallersized parts and packages.

Dorner Mfg. Corp.

FIT TO PRINT

Designed to address common digital printing challenges such as missing nozzles, ink drips and color uniformity in real time, the new Helios D system from AVT is a high-end 100-percent automatic inspection system that works seamlessly on any common substrate, including label stock, transparent film and even highly-reflective foil, according to the company. Designed to identify defects like missing nozzles, spots, damages and color changes as soon as they occur, the Helios D offers an effective solution for achieving reduced waste, enhanced pro -

RODA Packaging has launched a new line of extruded flexible plastic tubes for the packaging of various glue and grease products. Available in a choice of constructions— including monolayer, co-extrusion and laminates—the new moisture-resistant tubes enable high-quality, high-definition printing of up to 10 colors, as well as a wide range of pearlescent, metallic or foil finishes to produce high-impact shelf presence for retail brands of adhesives and lubricants.

RODA Packaging

HAWKISH VIEWS

The new high-performance HAWK MV-4000 smart camera from Omron Microscan Systems, Inc. combines exceptional processing capabilities, ultra-fast frame rate, and state-of-the-art algorithms to achieve real-time trigger response across a broad range of code reading, code verification, inspection, guidance and gauging applications in virtually any industrial environment—reaching inspection rates from 4,000 to 14,000 parts per minute. Equipped with a wide array of sensors, the HAWK MV-4000 offers a high degree of configuration flexibility with C-mount lens options and plug-and-play external lighting. The camera is further enhanced with intuitive set-up, testing, and run-time user interfaces to program the inspection and to set up communication between the camera and other components on the line.

Omron Microscan Systems, Inc.

NO TRAY REQUIRED

The new Trayless cucumber packaging format from Canpaco and Canadian Paper and Packaging leverages the companies’ broad technical expertise and extensive film knowledge to provide a highly practical solution for fresh produce packaging with minimal environmental footprint. As leading converters and printers of film and paper for packaging applications, the companies partner with leading North American packaging equipment manufacturers to provide application-specific packaging solutions with exceptionally short lead-times.

Canpaco

GOING WALL-TO-WALL FOR GREATER GREENER GOOD

Building a better future through recycling is a noble notion that is quickly evolving into a promising reality, thanks to the efforts of eco-minded enterprises like the Des Moines, Iowa-based ReWall Company

Founded in 2008, ReWall is a successful manufacturer of roofing products and construction materials made from recycled food and beverage cartons with a specialized low-energy, eco-friendly process that uses no water, formaldehyde glues or hazardous chemicals.

In recent years, the company teamed with the Quebec Citybased industry group Carton Council of Canada (CCC) to expand markets for recycled food and beverage packaging, and this partnership has enabled ReWall to double its manufacturing capacity for products such as roof cover board, exterior sheathing, wallboard and floor underlayment.

After completing an installation of new specialized equipment this past summer, the ReWall Company can now recycle over 600 tonnes of recovered paperboard cartons per month, compared to 200 tonnes per month before the installation.

“We have discovered that the unique properties of food and beverage cartons, such as strength, durability and resistance to mold and moisture, make them an ideal material for creating high-quality building materials,” says ReWall’s chief executive officer Jan Rayman. “In addition, the lifecycle of the cartons will continue to grow because the building materials themselves

for display at the recent

can also be recycled.”

According to Rayman, every truckload of ReWall’s roof cover board represents an equivalent of about 600,000 recycled cartons being given a second life.

“ReWall’s success reinforces how important food and beverage carton recycling is in Canada,” says CCC managing director Isabelle Faucher, citing her group’s substantial financial and technical support for ReWall’s new equipment installation.

“We recognize that in parts of Canada the recent movement of post-consumer carton loads has been difficult, which is why we are especially excited about this growing end market as part of a larger recycling solution,” Faucher says. “This innovation investment provides an opportunity for cartons to be reclaimed into environmentally-friendly building materials—allowing the cartons to live on.”

MALE BEAUTY IS MORE THAN JUST SKIN-DEEP

Heat and Control offers a complete line of metal detectors, checkweighers and X-ray inspection systems for pharmaceutical products from the leading manufacturers: Ishida and CEIA.

CEIA Metal Detection

The world’s largest manufacturer of metal detectors, with over 90,000 units installed. CEIA PH21-Series pharmaceutical metal detectors deliver unparalleled accuracy and sensitivity to all metals and provide high throughput rates for pills, tablets, and capsules. In addition, CEIA offers a complete range of solutions for packaged and non-packaged tablets, powders, liquids and other products; with all solutions including FDA 21CFR compliance.

Ishida X-ray Inspection

Find foreign objects including metal, glass, bone, plastic, hard rubber, shell and stones. Or detect product defects like cracks, voids, missing items and improper weights.

Ishida Checkweighers

or

Being a man’s best friend is a tall order, but British-based Bulldog Skincare for Men is doing many right things in its quest to become a top dog in the fast-growing global market for male grooming products.

The first men’s skin-care brand in the world to use sugarcane as a raw material, the Bulldog range of moisturizers, face washes and face scrubs has recently introduced the fast-growing renewable crop—with all its environmental virtues—into its product packaging.

Grown on sustainable tracks of land in Brazil far removed from the Amazon rainforest, sugarcane is naturally very efficient at capturing large amounts of carbon-dioxide from the air during cultivation.

Once grown, the sugarcane is processed into ethanol by the Brazilian chemicals producer Braskem to produce the so-called ‘green plastic’ polymers, which are in turn used by RPC M&H Plastics to create the flexible tubes used to package Bulldog products.

According to Braskem, every kilogram of green plastic derived from sugarcane removes a little over three kilograms of GHG (greenhouse gas) out of the atmosphere, compared to traditional fossil fuel-based plastics.

As another big environmental benefit, the cultivation of sugarcane—often planted on degraded pasture land—helps to recover the soil for future use as general farmland, or to plant another crop of sugarcane.

According to RPC M&H Plastics, “We are continually seeking alternative environmentally-responsive products because we believe that a small change can make a big difference, as we strive towards a business model that has minimal impact on the environment.”

Bulldog Skincare for Men founder Simon Duffy says the new flexible tubes and caps match all performance attributes of the all-polyethylene (PE) packaging they have replaced.

“We have always tried to make the most ethical and sustainable decisions we can, from never testing on animals and never using microbeads to making all our products suitable for vegetarians and vegans,” Duffy states. “Plastic from sugarcane is the latest step in this approach, and we are delighted to have worked with M&H Plastics to turn green PE into something we can use in the tubes and caps of our packaging.”

Coming February 2018

BANDS ON THE RUN

Innovative veggie

processor

uses

novel preparation techniques and savvy

packaging to make a fresh statement of intent inside the Canadian produce aisles

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR

PHOTOS BY NAOMI HILTZ

Despite all the best intentions and wise advice, it’s fair to say that most consumers today still approach eating vegetables as something they have to endure—for health and nutritional reasons—rather than enjoy outright.

Dan Carnevale, co-owner and vice-president of operations at Toronto-based Veg-Pak Produce Limited, is on a mission to change all that.

“People generally still tend to look at vegetables as being boring old vegetables, and use it the same way it has always been used in the past—dice it, cut it, or whatever … same old, same old,” says Carnevale, a life-long produce industry insider whose intimate familiarity with the subject was cultivated early in life by his Italian-born father.

“My brother Rick and I had been working summers at Veg-Pak since we were 15 years old,” says Carnevale, relating how his immigrant father, raised on a farm in Italy, worked his way up through the ranks in the Canadian produce industry— eventually becoming a salesman at the Ontario Food Terminal in the 1970s.

After purchasing a share of Veg-Pak in the 1980s and acquiring sole control of the company in the 1990s, “We decided to make the family business our business,” Carnevale recalls.

Formed in 1943, Veg-Pak’s primary meal ticket over the first few decades was packing the once-famous Pop-I brand of fresh spinach, with its not-sosubtle nod to the beloved cartoon character Popeye.

“Even after my father bought the business, that’s how Veg-Pak was making its money,”

But as the generation raised at a time when Popeye and his spinach-fueled muscles were standard TV fare started to age, the Carnevale clan decided the time was right to update their marketing and manufacturing strategies.

“We were keen to expand our product base and not to put all our eggs in one basket,” Carnevale told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the company’s 55,000-square-foot processing facility in To-

ronto’s west end.

While bagged loose-leaf spinach is still very much a flagship item in the company’s Harvest Fresh brand, Veg-Pak has also successfully expanded its repertoire to include over 30 different SKUs (stock-keeping units) for the retail, foodservice and private-label markets.

Along with creating and packing assorted vegetable trays for retailers such as Costco, the Harvest Fresh brand—launched in the 1980s but totally overhauled about three years ago—nowadays includes products like Kale, Kale Super Blend, Kale Slaw, Veggie Spirals, Riced Vegetables, eight different packs of hot peppers, baking and sweet potatoes, purple sweet potatoes, Pearl Onions, shallots, garlic, shallots, garlic, sweet and

sugar-snap peas,and Nantes Carrots

But diversification aside, what really makes VegPak’s processed produce stand out from the crowd is the recent introduction of the so-called ricing and spiraling techniques that, as the terms suggest, turn fresh vegetables into something resembling rice grains and fine noodles, respectively.

As Carnevale explains, the novel techniques literally transform traditional familiar veggies into an exciting, attractive product with irresistible shelf appeal and gourmet-like aesthetics

“It’s like getting restaurant food at home,without the doggy-bag,” says Carnevale, suggesting that the Harvest Fresh Riced Cauliflower,for example,can be used as a low-carb,gluten-free and tasty alternative

to rice.

“The product can be consumed as a healthy side dish, added to soup or stir-fry, make a risotto, and even to make gluten-free pizza crust,” he extols.

“Our Harvest Fresh banner now also offers Riced Sweet Potato, Riced Butternut Squash, and Riced Broccoli—all 100-percent vegetable with nothing added or subtracted.”

On the spiral side, the Harvest Fresh brand offers noodle-like zucchini, butternut squash, carrots, beets and sweet potatoes, that are peeled away from the vegetable much the same way one might peel the skin from an apple.

Most recently, Veg-Pak has launched a two-veggie mix-pack that comes with a container of teriyaki sauce for stir-fry lovers short on preparation time.

“Just before cooking, they can be easily portioned by knife to whatever size the consumer is comfortable with,” says Carnevale, adding that perfecting the spiraling technique was “a learning experience.”

As he recalls, “We used a manual-crank to spiral the veggies initially, just enough to gauge consumer reaction, but even after we bought the proper spiralization equipment, we found that different machines just performed better on specific types of vegetables.”

Carnevale says this knack for product innovation will benefit the company as it continues to grow into the future.

Already employing 100 people and boasting the vaunted SQF Level 3 food safety certification of from the Safe Quality Food Institute, the Veg-Pak plant houses 10 different production lines, ranging from fully-automated lines for spinach to semi-automated lines for other types of produce.

“Our busiest time of year is between October and June, when we will work two shifts a day, six days a week,” says Carnevale, adding Veg-Pak likes to approach automation in a measured and cautious way to minimize any disruption to the workflow and to make sure it does not come at the expense of product quality.

“Our goal is to continue to find new and innovative products, and then work on automation to increase efficiencies,” he explains, hailing the plant’s hard-earned

SQF certification for food safety as a proud achievement and high-level validation of the plant’s HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) food safety protocol.

“This is very important because it gives them the security and knowledge that the Veg-Pak products adhere to the highest possible safety standards.”

To give its spiral and riced product maximum shelf appeal,Veg-Pak uses the clearplastic trays and lids supplied by Vaughan, Ont.-based Single Solution Products, that basically allows the uniquely-shaped veggies to speak for themselves.

However, Carnevale reveals that as the demand and production volumes for these product started to soar, the various shortcomings of the existing manual packaging process became quickly apparent.

After weighing the product and hand-place it into the lidded trays, the workers would press the product label onto the label by hand, Carnevale recalls, which would naturally result in inconsistent label placement and application.

“It required a painful degree of manual labor to ensure that each label was applied perfectly straight,” he recalls.

“And if it was applied incorrectly, the label’s adhesive made it difficult for the workers to remove, while often leaving behind a residue on the clear plastic surface that would spoil the product’s shelf appeal.”

To resolve the issue in a cost-effective manner, Carnevale contacted the Orangeville, Ont.-based Banding Systems, a North American distribution partner of Dutch banding machinery manufacturer Bandall

“Paul Slipper of Banding Systems had first shown me the Bandall solution back in 2014,” says Carnevale, “and while I was always intrigued by what it could do, I never really had a product that could utilize it, as we were doing a lot of overwrap trays, or the products just weren’t at the level of production where I felt it could provide an effective ROI (return on investment).”

But that all quickly changed with the near-instant success of the new riced and spiraled veggie products.

“Seeing my workers struggle with the labeling to keep up to our expected pro-

duction line speeds was enough for me to call Banding Systems and tell him to get a banding machine into our place pronto,” Carnevale relates.

Installed in July of this year, the compact-footprint Bandall equipment immediately provided a simple, but highly precise and repeatable label application method, whereby a narrow strip of thin paper or plastic film label is wrapped around a sealed tub-style container to hold the contents firmly in place.

“Our Bandall label system runs at an average rate of 20 packs a minute, which is a tremendous uptick from the old manual way we used to do things,” Carnevale states.

As Banding Systems partner Paul Slipper explains, one of the Bandall machine’s many attractions is the fact that it can create a tight and secure package using a very small amount of material, which can itself be recycled or composted to further lower any product’s environmental footprint.

“We profess to call ourselves an environmentally-friendly label solution provider,” states Slipper. “Recyclers love us because there’s no adhesive residue left on the plastic packaging, basically allowing them to receive back virgin PET (polyethylene terephthalate), and the band itself is recyclable wherever proper facilities exist.”

Moreover, the labeling bands themselves—produced and printed by a Bandall sister company in Green Bay, Wis.— can be die-cut and printed and/or reverse-printed as specified by customers to achieve maximum merchandising impact in addition to creating a tight and secure seal for the lidded package.

“It’s a banding solution that works equally well in such industries as meat, produce and even textiles, to name a few, and we are very excited to add Veg-Pak to our growing customer list,” Slipper states.

“In fact, Veg-Pak is the first produce company in Canada to utilize its benefits.”

Carnevale full-heartedly agrees: “We have achieved that unique combination of premium look and an innovative product that gives us a distinct market advantage by making our packages really stand out on the grocers’ shelves.

“Seeing our veggie spirals up close certainly helps capture the consumers’ eye, as they can see that this is a whole different way of presenting veggies,” says Carnevale, citing overwhelmingly positive feedback from Veg-Pak’s retail customers.

“They say it not only provides enough branding opportunity, but also allows the consumer the opportunity to see a lot of the product inside of the packaging, which allows them to make a more informed choice.”

Carnevale adds that the Veg-Pak workers actually enjoy working with the user-friendly banding system.

“The workers start it up, and after running a few bands to get the pack line up properly, boom, it’s working!”

Says Carnevale: “Our spiral and riced vegetable products have been doing very well since their introduction into the grocery marketplace this past summer.

“We are also very proud of our efforts to drive the overall purchasing demand for vegetables with our unique ricing and spiralization processes, combined with the innovative use of the Bandall labeling method,” he concludes.

“We make vegetables look fun, sexy and, most importantly, something you would want to eat again and again.”

SUPPLIERS

Banding Systems

BANDALL

Markem-Imaje Inc.

Multipond America Inc.

Mettler-Toledo Inc.

KRONEN GmbH

Mosur Machines

Turatti Group

Abbey Packaging Equipment Ltd.

Single Source Products Ltd.

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THE MANY SHADES OF GRAY

Ontario egg processor happy to put all its eggs in one basket to meet its unique product coding and marking requirements

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE

There are many good reasons why putting all your eggs in one basket may not be the most sound business model most of the time. But not all eggs, and not all baskets for that matter, are created equal.

For Strathroy, Ont.-headquartered processor Gray Ridge Eggs Inc., the evolution of egg harvesting and packaging has been a remarkable journey.

Founded in Ridgetown, Ont., in 1934 by Lyle and Ina Gray, parents of the company’s current chief executive officer and owner Bill Gray, the family-owned enterprise started out by supplying the local market dominated by standard white eggs with the brown-shelled eggs laid by unique varieties of chicken bread for this very purpose.

“Brown chickens like the Isa Brown and Lohman Brown lay brown-shelled eggs, while white chickens such as the White Leghorn lay white eggs,” Gray Ridge Eggs executive vice-president of operations Scott Brookshaw told Canadian Packaging

magazine during a visit to the company’s 105,000-square-foot egg processing and packaging facility in Listowel, Ont., which has recently undergone a series of extensive capital improvement projects and expansions to boost its capacity and competitiveness.

Started in 2016, the multiphase expansion provided the Listowel facility with an additional 25,000 square feet of space for processing and another 25,000 square feet of space in the packaging areas of the plant, says Brookshaw, citing the founder Bill Gray’s mantra of, “Keep growing, keep building and operate as if you will go on forever.”

As Brookshaw explains,“The expansion was initiated when we found ourselves not only running at full capacity, but also having to run weekend shifts to meet the uptick in product demand.

“It was very difficult on our labor force,” says Brookshaw, “and so we chose to expand the plant to ease the burden on our employees, as well as to become more efficient.”

According to Brookshaw, Gray Ridge nowadays offers about 80 different SKUs (stock-keeping units) of fresh eggs and processed egg products, serving all the major grocers across the province of Ontario.

“We provide a very extensive range of egg type and packaging,” says Brookshaw citing many varieties “developed by the global industry as a whole to suite changing consumer lifestyles.

“We call it ‘delivering lifestyle choices’,” he continues, adding that the company serves every major grocery retailer in Ontario, pointing to the company’s wide selection of egg products such as:

• The Enriched Coop (eggs laid by hens in an enriched hen coop;

• The Golden D eggs, each containing 50 per cent of daily recommended intake value of Vitamin D);

• The Double Yolks variety, in which 75 per cent of the eggs in the pack will contain a double yolk);

• The Premium range of eggs collected from peak of laying cycle, featuring stronger shells and firmer yolks);

• Conestoga Farm Brands, where the eggs are from free-run hens, available in both brown and white eggs;

• Regular all-purpose eggs, eggs containing Omega-3 and other anti-oxidants, eggs laid by free-range birds, eggs from chickens raised on an all-grain organic diet, and some further-processed egg products such as cartons of egg whites.

This growing product variety and diversification naturally makes the Listowel plant, along with its sister operation in Strathroy, a very busy nest of activity.

“We receive 220,000 dozen eggs, that’s 2,640,000 eggs, into our Listowel facility every day,” Brookshaw states, “after which they are all processed, packaged, and shipped to our customers within three to five days.”

According to Brookshaw, the company operates poultry farms near Listowel and Strathroy, and also buys eggs from other Ontario-based farmers to maintain steady supply for the two plants, each accounting for roughly a half of the company’s total output.

Maintaining a strict HACCP (hazard analysis and critical control points) protocol for food safety, both plants boast Safe Quality Foods’ SQF Level 2 food safety certification of the international Safe Quality Food Institute.The facilities are also FSEP (Food Safety Enhanced Program)-approved grading stations from the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), along with membership in the marketing alliance that markets the GoldEgg/JauneDoré specialty eggs and egg products nationally.

“The Gray Ridge facilities are very automated egg processing plants,” notes Brookshaw, “with the latest and technologically-sound equipment and machinery around.

“We even have a computerized order-picking system that will only print an invoice if the order has been correctly picked by our employee,” says Brookshaw, citing recent installation of cutting-edge equipment that includes:

• a Kraus Joker friction feeder that lays a paper featuring branding atop a tray of 30 eggs for a large grocery chain;

• a BVM Compacta Genius Servo plastic overwrapper and heat tunnel from Celplast Packaging Systems Ltd.; Suppliers include: Cascades Inc. and its Ultracell eggflat trays; Hartman North America fiber egg cartons; and Polar Pak clear plastic egg cartons.

To move its eggs in and out of the plant, the company deploys a fleet of 33 tractors and 48 refrigerated 53-trailer trucks—each carrying 32 skids with 900 dozen eggs per skid, or 345,600 eggs per truck in total.

After logging in the number of eggs taken from each farm—all packed in different-colored plastic trays—the eggs are graded and forward toward packaging, while

PRODUCT ID NOW

plastic trays and plastic pallets are run through a pair of ISDModel 2 tray-washing lines and one P101MC-8-15 palletwashing line.

Manufactured by Kuhl Corp., each of the tray-washing stations hygienically cleans about 7,000 trays per hour.

Upon its arrival, the eggs pass through a multitasking Moba system comprising a Moba FL 500 loader, a Kuhl washer/dryer, and a Moba 500 grader machine that has the capacity to run 15,000 dozen or 180,000 eggs per hour— cleaning and sorting them based on weight, while removing any imperfect eggs automatically.

“From the moment the eggs enter our facility,” says Brookshaw, “there is no need for human hands to touch them.”

From there, the trays of eggs are transferred onto one of

the 22 packaging lines housed at the plant via smooth-running conveyors, powered by SEW-EURODRIVE motors.

As a sign of Gray Ridge’s commitment to supporting local Ontario farmers and providing Ontario families with quality, local, Ontario eggs, all Gray Ridge eggs produced in the province are certified ‘Ontario local’ by Foodland Ontario

Each Ontario egg is stamped Foodland Ontario and each carton—whether it be Gray Ridge, GoldEgg or Conestoga Farms branded—proudly sports the famous Foodland Ontario logo.

The eggs are marked via one of the many Hitachi inkjet coders purchased by Gray Ridge en masse from Hitachi’s Canadian distributor, Harlund Industries Ltd. of Edmonton, AB with service from its Mississauga, Ont. facility.

The Listowel plant has a total of 55 Hitachi RX2-S inkjet coders at its disposal, Brookshaw relates, with another 40 RX2-S units employed at the Strathroy plant.

In applying the Foodland Ontario logo to all eggs that go to wholesale customers, each egg is marked using the food-grade Hitachi JP-E78 pink ink, the coders are also used to apply additional marks, codes or text on the specialty products, such as the word Omega for the Omega-3 brand, using Hitachi’s JP-K112 black ink.

“We also apply all the pertinent lot code data and best-before dates onto each and every carton of eggs we pack,” says Brookshaw, adding that the ethanol-based inks used by the Hitachi coders are perfectly safe for this application.

According to Brookshaw, the company’s relationship with Harlund Industries, which markets industrial inkjet printers/coders, laser printers/ coders, and label printing and application systems from strategically-located branches across Canada—traces back to about five years ago.

“They came to us prospecting after seeing one of our trucks on the highway,” Brookshaw recalls.

“We liked the fact that they have been very easy to deal with from the get-go,” he says, “and that they also had excellent references.

“So we set up some tests using our eggs and their coders, performed magnificently.”

As Brookshaw relates, he was highly impressed with the robust throughout speeds of the Hitachi RX2-S coders, along with their ease of cleaning.

“The biggest problem for any printer in a facility utilizing fiber carton packaging is the cleaning part of it,” explains Brookshaw, noting that about 90 per cent of cartons and trays used to pack eggs at the Listowel plant are fiberbased.

“The fibers end up clogging the printheads,” he explains, “ and it can be a slow and laborious task to clean them out.

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SUPPLIERS

Conveyor lines at the Listowel facility use SEWEURODRIVE motors to ensure smooth and efficient product transfer.

“But we don’t have that issue with the Hitachi heads.”

Says Brookshaw: “The last thing I want from a packaging point of view is for my printers to cause any production downtime, but thanks to the RX2-S coders’ highly corrosion-resistant stainless-steel body and all-aluminum printheads, we don’t have that problem.”

It now never takes more than 15 minutes to have a clogged printhead back online and humming again, according to Brookshaw.

“These industrial-strength printers are very functional and they provide a big boon to our maintenance personnel by requiring virtually no effort to clean, while helping us avoid the lengthy downtimes that we endured previously,” he says.

The Hitachi RX2-S coders are part of the company’s high-quality series of industrial small-character high-speed printers that apply inks via a noncontact method by blowing it onto the rounded eggshell surface, in this case, as well as onto various other substrates such as metals, plastics, rubbers, films and papers.

Easy to use, the print message layout is displayed on the touchscreen interface, with function buttons displayed as icons to better assist the operator understand the button feature.

Along with the ease-of-cleaning, the printer filter assemblies can be easily accessed in the circulation cabinet front panel and replaced without use of any tools.

Moreover, the coder’s thoughtful design provides easy access to circulation and electrical cabinets to allowing for more efficient, time-saving field installations and routine preventive maintenance.

“As an added bonus, the Hitachi RX2S only uses about half as much solvent as

conventional printers, saving us considerable expense,” Brookshaw adds.

“All in all, the Hitachi RX2-S printers we purchased from Harlund Industries have provided us with a real peace-ofmind—allowing us to focus on other areas of the egg production business.

“Whenever I call Harlund Industries, they answer quickly,” Brookshaw adds.

“They are always professional and polite, and I always finish our call satisfied that I have received quality customer support,” he concludes.

“Without a doubt, they will continue to play an important role going forward in our company’s continued growth and success in the marketplace.”

Ink Jet Printer

Harlund Industries Ltd.

Hitachi America, Ltd.

Kuhl Corp.

Moba USA

Hartman North America

SEW-EURODRIVE Canada

Kraus Maschinenbau GmbH

Celplast Packaging Systems Ltd.

Cascades Inc.

Brunner GmbH u. Co.Kg

Polar Pak Inc.

Yaskawa Motoman Canada

UXSeries

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FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

Advanced printing press technology and superior customer service keep family-owned paperboard converter finely attuned to customer expectations and marketplace trends

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR

PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE

Treating your customers the way you want to be treated is a timeless golden rule in any line of work. But even doing that is not quite enough for the folks in charge of The Ellis Group, a well-respected converter of folding cartons and other paperboard packaging that thrives on exceeding its customers’ expectations—day in and day out.

Celebrating its 35th anniversary next year, the family-owned enterprise—founded by Bill Ellis in 1983 as Ellis Packaging in Pickering, Ont.—is in many ways a living embodiment of the virtues of putting customers first, whatever the short-term cost.

This principled customer-centric approach to business has paid off in a big way over the years in terms of enabling The Ellis Group to cultivate a remarkably loyal customer base in the food-and-beverage, pharmaceutical and other CPG (consumer package goods) industries served by what is the largest family-owned package printing company operating in Canada today.

The Ellis Group, led by Ellis Packaging president Cathy Ellis, her brother Dave Ellis, and John Clarke, boasts three state-of-the-art production facilities:

• the 85,000-square-foot Pickering plant Ellis Packaging Limited specializing packaging for food, confectionary, healthcare, cosmetic and personal care products;

• the 50,000-square-foot Ellis Paper Box Inc. operation in Mississauga, Ont., focusing primarily on pharmaceutical and personal care packaging;

• the 50,000-square-foot Ellis Packaging West, Inc. production facility in Guelph, Ont., devoted to food, confectionary, fish, produce and beverage carrier markets.

As Ellis Packaging West president John Clarke, who recently celebrated his 25th anniversary with Ellis relates, each of the three plants has seen extensive investments over the past few years in order to maintain a competitive leading edge, given the rapid market and technological changes transforming the paperboard converting industry within Canada.

“The folding carton industry is a rapidly consolidating industry,” Clarke told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the Guelph operation. “If you don’t continually reinvest in newer and cutting edge technology, you could quickly lose market share, especially of late, to the larger international entities rapidly expanding their footprint here in the Canadian market.

“Not only did we replace every bit of machinery here in Guelph within the first five years of acquiring it in 2002, we have continued to add and replace incrementally

virtually every year since,” says Clarke, who transferred from the Pickering facilities to head the Guelph operation when it was first acquired from a struggling local converter that was in imminent danger of closing shop.

“The company we purchased was really struggling due to its lack of technology, reinvestment and, consequently, a malaise of morale among its workers,” recalls Clarke, who immediately began putting the distinctive Ellis stamp on all of the plant’s operations, including the removal of all existing machinery except for the predecessor’s almost new printing press.

Since 2012, The Ellis Group has spent an estimated $15 million in various capital investments at its three Ontario plants, with about $12 million of it coming in the past two years alone.

As Clarke points out, The Ellis Group’s proactive approach to capital investment plays a massive role in its robust ongoing growth in revenues and market share.

“As a group, we have grown over 20 per cent year over year for the past several years,” states Clarke, pointing out that the Guelph facility business alone soared by 35 per cent in 2017.

All told, The Ellis Group produced about 650 million cartons in the past year, ac-

CANADIAN CONVERTING

cording to Clarke, many of them boasting high-quality value-added features and finishes.

“There are a lot of people in our industry who can do a decent job of printing, diecutting and gluing,” he says, “but The Ellis Group can also pattern coat HUV and UV inks, intricately emboss, hot-foil stamp, do cold-foil on press, cello-windows, add braille at finishing, as well as security tags, anti-counterfeiting measures, along with Cates and custom tray machine capability and high-speed gluers for every configuration, including beverage carriers.We even make our own cutting dies and can boast that whatever added-value service the customer may need, we have within our three facilities.”

Adds Clarke: “Along with the acquisition of quality machinery, my first and most important investment for Ellis Packaging West 15 years ago was hiring Scott Dostal as

plant manager and subsequently building a strong management group along with an outstanding Sales and CSR Team. But Scott, who is now our vice-president, is frankly one of the biggest reasons for the Guelph’s operations success.

“He helped bring about the required cultural change by plowing the fields for likeminded employees, building a loyal and truly dedicated workforce which underpins everything we do, while also helping me in our search for acquiring the best new technologies at the right time,” says Clarke, praising Dostal’s efforts in transforming the Guelph operations, which also includes two warehouse facilities, into a fast-paced, well-organized enterprise boasting top-level expertise in the design, engineering, production and distribution of paperboard packaging products.

All these capabilities have recently been raised another notch, according to Clarke,

CANADIAN CONVERTING

2016 folder-gluer,

with the purchase of a brand new Lithrone GLX40 sevencolor inline press from Komori, a leading Japanese manufacturer of printing press technologies.

The Guelph plant itself previously had a good comfort level with Komori technology, having bought a six-color Lithrone LS 640C press in 2012, featuring a Harris Bruno anilox coater and a MMT infrared drying system.

As Clarke acknowledges, another big reason for selecting the Komori GLX was driven by the terrific performance of a slightly larger eight-color Komori-made Lithrone GLX40 press installed at the Pickering plant in late 2015 which gave them the proven confidence of knowing it would perform as advertised.

He says that knowing Ellis could count on the outstanding Komori-savvy technical service support provided locally by Komcan Inc., further increased its comfort level.

“We would have actually purchased an eight-color model as the Pickering facility did, but we lacked the extra 10 feet of floorspace to allow it to fit,” says Clarke, adding that at the moment, to his knowledge,The Ellis Group operates two of only three Komori GLX presses installed in North America to date.

As Clarke recollects, the first Komori LS 640 investment was initially prompted by a prominent client’s graphics pro-

vider, Schawk, who pointed out calibration concerns.

“We weren’t quite getting the desired results from our current printer, and felt we needed to upgrade in a hurry.

“So we did some research, found the right press, made a proposal to Bill Ellis on a Friday, kicked around numbers over the weekend, and by the time Monday rolled around, we put in our order for the LS640,” Clarke recounts.

“We really shocked two of our main competitors who had been vying for that exact same press for months,” says Clarke, “but because we don’t have the bureaucracy and red tape holding us back, we were able to make the purchase quickly in order to respond to our customer’s concerns by delivering them exactly what they needed. We also quickly followed up with our G7 Master Printers Qualification.”

Adds Dostal: “Seriously, who wouldn’t love the ability to suggest purchasing a top-quality printing press on Friday, and be able to walk in to work the following Monday and place the purchase order?

“That is the essence of the mantra of being customerdriven—the Ellis culture personified, which has always worked successfully for The Ellis Group by continuously adding more value-added options for our customers,” Dostal states.

The latest Lithrone GLX40 acquisition requires only two

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operators and can provide both UV and the energy-efficient HUV curing capabilities for enhanced flexibility and process control, according to Clarke.

“The HUV is an important feature for our chocolate-manufacturing customers because the process doesn’t emit an odor, thereby avoiding any risk of possible cross-contamination of the substrate to the product,” says Clarke, while praising other value-added performance features such as:

• inline color control and a PQA (product quality advisor) inline vision inspection system for making on-the-fly color adjustments;

• advanced anilox coating capabilities providing gloss and satin water-base, HUV, pattern HUV, soft touch coating, matte varnish, and matte HUV finishes;

• choice of 150-, 175- and 200-dpi (dots per inch) line screen resolution;

• the flexibility of using a broad range of conventional and specialty process inks, along with metallic and HUV inks and varnishes;

The Ellis Packaging West facility produces printed packaging for the food, confectionary, fish, produce and beverage markets.

• automatic plate-changing and operator-friendly KHS-AI self-learning software system;

• a fully-automatic Sentinel inking system to ensure the press never runs out of ink, while eliminating the risk of overfilling;

• a fully-automatic logistics system that control precise infeed delivery of pallet loads of substrate blanks directly to the press;

• a wide array of sensors monitoring the overall performance of each component of the press—replacing the need for an operator to constantly perform diagnostic checks.

Clarke says he also appreciates the 36inch elevation of the press above the floor.

“The older presses only had a 12-inch elevation rise above the floor,” explains Clarke, “but this extra space allows us to do larger runs with fewer changeovers and faster running speeds—especially when we run heavier, and thicker substrate.

“It’s a huge time-saver, and it also means less human handling of the substrate materials.

“All in all, the Komori Lithrone GLX40 press is perfection,” says Clarke, calling it a perfect complement to the Guelph plant’s formidable arsenal of equipment that also comprises:

• a large-format Epson Stylus Pro 9900 printer with X-Rite spectroproofer;

• a Fujifilm Javelin 8300S CTP platesetter;

• an Epson Stylus Pro 7800 24-inch and 9880 44-inch inkjet plotters;

• a Brausse 1050 SEF hot-foil stamper, from the BOBST Group;

an Iberica 105 TRK, a Bobst 104-ER, and SP blanking presses supported by a BOBST 102 CE and Heidelberg SBGZ 16140 cylinder diecutters.

a Woodward P3842 jogger aerator used for squaring and jogging sheets while blowing dust in preparation for print press and diecutting;

an Automatan V73VA used for repalletizing of special pallets for the Komori press autofeed logistics system aerator/joggers;

• four high-performance folder-gluers including a Bobst Domino 90, a Jagenburg Diana 115-3, and a customdesigned Brausee TA 1100–C4/6 with a duplicate custom-designed TA 1100 scheduled for installation before the year’s end;

• an Ergosa C 8.0 universal packer.

CANADIAN CONVERTING

In addition, the plant makes extensive use of two high-speed, two-lane trayforming machines, designed and configured by Ellis Packaging West, capable of forming regular square-, rectangle- or triangle-shaped trays, along with webbed corner trays and clamshells, with Clarke noting that a second threelane machine will soon be delivered. Each machine is capable of running, depending on blank size, anywhere from 5,000 to 20,000 trays per hour.

Says Clarke: “The combination of our equipment versatility and our customer-driven focus means that our customers are assured they will always get the carton they want to their full satisfaction, and then some.”

“We like to under-promise and over-deliver.”

1 10/31/17 12:25 PM Page 1

SUPPLIERS

The Ellis Group

Komori Corporation

Harris Bruno International

MMT Sales & Design Limited

Fujifilm Holdings America Corp.

Epson Canada, Limited

BOBST Group

Brausse Group

Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG

Heiber + Schroeder USA

Komcan Inc.

Technical Adhesives Limited

Woodward Jogger Aerators, Inc.

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Compact and robust servo-driven Fabbri packaging machines are built for speed, versatility and the highest levels of productivity. Fabbri Stretch Wrappers can handle a wide range of tray sizes with no changeovers, producing up to 62 packs per minute. All models feature a user-friendly full-size control panel for easy operation and maintenance. Test the Fabbri at our Reiser Customer Center and see for yourself how it can improve your packaging. Contact Reiser today.

READY TO DELIVER

New retail realities help drive accelerated global growth for retail-ready packaging solutions

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR

No one can deny or dismiss the enormous competitive impact of online shopping and e-commerce retailing on the traditional brick-andmortar retail outlets across North America. But neither should anyone discount the retailers’ ability to adapt to new challenges, however urgent and far-reaching they may be.

For all the promise and excitement of the disruptive power of e-commerce to alter modern consumers’ purchasing behavior—fueled by the meteoric growth of Amazon and other e-commerce powerhouses offering a vast growing range of everyday consumer staples for prompt home delivery at similar or lower—the lion’s share of average North American consumers continue to rely on traditional shopping outlets for a vast majority of their everyday needs, especially the food-and-beverage products.

That said, there has never been as much pressure on physical retailers to reduce their operating costs, their labor costs in particular, since the inevitable move by larger e-tailers into the grocery business, as highlighted by Amazon’s US$13.4-billion acquisition of Whole Foods Market earlier this year, followed by significant price-cutting of a large range of organic food products sold by the upscale retailer.

While some retailers have already responded in kind by either launching or beefing up their own e-commerce presence, many of them have accelerated efforts to achieve greater cost reductions at their stores and throughout their supply chains— ranging from introduction of automated self-checkout aisles to cutting back on operating hours—to counter the e-commerce firms’ inherent advantage of lower overhead costs.

As part of this cost-cutting, traditional retailers are also expected to increase their use of the so-called retail-ready packaging (RRP) solutions—also called shelf-ready, display-ready or pallet-ready packaging—which have already yielded impressive savings in shelf-stocking, product handling and inventory control costs since their widespread rollout across North American markets in the last decade.

SHELFISH DESIGNS

Designed to allow the packaged consumer goods to be readied for sale or merchandising with minimal opening or set-up effort at the store level, RRP packaging such as die-cut pre-perforated corrugated boxes, die-cut display cases, shrinkwrapped trays and modified-atmosphere cases combine the practical advantages of easy handling, better product identification and enhanced transportability with an additional opportunity to market the product for better visibility and shelf impact at the store level.

With RRP’s widespread adoption initially driven by the Big Box and Club Store retailers as a way to keep prices low, this innovative secondary packaging format has not only been warmly embraced by larger supermarket chains, but also in other retail channels—primarily because it does not require y the fact that the store staff to unpack the inner contents of the RRP package.

As a recent report from market researchers The Freedonia Group points out, “Gains will be supported by further growth of mass retailers and club stores, as well as food and beverage sales volume in nontraditional outlets such as drug and dollar stores.

“Additionally, the proliferation of club stores and ‘no-frills’ deep-

Equipped with high-speed pick-and-place robots inside the enclosure, Delkor’s MSP-m Series case-packer makes light work of placing stand-up pouches inside pre-printed retail-ready trays that can be placed directly onto the store-shelves upon their arrival with minimal effort.

dicount grocery stores will be especially important for RRP, as such stores primarily sell merchandise directly from secondary packaging and require their vendors to ship products in RRP.”

Projecting the U.S. market demand for RRP packaging to grow by 5.2 per cent annually over the next three years, The Freedonia Group study forecasts the U.S. market for RRP to surpass US$6.2 billion by 2020.

According to the report’s author Esther Palevsky, “Growth will be supported by expansion in the retail user base and increased presence of value-added box types.”

As Palevsky explains: “The disruptive trends in the North American food retailing

RETAIL-READY PACKAGING

landscape will bode well for RRP.

“Among such trends is the increasing competition that traditional supermarkets face from a host of alternatives, including club stores, deep discounters, mass retailers, drug stores, farmers’ markets, and ecommerce vendors.

“Increased openings of smaller-format locations by mass retailers will also promote gains for RRP,” Palevsky adds, “as these stores carry a more limited product selection than their traditional counterparts and have fewer employees.

“These stores can benefit from RRP’s ability to speed up the stocking of shelves and increase shelf space efficiency.”

According to Paula Feldman, director of business development at leading packaging industry group PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies in Reston, Va., “Urbanization, population and economic growth are significant drivers for RRP, especially when they are accompanied by an increase in the number of supermarkets and large box stores.

“Because RRP enhances shelf appeal and supply chain efficiency, retailers often see it as a ‘must-have,’ and use their considerable leverage with CPG manufacturers to make it happen.

“As they adjust their packaging requirements, manufacturers must continue to innovate to stay competitive,” she sates.

Tony Corsillo, general manager for the Retail Packaging & Displays Division of Toronto-headquartered corrugated packaging manufacturer Atlantic Packaging Products Limited, agrees: “Some of our customers request RRP due to retailer pressure.

“It all starts with cost-savings for the retailer to stock the shelves, which leads to lower merchandising fees.

“However, many others following are simply following suit while trying to stretch out their use of plain traditional packaging to save costs—not realizing that branding has a larger bottom-line impact in the long run,” Corsillo relates.

THE RIGHT IMAGE

“In the end it is the impact of the brand image improvement which raises the overall sales volume,” Corsillo explains, “and many larger CPGs with a global presence and ties to Walmart, or other large retail chains in Europe, have all experienced the many benefits of switching to RRP designs.”

Going forward, Corsillo predicts the RRP format to keep growing, “Because stockability and visual appeal will become even more important as consumers begin to lower the shopping decision time.”

While Europe currently remains the largest single market for RRP packaging, “North America is anticipated to grow at a significant rate due to retail market growth in Canada and the U.S.,” according to

another market study conducted by the U.S.-based Global Market Insights, Inc

“More product visibility and brand retention are anticipated to be the key driving factors to influence marketers to adopt this technique,” the report states, “while easy transportation, reusability, and recyclability are likely to attract more retailers.”

Projecting the global market for RRP to exceed US$71 billion by 2023, the report identifies food, beverage, bakery, electronics, flowers, and health-andbeauty products as the most promising categories for future RRP market gains worldwide.

“The increase in competition among FMCG (fastmoving consumer goods) companies, owing to large number of competitors coupled with consumer shift, is likely to boost retail ready packaging market growth.”

Rick Gessler, vice-president of engineering at secondary packaging equipment manufacturer Delkor Systems, Inc., sees a “bright future for RRP,” citing nearly a billion Delkor-patented RRP packaging produced on Delkor equipment specifically designed specifically for this purpose annually.

Says Gessler: Yes, there are many customers buying online and that trend will likely continue to grow.

“However, the brick-and-mortar stores still play a vital role and consumers are still relying on them, particularly for daily shopping such as household groceries,” he points out.

CASCADES INNOVATIVE PACKAGING SOLUTIONS

THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS.

REDEFINING PACKAGING WHILE PRESERVING THE ENVIRONMENT. Cascades relies on facilities and equipment that are at the cutting edge of technology. We pride ourselves in making high-quality products designed to match our clients’ needs and expectations and we do all that while continiously surpassing our ambitious goals in our efforts to preserve our planet. So when you choose to do business with Cascades, you also become greener, naturally.

RETAIL READY PACKAGING

“That puts that onus on these retailers to be more operationally efficient,” he says.

“With RRP, stores can more quickly and efficiently restock shelves with cases that are easy-to-open and visually appealing when placed on the shelf,” Gessler continues. “This helps retailers ensure that their shelves are fully stocked and that products are not missing in the aisle, while consumers can quickly find the products they are seeking in the aisle.

“It’s a win-win for both retailers and consumers,” Gessler states.

“It was important to us and to our customers to be able to offer systems that can produce multiple package formats without the need to add additional machines to those systems,” he explains, “so we took on an initiative to create new package options that were efficient in terms of packaging material usage, while also leveraging equipment that can produce multiple formats.

“As we all know, more efficient material translates to lower package cost for our customers,” Gessler elaborates, “and multi-format packaging systems translate to streamlined plant operations and flexibility to better meet the requirements of the retailers.”

With decades of experience in the manufacture of case-packers and many types of cartoning machinery, Delkor has used its expertise to develop the Trayfecta G Series former that can form both standard shipper boxes as well as the Cabrio Case RRP packages without having to add a bliss-style former to the packaging system.

“For Delkor’s customers, it’s like having three machines in one,” he says, noting that Delkor’s recentlylaunched Club Store Stackable Tray is produced on the Trayfecta G Series case formers.

“The versatility of the Cabrio Case is well-proven by its rapid growth,” he adds, “as its usage has grown to more than 200 million cases per year over the past three years.”

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Peter Fox, senior vice-president of sales for North America at SOMIC America Inc. in Bensenville, Ill., says North American retailers have some catching up to do to their European counterparts in terms of RRP adoption, especially in making more use of the display tray packaging format that has largely displaced wraparound RRP boxes in Europe.

“The most effective retail ready package is one that is simple for the stockperson to open and display, requiring no directions and absolutely no tear -

ing of the corrugated,” says Fox. “This is why tray and cover is the dominant retail ready package,” says Fox.

“In Europe, SOMIC produces about 80 per cent of our machines for tray cover solutions,” Fox relates, “while the other 20 per cent are either wraparound case-packers or combination machines.

“While the opposite is true in the North American market, this trend will flip over the next 10 years with significant gains for tray cover applications,” says Fox, pointing to the ongoing growth of flexible packaging formats as a key driver for this trend.

“Due to the proliferation of the flexible packaging materials, the stand-up pouch and pillow-pack retailready presentations account for the bulk of the products we run on SOMIC lines, which have the ability to stand pouches upright for display or lie them flat for wraparound case formats—all on the same machine,” Fox explains.

“Retail markets are looking to reduce the time to get product on shelf, but at the same time do not want to look like a warehouse store,” says Fox, citing SONIC’s diverse customer base comprising leading multinational manufactures of pet food, dry foods, dairy and confectionery products, with an installation base stretching from Canada to Russia.

“Having grown up in Germany in the midst of the of the birth of the European retail-ready style packaging, SOMIC’s expertise in this field is founded in the design of our machines as well as the material designs that provide the unique retail ready packaging,” Fox states, “which is why SOMIC is a global leader in this market.

For Nicole Lipson, segment marketing manager at Norcross, Ga.-headquartered corrugated packaging giant WestRock, an effective RRP package should address the so-called “Five Easies” of being:

• easy to identify,

• easy to open,

• easy to stock,

• easy to shop,

• easy to dispose of.

“Following the tenet of the Five Easies means retailers get product on the shelves faster and consum-ers find shopping easier,” says Lipson, citing WestRock’s Meta brand of RRP boxes and equipment dedicated to high-speed forming of display-ready cases and trays.

“Our expertise in understanding customers’ supply chains, transportation challenges, fiber and sustainability requirements and branding guidelines

means we can help them find the best solution for that product and that channel,” Lipson relates, citing a successful RRP project WestRock has recently completed for a Canadian customer.

“The customer needed a retail-ready palletized solution for a bagged product, for which it was literally hand-folding cartons manually,” she relates.

“By assessing the product, the labor and the distribution process, we recommended a WestRock trayformer and a proprietary tray design.

“With the implementation of the equipment and the new container, we helped the company realize labor and fiber savings beyond its expectation.”

Says Lipson: “All our packaging solutions are customized for each company’s specific requirements, which combined with our knowledge of equipment makes us unique in the industry—offering customers the best of both worlds.

CREATIVE TYPE

“We can create designs and custom RRP containers for boxes, pouches, odd-shaped cans, jars or bottles, beverages, wine and other products with a large array of designs that are proven in the grocery and club channels.”

According to Lipson, the RRP offers CPG manufacturers and their suppliers of packaging and equipment tremendous opportunities in the North American market moving forward, driven by intense competition among retailers and rapid proliferation of retail channels.

“Retailers are seeing challenges from all side: stores are moving to smaller formats; the center store is shrinking; and consumers have more places than ever to purchase their food products.

“To respond, CPG manufacturers are evolving rapidly to supply retailers with products faster than ever, hence shelf- and retail-ready packaging makes perfect sense,” Lipson states.

“Smaller store formats for specialty and grocery, for example, are the perfect environment for shelf-ready packaging due to its advantages in stocking,” she says, “while other channels such as convenience stores and dollar stores also offer good growth opportunity.

“Our goal is to help consumer products companies develop every container, for every product, for every channel,” Lipson asserts.

“With the grocery segment changing so rapidly, today’s retailers must be able to populate and stock stores quickly and easily,” Lipson concludes.

“No one likes an empty shelf.”

Ship and display – all in one box.

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iMOTIONAL RESPONSE

Industrial plastics pioneer is happily molding its own future with relentless product innovation and swift market diversification

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR

For sheer necessity, utility and ubiquity, there really is no business like the plastics business.

And while clearly not everyone is a big fan of things made from moldable synthetic polymers, there are plenty of sound practical reasons why the highly versatile plastic materials continue to replace metals, glass, ceramics, wood, paper and leather in countless products and applications at an increasingly accelerated pace—despite all the criticism and disapproval this often entails.

Happily for igus, inc., German manufacturer of engineered industrial plastic products like ball and spherical bearings, linear guides, cable carriers and flexible cables, among many others, taking outside skepticism in stoic stride comes naturally for a company deep-rooted in the fundamental belief that anything one can do with metals to keep the wheels of the industry turning can be done with plastics just as well, if not better.

Founded in 1964 by Günter Blase, the privately-owned company is not an easy one to classify using traditional strict industry definitions, given its highly diversified global end-user base and an exceptionally broad and fast-expanding product range.

Nowadays serving 13 different industrial sectors—ranging from automotive and aerospace to packaging and food-and-beverage—igus has leveraged its pioneering instincts and formidable technical know-how to become a truly global supplier of seemingly unrelated, but highly functional and affordable polymer components and assemblies for all sorts of industrial automation applications.

While the bulk of these products are manufactured just outside of Cologne at the company’s futuristic, one-of-a-kind factory designed by the world-renowned British architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, igus operates a network of 36 subsidiary companies around the world today—serving the U.S. and Canadian markets from a well-stocked distribution center in East Providence, R.I.

Today headed by the founder’s son and company president Frank Blase, the company’s Cologne factory is a vivid embodiment of progressive management practices, formidable automation capabilities, high product quality, innovative de-

sign strategies, superior craftsmanship and all other often-cited attributes underpinning Germany’s acclaimed world-class manufacturing excellence.

Employing about 1,500 people on a three-shift, six-days-a-week schedule, the 120,000-square-meter manufacturing complex houses over 400 heavy-duty Arburg and Engel plastic injection-molding machines, running around the clock to set pace for the constant flow of activity from one end to the other at the modular-designed building—its walls suspended to the ground from above by heavy-duty cables linked to eight towering 30-meter yellow pylons more commonly found on top of large-capacity outdoor sports stadiums and arenas.

Fully embracing the wall-free open-design concept, whereby the president Blase’s desk sits right on the factory floor within easy reach of all plant personnel, the unique building is a flexible, high-energy manufacturing operation where employees use a variety of electric-powered scooters to zip from one plant location to another in mere seconds to keep up with the busy production flow.

With all employees entitled to free company-paid meals and snacks throughout the day at the plant’s well-equipped and professionally staffed canteen, the positive energy radiating throughout the building is in itself a remarkable competitive advantage nurtured through thoughtful employee motivation and engagement.

This employee empowerment is also readily evident in the senior management ranks, with dedicated management teams assigned to focus almost exclusively on one of the 13 core industries served by igus, each headed by a designated industry manager.

For Lars Braun, head of industry management for the packaging industry, this sector-specific approach to developing new market opportunities is paying off in a big way.

As he explains, packaging machinery manufacturers of all stripes worldwide are beginning to discover the unique advantages offered by igus’s unique lubrication-free machine components—primarily maintenance-free operation, highly hygienic design, and significant energy savings over the equipment life-cycle.

“Focusing solely on one industry allows us to learn more about what kind of new products we need to develop, as well as to learn to speak the customer’s language,” Braun told Canadian Packaging during a recent press tour of the igus Cologne factory and select installation sites for its equipment.

“We now understand the packaging market much better today than when we first entered it about 10 years ago,” says Braun, a 20-year igus veteran who has seen the company’s presence in the packaging and food-and-beverage industries grow in leaps and bounds.

“Being able to offer grease-free solutions to the packaging OEMs (original machine manufacturers) and their food industry clients is a very big selling point for us.”

According to Braun, igus has spent several years of intense product development to bring a multitude of FDA-approved food-safe plastic machine components and products to the North American market, and is currently working even harder on the next generation of similar products to meet the even more stringent food safety criteria anticipated to be launched in the EU (European Union) zone in the next couple of years.

“The main focus is on hygienic design solutions that would enable a linear table used in a meat slicing machine, for example, to resist any debris build-up during format adjustments,” says Braun, citing the company’s growing competence in providing pre-assembled system solutions/modules to its packaging customers, rather than just the basic components.

“We have noticed a trend among companies developing packaging machinery to concentrate on developing the machine without the distraction of developing a format-adjustment system that goes into that machine,” Braun explains.

This new core competence has enabled igus to become a close technology partner to some of the world’s leading manufacturer of processing and packaging machinery used in the food-and-beverage industries, including the likes of Multivac, Krones, KHS, Mettler Toledo, Sidel, Tetra Pak and many others.

“The igus packaging business has been growing by 20 to 25 per cent annually for the last several years,” says Braun, “and we expect this to continue for the foreseeable future.

“Naturally we have benefitted from the fact that Germany has a very welldeveloped packaging machinery market,” Braun acknowledges, “but we must reach out to the rest of the world to maintain our own growth.

“When I first visited the U.S. about 15 years ago, no one asked for or knew about maintenance-free bearings,” he recounts, “but now everyone we talk to is interested in maintenance-free packaging solutions.

“So the next few years should be a very exciting time for igus in the North American market.”

As Braun explains, about half of all igus-made packaging industry products are sold as standard off-the-shelf offerings, with the other half sold as proprietary assemblies to the OEMs like Krones.

“For companies like Krones, the spare parts business accounts for about half of their revenues, so if one of their machines at a Coca-Cola bottling plant needs a new part that was originally made by igus, they would have to purchase it through Krones because they paid for the original meld,” he explains.

“It is very unique in the packaging business for a company to be selling half of its products under such exclusive arrangement,” Braun states, “but all we are

AUTOMATE NOW

really doing is just following the market.”

Says Braun: “The operating speeds of today’s packaging machines are truly amazing compared to only 10 years ago, going from 10,000 bottles or cans per hour to 70,000 to 80,000 containers per hour.

“As these speeds continue to increase, so will the demand for maintenancefree, grease-free, hygienically-designed, low-weight components and modules that combine plastic with stainless steel to accommodate those speeds, while improving the OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) performance,” Braun states.

Recently, Krones AG incorporated an array of igus-made components into the high-speed Sleevematic TS machine used to shrinksleeve beverage containers at speeds of up to 50,000 cans or bottles per hour.

Instead of using traditional cutting blades to cut the individual sleeves prior to their application, the machine uses rotating perforation cutters to microperforate the sleeves—enabling continuous movement of the roll and doubling the throughput rate, while extending the cutters’ service life up to 70 million cuts each.

The new machine features a wide range of lubrication-free components supplied by igus, including dry-operating drylin R plastic nuts and drylin linear bearings for round shafts in the belt station and the sleeve brush; drylin W profile guides in the inlet and outlet sensor; and complete drylin SLW lead screw lift-tables with hand-wheel for manual adjustment in the preliminary shrinkage, as well as the height adjustment of the guide rollers.

The guide rollers, supplied by igus to Krones as a complete system solution consisting of two xiros polymer ball bearings and an anodized aluminum tube, helped eliminate the problems encountered with earlier use of metal bearings.

According to Krones’ head of product management inspection and labeling technologies Josef Mayer, the sleeve roll would sometimes come to a complete rolls stop whenever a label band would slip over it due to excessive vibration at high throughput speeds.

By switching to the lower-mass xiros ball bearings that use glass balls as the rolling elements, held by plastic ball races in the bearings, “These problems are now a thing of the pasts,” says Mayer.

Citing the “excellent” wear and friction values of the iglide high-performance plastics used to construct the inner and outer rings of the bearings, Mayer has high praise for the fact that igus completely pre-assembles the guide rollers for easy installation onto the Sleevamatic TS sleever.

“We are dependent on partnerships where the quality has to be right,” says Mayer, “but it must also be something more than just the product alone.

“Therefore, it is very important for our suppliers to offer not only good products, but also complete assemblies or systems.

“This is something that igus does very well,” says Mayer, citing a mutually beneficial 25-year partnership that continues to strengthen and evolve.

“It really is a great collaboration,” Mayer concludes. “At igus, we always have a personal contact who will always provide us with straightforward and suitable solutions for all of our needs, even during the prototyping stage.”

PRE-SHOW REPORT

FROM FEED TO FORK

Annual Atlanta meat-and-greet set to sizzle with product and process innovation

As one of the fastest-growing trade shows in the U.S., according to the authoritative Trade Show News Network (TSNN), the annual International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) meat industry trade fair in Atlanta, Ga., is a natural meeting point for hard-working folks in the business of supplying North American consumers with safe, high-quality animal protein at affordable price-points.

On track to bring together more than 1,200 exhibitors and 30,000 visitors to the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga., from Jan. 31 to Feb. 2, 2018, the 2018 IPPE will once again have something for everyone involved in this critically vital food sector, including operation and plant managers, purchasing agents, engineers, and researchers from the world’s top feed, meat processing and packing, and poultry companies.

Jointly produced by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association, North American Meat Institute and the American Feed Industry Association, the flagship event will comprise three highly complementary, sector-specific exhibitions with their own acclaimed industry pedigree and expertise—including the International Poultry Expo, International Feed Expo and the International Meat Expo

Representing all of the diverse industry’s key segments—including feed milling, hatchery, live production, processing, further processing, marketing and all support activities—last year’s IPPE drew a total of 1,383 Canadian visitors to the three-day event, the largest foreign contingent from more than 8,000 international visitors.

In fact, the show’s increasingly global outreach has made it a natural fit for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Buyer Program, which brings trade delegations together from around the world and helps to match international at-

WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE

With 40 years of experience in providing a comprehensive offering of primary and secondary packaging equipment and automated systems, Harpak-ULMA will exhibit and run live demonstrations of several advanced technologies right on the show-floor, including G. Mondini tray sealers; ULMA primary packaging equipment; RAMA secondary packaging equipment; and DIGI weigh/ price/labeling systems. With the company’s expert technicians strategically located throughout the U.S. and Canada to address the clients’ needs with ongoing service, training and technical support, the company’s single-source capabilities include thermoforming, tray-sealing, flowwrapping, meal assembly, Darfresh skin packaging, vertical form/fill/seal (V/F/F/S) applications, cartoning, sleeving, case-packing, robotics and automation solutions.

Booth B-6461

tendees with U.S.-based suppliers, while also providing provides export counseling, market analysis, and valuable consulting services to exhibitors and attendees alike.

“We are pleased again to be chosen as part of the International Buyer Program,” the show’s organizers say.

“This is will be our 11th year participating in the program, which provides credible confirmation of the global scale of our trade show.

“Since 2006, our attendance from outside the U.S. has grown by more than 240 per cent, and we eagerly look forward to welcoming even more international buyers to the 2018 IPPE show.”

For more information or to register for 2018 IPPE, go to: www.ippexpo.org

BRING ON THE HEAT!

Heat and Control Inc. will demonstrate the company’s latest advanced technologies and equipment for processing, coating, seasoning, conveying, weighing, packaging, and inspecting product, including the FastBack 260E-G3 (G3) sanitary horizontal conveyor designed to meet the strict hygienic demands of the poultry processing industry. Built for washdown environments and simple sanitation, the G3 can convey heavy loads of poultry products—including tenders, boneless breasts and other fresh chicken parts—at rates of up to 85,000 pounds per hour in swift but smooth and gentle operation to maintain high product quality and appearance. Other products will include:

• Spray Dynamics single-shell coating drum with open-channel frame— designed and engineered specifically for the food safety and hygiene requirements of poultry processing;

• Ishida and CEIA automatic product inspection systems to provide sensitive, accurate and reliable contaminant detection to ensure optimal food safety;

• Ishida CCW-RV series open-frame multihead weigher for delivering fast, clean an accurate product weighing with near-zero giveaway.

Booth B-4245

MAXIMUM RESULTS

New thermoforming equipment enables upscale deli meats processor to boost its packaging efficiency and play up the company’s branding message

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR

BY NAOMI HILTZ

Some corporate names are just too good to change, and when your brand name is Max Meats, why would anyone ever want to mess up a good thing like that?

Founded in 1955 by Max Mayer and nowadays jointly owned by company president Karl Ulrich and production manager Eddie Wong, Torontobased Max Meat Ltd. boasts a highly esteemed track record as a reliable local supplier of high-quality deli meats for a multitude of high-end butcher shops und upscale grocery retailers in the southern Ontario markets, including the iconic St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto.

“When my dad, Fred Ulrich, bought the business back in 1978, he was just too busy in the early days to even consider a name change,” Karl Ulrich told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the company’s lively 5,300-squarefoot meat processing facility tucked away in an industrial business complex in northern Toronto.

“And after he realized that the Max Meats brand name carried quite a lot of cachet within the Ontario meats processing markets, earned through many years of providing high-quality product offerings, it didn’t really matter.”

By the time Karl Ulrich took over the company management reins in 2000, Max Meat was already well on its way to expanding and diversifying its product portfolio with a growing range of Old World-inspired meat products for a

PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

highly appreciative customer base.

“After my dad took over the company, we continued to produce the cooked and smoked meats, Black Forest ham, deli products and sausages, that we still produce to this day,” Ulrich relates.

“But there was also a big effort to increase our market share and our customer base, by increasing the variety of products we offer,” says Ulrich, noting the 10-employee company manages to produce over 200 SKU (stock-keeping units) of gourmet-quality fresh and processed beef, pork and turkey products.

PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

Just in the sausage category alone, Max Meat produces about 40 different varieties of meat sticks, kielbasa rolls, meat loafs, pepperoni, etc.—all smoked, roasted, oven-roasted or barbequed to virtual perfection, doing due justice to many beloved authentic recipes passed through generations.

In similar vein, the company’s richly diverse offering of no less than 11 different types of Max Meats bacon—including Regular Bacon, Black Bacon, Beef Bacon, Canadian Back Bacon, Apple Flavoured Bacon, Cooked Cornmeal Bacon, English Bacon, Maple Flavoured Bacon, Rib out Bacon, Rind off Bacon, Smoked Bacon Wrapped Loin and Sweet Pickled Back in Cornmeal—speaks volumes about the company’s knack for product innovation and culinary flair.

“We specialize in offering smoked, high-end, gourmet-quality meat products that follow the Old World traditions,” Ulrich explains, “but are also different enough to stand out from the crowd, and to have established their own keen following in the market.”

Says Ulrich: “People in the know really respect the high quality of the many specialty products we can provide—true taste sensations appreciated by the attuned palate.”

Naturally, the company is very selective in the quality of raw meats it processes, Ulrich points out, opting for high-grade select meats raised in Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and some nearby U.S. states.

As he relates, the raw meat cuts are chosen on the basis of strict criteria that evaluates critical factors such as maturity, gender, muscle conformation, fat color, texture and marbling, among others.

“We sell our products as a gourmet product, so we make sure it comes from high-quality meat sources,” says Ulrich.

While the company’s modest size and production capacity currently prevent it from serving mass retail and supermarket chains for time being, Ulrich says he is happy with its current business model of supplying packaged meat products, bearing the Max Meats logo and banner, directly to high-end butcher outlets, including several vendors at the St. Lawrence Market, and smaller finefoods outlets and deli outlets.

“Moving our product to a retail chain might be a thing for Max Meat down the road,” he acknowledges, “but right now we are content in growing our niche mom-and-pop style market segment, where we have full control over our high-end meats.

“Quite often, the butcher will simply take our packaged meat, slit it open, throw away the packaging and place the meat product for sale within their refrigerated display cases,” Ulrich relates. “So even at the high-end butchers we sell our meat to, the consumer may or may not see our branded meat products.

“Although that might seem like a waste of packaging, we still take great pride in how each product looks when it leaves our facility,” says Ulrich, citing the company’s recent purchase of the Multivac R126 thermoforming machine from the Brampton, Ont.-based food packaging equipment specialists Multivac Canada Inc.

Installed last August, the new R126 machine was brought in to not only improve the plant’s packaging line efficiency, according to Ulrich, but also to provide a higher-end look to the branded packaging—good enough to be left intact in the display areas or the shops for consumers to have a good look.

“Prior to purchasing the R126 thermoform machine we were exclusively a vacuum chamber technology end-user,” Ulrich relates. “And there is nothing wrong with vacuum chamber technology: we still use it for many larger products like whole hams, meat loaves and turkey portions.

“However, we had to do something to increase our line speeds,” he says. “With our production volumes and market demand growing, the 30 seconds or so that it takes to seal a product using vacuum chamber technology was not quick enough for us.

“But with the Multivac R126 in place, we are now able to seal some 20 units or more within that same 30-second time-frame,” Ulrich extols, noting that the new Multivac thermoformer requires only one machine operator to run it, compared to three workers needed to look after all aspects of the vacuumchamber system.

“The Multivac R126 has allowed us to move workers to other areas of production to make us even more efficient,” says Ulrich, noting the new Multivac’s

arrival has virtually eliminated the frequent bottleneck encountered in the plant’s packaging area previously.

“Thanks to the R126, which is now handling 70 per cent of all our packaging requirements, we no longer have a bottleneck in our production line,” says Ulrich reveals, adding the plant typically packs about 1,500 units a day using both systems.

“Whereas it would previously take all day to do 1,500 packs, it now only takes a few hours, with reduced labor requirements,” he states.

“Moreover, there’s less of a rush on the vacuum chamber production line now, making it a total win-win.”

According to Ulrich, Max Meat carefully evaluated three potential suppliers to deliver a thermoforming machine before ultimately settling on Multivac’s robust made-in-Germany technology.

“My decision to go with the Multivac was primarily based upon their deep technical support and their exceptional service levels,” says Ulrich, noting that Multivac Canada also supplies Max Meat with all its thermoforming film requirements.

Multivac also supplies the film used in the R126 thermoform machine.

“Along with only having to deal just with Multivac, there’s been an additional bonus,” he hints. “With the film, the vacuum and seal Multivac R126 creates and enhances the over all shelflife of our products.”

Says Ulrich: “I did a lot of due diligence by talking with some other food processing and packaging companies, and they all said that the Multivac equipment is great.

“And so far it has worked like a charm… fantastic even,” Ulrich enthuses.

“I never realized it could be as efficient as it has been,” he says, also crediting Multivac for developing just the right kind of a die to handle all the different products made at Max Meat.

“The R126 fits well within our space requirements,” he says, “and seeing how easily it has been able to handle the vast majority of our differently-shaped product makes me very happy.”

Although Ulrich admits there was some initial reluctance among employees to change their packaging routines and procedures, “We are all humming along quite nicely now.”

Other equipment utilized at Max Meat, includes:

• a Pronto! 482 high-speed color label printer from QuickLabel Systems capable of printing up to 10 ips (inches per second);

• a Handtmann VF 608 vacuum-filler sausage stuffer system;

• Sipromac vacuum chamber machines;

• solid plastic Uline holding trays for finished goods.

While Max Meat currently does enough business to maintain a steady, one-shift weekly schedule, Ulrich says that having the installed highperformance thermoform packaging machinery can position the company to introduce its Max Meats line of product to the larger mass retail marketplace down the road.

But only when the time is right, Ulrich insists.

“It’s just not a huge priority right now, however,” Ulrich asserts

“At the moment I’m looking to continue growing my customer base of high-end butchers, and I believe the Multivac R126 thermoform machine will be of great assistance in helping us achieve that goal.

“There are still many pockets within the Toronto area, for example, where butcher shops exist and thrive,” he says, “and the number of communities adding high-end butcher shops appears to be growing, as more people are looking for that old-fashioned feel of purchasing high-quality meats from a specialized butcher—rather than from nameless workers stocking shelves at a grocery store.

“Consumers may love a bargain, but they also love quality and, above all, superior service.”

PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

BLASTS FROM THEIR PASTS

Our readers recall past glories and challenges along the way to industry prominence

With our 70th Anniversary year now almost behind us, the Canadian Packaging magazine would like to extend a big and hearty Thank You to all readers who took the time to share a bit of their company’s history with us.

MK NORTH AMERICA INC.

Celebrating their 30th anniversary next year, Bloomfield, Conn.-based mk North America, Inc. was founded in 1988 by Andreas Tietje as the North American subsidiary of the former Maschinenbau Kitz, which today operates out of Germany as mk Technology Group focusing on contract manufacturing and co-packing.

Having grown from a single office into a 38,000-square-foot manufacturing enterprise with offices across the U.S. and Canada, as well as a distribution network in Mexico, mk North America is renowned for its robust conveying solutions for industrial and food-specific applications.

This expertise traces back to the original conveyors manufactured by Maschinenbau Kitz in 1971, followed by the development of mk’s patented aluminum extrusion technology in 1982.

This soon became a building block for the growing range of mk conveyors, which were introduced to North America in 1988.

Today, mk North America is looking forward to a bright future in all aspects of automation—from assembly to packaging—by embracing the company’s ‘Better products, better solutions’ mantra to set itself apart from other conveyor suppliers with a relentless focus on the solutions aspect of its system offerings, and working in close partnership with its customers.

CIMA-PAK CORPORATION

With previous experience and expertise in military and aerospace packaging, CiMa-Pak Corporation founders Tim Dawson and Sonja Berg were well-prepared for the battles ahead when they incorporated the company back in June of 2000.

Initially focusing on the food and print industry, the company entered the fast-andeasy prepared meals market by supplying this growing segment with reliable traysealing equipment and CPET (Crystalline Polyethylene Terephthalate) trays.

For the print industry, the company’s One-step shrinkwrapping systems and Mailbag polybaggers provided printers with quick, affordable, versatile and tamper-evident packaging for magazines, direct mail and virtually any other imaginable print product.

But as growth in the print industry started to slow, CiMa-Pak’s focus shifted mainly to the food industry—leading to development of a more refined line of trays and tray-sealers to meet new consumer requirements for healthier, fresher and portioncontrolled meal solutions.

Earlier this year, the company launched its new made-in-Canada CiMatic Tray Sealer as a costeffective solution for medium-volume food producers looking to automate the prepared meal packaging of fresh, frozen and MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) prepared meal solutions catering to today’s busy on-the-go consumers.

SHURTAPE TECHNOLOGIES, LLC

Today ranking as one of the world’s leading producer of pressure-sensitive tapes, Shurtape Technologies, LLC traces its roots back to 1880, when Abel A. Shuford founded Shuford Mills, a manufacturer of yarn, twine and other cordage products, in western North Carolina.

A major driver in the local economy and community life, the company employed hundreds of people at its height as a thriving textile manufacturer.

In 1955, the company created its pressure-sensitive tape division in response to the gradual replacement of twine with tape in a multitude of commonplace packaging applications.

Before long, tape sales surpassed those of the company’s legacy products—prompting the addition of several more tape manufacturing facilities to deliver continued growth and innovation in the market.

In the early 1990s, the Shuford Mills tape division separated from the textile business and became its own company.

Today, Hickory, N.C.-headquartered Shurtape Technologies manufactures and sells a wide variety of adhesive products worldwide, including packaging, masking, duct, foil and film, and double-coated tapes.

CEDAR BAY GRILLING COMPANY

The Granville Gates & Sons plant in Blandford, N.S., was originally a salt fish plant that operated from 1949 to 2001. At the time, the booming cod industry made it the largest producer of salt fish in

Atlantic Canada, with its 70 full-time employees filling 20 trucks per week. During the 1950s, more than 100 fishing boats regularly sold their catch to this plant.

But with the cod industry’s collapse in 1990s, the plant was eventually shut down, seemingly for good.

However, in 2008 the building was purchased by a group of enterprising investors who brought the facility back to life under the name of Cedar Bay Grilling Company

Employing up to 40 people during the busy season, Cedar Bay Grilling is a well-respected manufacturer of value-added fish and seafood products—specializing in cedar-planked Atlantic salmon.

With its products nowadays available in most major grocery retailers throughout Canada and the U.S., it takes great pride in being acknowledged as world’s largest producer of planked salmon products.

OMRON CANADA, INC.

Seventy years ago, the company known worldwide today as Omron Corporation was operating in Kyoto, Japan, as Tateisi Electronics Co. under the leadership of its legendary founder and president Kazuma Tateisi.

After decades of building itself up into one of the world’s largest manufacturers of industrial automation technologies, the renamed company made its grand entry into the Canadian manufacturing landscape with the 1982 launch of the Omron Canada, Inc. subsidiary in Toronto to offer exciting new technologies to support the growing automation needs of Canadian food-and-beverage, packaging, automotive and resource extraction industries.

The company’s core competencies in sensing and controls were well-matched to machine-builders’ needs and for the support of installed control systems on imported equipment.

Today, Omron Canada offers fully-integrated solutions that incorporate robots, precise motion control, vision, machine safety, networking and sequential control, as well as a wide range of panel building components.

The company’s offices are equipped with proofof-concept labs where customers can test automation solutions to their manufacturing challenges with fully integrated simulations.

In addition to the extensive globally available product portfolio, Omron Canada also offers a full complement of training, support and services to sustain the customers’ production equipment over its entire life-cycle.

PEOPLE EVENTS

2018

Jan. 17-18

Düsseldorf, Germany: Future of Polyolefins 2018, summit by Active Communications Europe Ltd. (ACI) To register, go to: www.wpigroup.com

Jan. 24-26

Tokyo, Japan: COSME Tech 2018, cosmetics and beauty products technologies expostition by Reed Exhibitions Japan Ltd. At Makuhari Messe. To register, go to: www.cosme-i.jp

Jan. 30-31

San Francisco, Ca.: Sustainable Food Summit North America 2018, conference by Ecovia Intelligence. To register, go to: www.sustainablefoodssummit.com

Jan. 31 – Feb. 1

Atlanta, Ga.: IPPE (International Production & Processing Expo 2018, exhibition and conference by U.S. Poultry & Egg Association. At Georgia World Congress Center. To register, please go to: www.ippexpo.org

Jan. 31 – Feb. 2

Paris, France: Aerosol & Dispensing Forum 2018, jointly with the PCD Paris cosmetic and beauty packaging show by Easyfairs Oriex. Both at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles. To register, go to: www.easyfairs.com

Feb. 5-7

Orlando, Fla.: The Packaging Conference, by Plastic Technologies Inc. At Wyndham Grand Orlando Resort – Bonnet Creek. To register, go to: www.thepackagingconference.com

Feb. 6

Charlotte, N.C.: Converters Expo South, package converting technologies exhibition by Packaging Strategies Group. At Charlotte Convention Center. To register, go to: www.convertersexpo.com

Feb. 6-8

Anaheim, Ca.: WestPack 2018, packaging technologies exhibition by UBM. Jointly with Design & Manufacturing Pacific, PLASTEC West, ATX Automation Technology West and MDM West exhibitions. All at Anaheim Convention Center. To register, go to: https://westpack.packagingdigest.com

Feb. 7-8

Los Angeles, Ca.: MakeUp in Los Angeles, cosmetics and beauty products exhibition by Beauteam US Inc. At Barker Hangar. To register, go to: www.makeup-in-losangeles.com

Feb. 14-16

Amsterdam, The Netherlands: AWA Global Release Liner Industry Conference & Exhibition 2018, by AWA (Alexander Watson Associates). At Hilton Amsterdam. To register, go to: www.awa-bv.com/events

n FPInnovations, Montreal-based research institute mandated to develop scientific solutions to boost competitiveness of Canada’s forest products industry, has appointed Stéphane Renou as president and chief executive officer.

n Toray Plastics (America), Inc., North Kingstown, R.I.-based producer of polyester, polypropylene, bio-based and metallized films for flexible and rigid packaging applications, has appointed Chris Nothnagle as senior director of corporate marketing.

n WAGO Corporation, Germantown, Wis.-based supplier of industrial connectors and fieldbus technologies, has appointed Shaun Nagi as regional sales manager for the province of British Columbia; Tyson Home as regional sales manager for the territory of the U.S. states of Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana; and John Bukowski as the company’s distribution channel manager for North America.

SHANNON KAUPP

FESTIVE PACKAGING FEAST FOR THE EYES

With the holiday season just around the corner, colorful festive packaging is popping up all over the place in a brief, but thoroughly enjoyable display of innovative design, eye-catching graphics and ingenious takes on everyday products that have suddenly found a new voice and identity to vie for consumers’ attention during the year’s busiest shopping frenzy.

Spice and seasonings distributor Oliver & Taylor ’s Amish Country Popcorn gift-box offers a vivid example of how a little divine packaging inspiration can turn a simple staple product into an elegant upscale addition to any kitchen décor. Containing five different varieties of gluten-free, nonGMO popcorn lovingly grown by a devoutly spiritual Amish community in Berene, Ind., the pretty teal display case is a joyful feat of brilliant structural design that enables all nine products in the set to remain upright, snug and cozy, in their custom-fitted compartments. Filled to the top in simple 113-gram clear-plastic pillowbags, each of the lovingly named popcorn varieties oozes with rich natural colors and purity to project a calming comfort-food vibe. Also housing three mini clear glass mason jars containing 130 grams of Chipotle Salt , Garlic Salt and Szechuan Pepper Salt , the ensemble offers a multitude of possible flavor combinations to try over the holidays—the proverbial gift that keeps on giving. Product transparency is a beautiful thing when you have nothing to hide.

The cheerful paperboard sleeve packaging of the Jane and Bleeker Critter socks cleverly uses the product as part of the package to make the shoppers feel like they are adopting a cute little cuddly pet, rather than a functional pair of slipper socks. The lunch-bag style sleeve allows the critters’ adorable faces to stop the shoppers in their tracks with their irresistible cuteness factor, affectionately enhanced with the graphic image of a winter scarf underneath and a tuque hat just above the window cutout. A festive-red ribbon keeping the socks together through the peg hole at top of the bag also makes it perfectly Christmas Treeready, with no need for any additional wrapping or decoration.

If you were in the business of making egg-shaped soaps, what would you want to package them in? An egg carton, of course! Manufactured by Holika Holika , a division of Korean-based beauty product and cosmetics giant E nprani Co. Ltd., the Charcoal Egg Soap brand comes in whitecoated molded-fiber egg cartons that vary in size depending on how many soap bars, eggs rather, they pack. Formulated to exfoliate the skin, tighten the pores and prevent acne outbreaks, the product’s all-natural formulation—including the use of egg whites—is aptly projected by the simple, straightforward and logical packaging that instantly connects with consumers on both the emotional and pragmatic level, with the carton’s easy recyclability a welcome guiltfree bit of value-added packaging savvy.

For its part, the Morgan and Grace brand of Irish-based pharmacy wholesaler D. O’Reilly & Sons Ltd. uses a round dome-shaped clear-plastic bubble to package its 50-ml tub of Recover and Relax Duo of premium body skin treatments. Doubling both as a Christmas Tree ornament and a fancy gift requiring no extra wrapping, the eye-catching globe hits all the right festive visual notes with its turquoise and gold color scheme, along with a sparkling golden ribbon to hang it up on a green branch for some extra seasonal cheer.

With all the extra eating and snacking that comes with the holidays, keeping your breath fresh is an ongoing endeavor—thankfully made easier with the new packaging for Wrigley’s Excel Soft Chew gum brand of the Mars, Incorporated. Containing 15 pillow-shaped pieces of pieces of explosive bursts of peppermint to tackle the nastiest mouth odors, the rigid clear-plastic container is small and slim enough to easily slip into a pocket or small purse, and the bottom flip-up closure snaps in perfectly after use to prevent any loose pieces from wandering astray from the pack. A refreshingly good packaging idea.

Shannon Kaupp is a licensed doctor of naturopathic medicine living and practicing in Toronto.

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