Cover Story-The Complete Package

These numbers aren't daunting to VersaPack directors Anthony Catino and Ike Yoon. "VersaPack and our sister company, United Packaging & Processing Systems, are prepared to supply filling/sealing equipment and pouches," said Catino.

Promoting its Steel Can Replacement (SCR) Pouch™, VersaPack has successfully taken on the challenge of offering U.S. manufacturers a complete retort pouch package. As a fledgling company, VersaPack found many end users interested in using retort pouches, but they had no way of filling the pouches, Catino said. To overcome that hurdle, VersaPack took on UP&P. Together, VersaPack and UP&P co-developed a rotary filler machine used to fill the pre-made pouches. "One of the reasons why retort pouches are not taking off like rockets in the United States is because it's a pre-made pouch, which needs a machine to fill it," Catino explained. "Those machines are developed in Europe and over in Asia, and there hasn't been a domestic market force to sell that kind of machine here. [With UP&P,] now we can provide the complete solution. That's part of our overall objective."