Custom Cereal with Custom Packaging

For eight years, the Passau-based German startup mymuesli has been building a reputation for customized, healthy and organic cereal and fruit-based products. With multiple awards to its name, the company has revolutionized the muesli market and currently offers more than 566 trillion possible muesli mixes through its website. It is also expanding into a growing number of stores in attractive inner city locations throughout Germany, Austria and Switzerland, where customers can pick their personal favorites from well over 50 ready-made types. And what could be better than enabling muesli fans to design their own personal packaging, too?

That is precisely what the company has decided to do at its recently opened mymuesli store in Heidelberg. Besides buying their favorite muesli, shoppers in the store also have the opportunity to select text and images for their own can design, watch it being printed, and then take everything straight home.

All this is made possible by the new 4D Jetmaster Dimension printing technology from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen (Heidelberg), which the company has adapted to the specific requirements of mymuesli and installed in the Heidelberg branch. It is the first press of its type that Heidelberg has installed directly in a sales room.

“Heidelberg is supporting creative ideas with digital printing technologies that offer the user and/or end-consumer clear added value. 4D printing based on inkjet technology paves the way for the high-quality, cost-efficient customized surface finishing of mass-produced consumer goods. We are delighted to have gained a growth-oriented and highly innovative company such as mymuesli as a customer. This underscores our ability to use new technologies to reach new market segments outside our classic core markets,” commented Stephan Plenz, member of the management board responsible for Heidelberg Equipment.

It all starts with four mueslis, five color motifs, and plenty of space for a greeting

Customers in the mymuesli store on Heidelberg’s popular Hauptstraße can choose from four favorite, ready-filled muesli mixes and then pay a surcharge to have the packaging designed to their taste. There are five different motifs to choose from that are based on themes related to the city of Heidelberg and there is plenty of space for a short, or even a longer, message for the recipient. Customers choose the muesli mix and motif and enter the text themselves at a special terminal. A mymuesli assistant places the can in the Heidelberg Jetmaster Dimension and then initiates the printing process in the store. Customers can watch while the can is printed in next to no time and to the highest quality standards and then take it right home with them—a finished, personalized, and quality gift. The press couldn’t be easier to use, which means that all 12 employees at the mymuesli store in Heidelberg can operate the system.

The 4D printing system from Heidelberg enables the personalization of consumer goods in real time – fast, flexible, in color, and in top quality.

“Individuality and quality are particularly important to our customers. They don’t just want some muesli, they want their muesli. It has never been easier to give family and friends such an unexpected surprise as it is with a custom-printed mymuesli can. It is the perfect real-time personalization that fits seamlessly with our philosophy and has the potential to really enhance our business model,” noted Max Wittrock, co-founder of mymuesli, speaking as the Heidelberg Jetmaster Dimension was unveiled at the mymuesli store in Heidelberg.

Heidelberg Jetmaster Dimension—printing in a new dimension

Heidelberg first unveiled 4D printing to the public more than a year ago, in a version for black-and-white printing. Heidelberg uses the term 4D printing to describe customized, flexible, high-quality, and digital printing on three-dimensional objects using inkjet technology and high-precision robotics.

At the start of November, the company exhibited the system as a modular four-color press at the InPrint trade fair in Munich, Germany. Depending on customer requirements, the Jetmaster Dimension can print cost-effectively on spherical or cylindrical objects with a diameter of ten to 300 millimeters in a resolution of 360 dpi with up to four colors and opaque white or a protective coating. It offers an efficient means of adding personalized color finishes to mass-produced products such as soccer balls, golf balls, drinks bottles, bicycle helmets, the mymuesli can, and other curved surfaces.

Users can personalize objects in real time, which could help boost customer loyalty in shopping environments or at sporting events, trade shows, and other events, for example. Products become more appealing on an emotional level, which generates clear added value for users’ marketing activities.

Source: Heidelberg.