Spotlight on Packaging Trends: Thinking Outside the Box

Pouches Offer Profits for Printers, Flexible Advantage to Retailers

When store chain Brookshire Brothers re-packaged its tamales in a “Hot N Handy Pouch” supplied by Robbie Manufacturing, the company’s tamales got hotter in more ways than one. Thanks to the new, colorful pouches, Brookshire Brothers realized an immediate sales increase for the product of 20 percent over the previous year.

Long associated with boxed rigidity, packaging is steadily becoming more flexible each year. Pouches are inundating food and beverage markets and making healthy gains in other categories such as pharmaceuticals and consumer goods. The future of the market continues to look strong. Demand for pouches in the U.S. is forecast to rise 6.3 percent annually through 2010 to $6.5 billion, according to a recent study published by The Freedonia Group, based in Cleveland, Ohio.

Spurred on by recent technological advances in the pressroom, the appeal of pouches is multifaceted. State of the art flexography printing techniques endow packages with excellent graphics and color with a large space to print on. For brand owners, the move from a can or box to a glossy stand-up pouch can instantly improve shelf impact. The pouch’s advantage moves beyond aesthetics, how-ever. It can also affect product taste. When StarKist Tuna first launched its product in a “Flavor Fresh Pouch,” its research confirmed that consumers preferred the flavor of flaked tuna in a pouch by five-to-one. Sales numbers backed up the brand owner’s findings and today, pouched tuna is a supermarket staple.

Capitalizing on pouches’ major impact on the shelf-stable fish category, Bumble Bee Foods recently introduced its Prime Fillet Pink Salmon Steaks ready-to-heat and packaged in easy-open, vacuum-sealed containers. The Bumble Bee launch uses flexible packaging to capitalize on another consumer trend: pouches are being creatively employed as a tool of convenience. Whether it’s ready-to-heat meals in a pouch, a stick pouch for an on-the-go yogurt break, or a pouched snack with a re-closable zipper, flexible packaging is taking the hassle out of eating on the fly.

Perhaps the greatest asset of pouches is found in their impact on the bottom line. Pouches often cost less than rigid containers, and offer economic advantages in shipping and inventory costs. Pouches can also reduce the amount of packaging needed, which helps the wallet and the environment.

Packaging Considerations: Wide and Narrow

Both wide and narrow web converters have found opportunities within the pouch market. The majority of pouches are printed on wide web presses. For applications such as lawn care, where a large pouch is needed, wide web presses are the only choice. Narrow web converters are limited to small pouches that are less than half the size of the web (assuming they also need two or three inches for a gusset). The wide web market also captures long-run jobs and is generally more adept at handling custom jobs.

Narrow web printers have found a place in the market, however. These smaller presses are good for short-run jobs as plate costs and set-up costs are not as high. Narrow web converters have found a niche in new product launches, samples, and dry goods pouches.

Converting a package can be an intricate and involved process in comparison to other printing applications. The converter not only has responsibility for what is printed, but also needs to make considerations for the product inside. In food applications, the inks and adhesives must follow strict performance guidelines, including low odor and suitability for pasteuriza-tion. Other considerations include testing for weak seals or contamination issues. Thin laminations require tension control to avoid stretching, and heat can also stretch the film, making it a factor to monitor.

While entering into pouch converting requires precise knowledge of substrates, inks, adhesives and their relationship to the product inside, an increasing number of converters are jumping into the action – and for good reason. According to The Freedonia Group’s projections, demand for food and beverage applications are expected to increase 6.1 percent annually through 2010 to $5.2 billion, while non-food demand will jump nearly 7 percent per year to $1.3 billion. Such market projections suggest that this is an opportune time for printers and converters to be thinking “outside the box.”