CaseStudy_ConsumerGoodsPackaging_Consumer

Case Study

Consumer

Global food and beverage manufacturer establishes leadership in thriving new market with innovative packaging solution

CONSUMER GOODS PACKAGING The Challenge

Consumer

Product packaging can be a differentiator for CPG companies competing for consumer market share. Power Packaging offers innovative solutions that can help you get there first — and stay there. Whether for a new product launch, ongoing contract manufacturing, or creating retailer-customized packaging and promotional displays, contact us today to learn about our market-changing ideas.

The Solution “We recognized that just adding more equipment and labor would not allow us to make enough product to keep up with increasing demand,” said Gary Gross, senior director of engineering at Power Packaging. “Until we could give the machinery the intelligence and functionality to place a specific number of sticks in the right count in the right package, the required speed and volume would never be achieved.” Power Packaging’s engineering team developed an automated packaging operation featuring three fully automated packaging lines, each housing multiple state-of-the-art stick pack machines. Most importantly, the engineering team established a way to pair special equipment with the stick pack machinery that eliminates the need for manual counting and placing of filled stick packs into a carton. Power also helped the CPG company seamlessly bring together three divisions on the same stick pack manufacturing platform. The new solution accommodates the different stick sizes, packaging styles and pack outs required by the different divisions without requiring any significant downtime to change over the equipment. Locating the dedicated operation in one of Power’s multi-user facilities provided the added benefit of shared labor to flex with product demand. The Results The automated stick pack packaging solution allowed the customer to meet the demand of its expanding stick pack business. While the volume goal was 1 billion stick packs annually, the actual capacity is 20 percent over target at 1.2 billion annually. In addition, the customer realized cost savings of 35 to 42 percent on contract labor, depending on the SKU, because of the automated solution’s higher production volume and lower labor requirements. By finding a domestic source of stick pack film, the foodservice division alone cut packaging material costs by more than 40 percent. The other two divisions saved approximately 15 percent on stick pack film. Additional value was created for the customer because Power Packaging was able to provide the contract manufacturing, freeing the customer to focus on product development and marketing. Power also was

able to put together the financial package for all the packaging equipment without any initial capital outlay from the customer, simplifying the process and reducing the time from project approval to startup.