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H A N G IN G T O U G H !
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JUNE 2010 / $10
Pa ge
PIES IN THE SKY Hot-Shot Pizza Maker Gets Fired Up With Green Pallet-Wrap Story on page 16
Vince Molinaro, President, Molinaro’s Fine Italian Foods Ltd.
Robert Appel, President, Canpaco Inc.
PM40070230. Return Canadian undeliverable addresses to: Canadian Packaging Circulation Dept., 7th floor, 1 Mount Pleasant Rd., Toronto ON M4Y 2Y5
SHEL FISH D Page ESIG NS 28 IN THIS ISSUE: SUSTAINABILITY • PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS • AUTOMATE NOW
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Energy Savings. Cost Savings. Together at Last.
Introducing DR Series
The built-in encoder is fully integrated into the motor, reducing the cost and complexity of encoder engineering as well as its footprint.
SEW-Eurodrives’s new DR Series of AC motors have been engineered from the ground up to meet motor demands of the 21st century: like high efficiency performance that complies with international standards; a compact footprint that saves space; a modular design that allows for three different brake sizes to be used with a single motor size; and a simple, integrated encoder that can be easily retrofitted. What’s more, these new motors can be integrated into SEW gearmotors, used as stand-alone motors or in decentralized control architectures. The DR Series also comes in two energy efficient options: DRE (energy-efficiency) and DRP (premium efficiency).
Driving the world FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE
Toronto (905) 791-1553
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Free HACCP! Take this one minute survey and see if you qualify (If you hate surveys, simply go to the bottom and give us a call)
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As the first corrugated company in the world to obtain the PACsecure HACCP designation, Atlantic Packaging is the supplier of choice for Food, Beverage, and Pharmaceutical companies looking to ensure their product safety. Sustainable packaging, food and pharmaceutical certifications, second to none recycled cartons and containers, who else takes your business more seriously? Give us a call today and claim your free HACCP by purchasing your corrugated containers from us! Service Driven!TM “Responsive to your needs”
Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. Corrugated Division Scarborough-Progress Ave., Scarborough-Midwest Ave., Brampton, Mississauga and Ingersoll 416-298-8101 • 1-800-268-5620 • www.atlantic.ca Add Ink (Atlantic Decorated & Display) Toronto 416-421-3636 • www.addink.ca Mitchel-Lincoln Packaging Ltd. Montreal and Drummondville 514-332-3480 • 1-800-361-5727 • www.mlgroup.com FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE
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UPFRONT
PICKING UP THE BILL JUNE 2010 VOL U ME 6 3 , NO. 6
EDITOR
George Guidoni • (416) 764-1505 george.guidoni@packaging.rogers.com F E AT U R E S E D I T O R
Andrew Joseph • (416) 764-1529 andrew.joseph@packaging.rogers.com ART DIRECTOR
Stewart Thomas • (416) 764-1547 SENIOR PUBLISHER
Stephen Dean • (416) 764-1497 stephen.dean@packaging.rogers.com ADVERTISING SALES
Stephen Dean • (416) 764-1497 stephen.dean@packaging.rogers.com PRODUCTION MANAGER
Natalie Chyrsky • (416) 764-1686 natalie.chyrsky@rci.rogers.com C I R C U L AT I O N M A N A G E R
Celia Ramnarine • (416) 764-1451 deokie.ramnarine@rci.rogers.com
Canadian Packaging, established 1947, is published monthly by Rogers Publishing Limited, a division of Rogers Media Inc. One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, ON M4Y 2Y5,Tel: (416) 764-2000 Rogers Media Inc., President and CEO: Anthony P. Viner Rogers Publishing Limited, President and CEO: Brian Segal Senior Vice-President, Business & Professional Publishing: John Milne Senior Vice-President: Michael Fox Vice Presidents: Immee Chee Wah, Patrick Renard Executive Publisher:Tim Dimopoulos EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: One Mount Pleasant Road,Toronto, ON M4Y 2Y5, Tel: (416) 764-2000; Fax (416) 764-1755. Advertising Branch Offices: 1200, avenue McGill College, Bureau 800, Montréal Québec H3B 4G7 Tel: (514) 845-5141; Suite 900 - 1130 West Pender Street Vancouver, BC V6E 4A4 Tel: (604) 683-8254. SUBSCRIBER SERVICES: To subscribe, renew your subscription or to change your address or information, please visit us at www.rogersb2bmedia.com/cpac SUBSCRIPTION PRICE PER YEAR (INCLUDING ANNUAL BUYERS’ GUIDE): Canada $72.10 per year, Outside Canada $106.00 US per year, Single Copy Canada $10.00. Canadian Packaging is published 11 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues. Contents copyright © 2006 by Rogers Publishing Limited, may not be reprinted without permission. Canadian Packaging accepts no responsibility or liability for claims made for any product or service reported or advertised in this issue. Canadian Packaging receives unsolicited materials, (including letters to the editor, press releases, promotional items and images) from time to time. Canadian Packaging, its affiliates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, re-publish, distribute, store and archive such unsolicited submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort. Canadian Packaging, USPS 010-576 is published monthly by Rogers Media. US office of publication: 2221 Niagara Falls Blvd, Niagara Falls, NY 14304-5709. Periodicals Postage Paid at Niagara Falls, NY. US postmaster: Send address changes to Canadian Packaging, PO Box 4541, Buffalo, NY 14240. PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40070230 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ITEMS TO: CANADIAN PACKAGING CIRCULATION MANAGER ROGERS PUBLISHING LTD. ONE MOUNT PLEASANT ROAD, 7TH FLOOR, TORONTO ON M4Y 2Y5 Circulation Inquiries: Cornerstone Publishing Services (416) 932-5071 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund (CPF) for our publishing activities. Canadian Packaging is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia Limited. Back copies are available in microform from Macromedia Ltd., 158 Pearl St.,Toronto, ON M5H 1L3 Printed in Canada Mail Preferences: Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to reputable companies whose products or services may be of interest to you. If you do not want your name to be made available, please contact us at rogers@cstonecanada.com or update your profile at www.rogersb2bmedia.com/cpac. Our environmental policy is available at: www.rogerspublishing.ca/environment
The problem with what once passed for breakthrough and progressive pieces of legislation is that too often they’re just not really breakthrough and progressive enough, at least with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Using the Canadian federal Food and Drugs Regulations Act back in December of 2002 to mandate the disclosure of calories and 13 core ingredients used to make pre-packaged foods right on the product labeling—including nasties such as transfats and sodium—was a commendable piece of proactive regulatory business, for many reasons. Alas, it also left some important business unfinished—notably by granting exemption from the disclosure requirements to restaurants and foodservice operators. Considering that restaurant foods account for 20 per cent of all the food consumed by a typical Ontario resident, according to the Canadian Restaurant and Food Service Association, and that 20 per cent of premature deaths in countries like Canada are linked to dietrelated risk factors, according to the World Health Organization, it doesn’t take a nutritional expert to see an ominous missing gap in our existing public health set-up of regulatory checks and balances. So a warm round of applause, then, to the Ontario New Democratic Party’s health critic France Gélinas for proposing a legislation earlier this month to force fast-food restaurants to start posting calorie counts for all their products on both menus and display boards—right beside the price—and to the provincial Health Promotion Minister Margaret Best for publicly acknowledging that, “It’s certainly something we see merit in.” (The Toronto Star, June 5, 2010) Always nice to see the governing party and opposition MPPs to find C O V E R S T O RY
COVER STORY
something to agree on for a change, albeit leave it to the Progressive Conservative leader Tim Hudak to smell a Big Brotherish ‘health nazi’ conspiracy in the air. “There’s a lot of red tape out there and what I’m hearing from families is that life’s getting more expensive [and] their top priority is lowering the taxes they’re paying,” scowled Hudak. “I don’t hear them worrying so much about what the menus say; I’m hearing about how much more prices are increasing.” Sorry Tim, but please save it for another debate on another issue. With the proposed legislation intended to apply only to foodservice businesses operating more than five locations and earning annual revenues of over $5 million, it takes a very overactive imagination to portray The Healthy Decisions for the Healthy Eating Act draft either as a hidden tax or a back-breaking bureaucratic burden. If anything, we fear the proposed draft does not go far enough—both by setting the revenue threshold too high and also omitting sodium content from the disclosure—but that doesn’t cheapen its value as a profoundly important, if long overdue, measure to help the consumer public save itself from willfull gluttony and blissful ignorance. While it’s true that is often possible to find accurate information on calorie count and sodium levels for many fast-foods by surfing corporate websites or reading corporate brochures, hands up all those who did just that the last time you treated yourself to a burger-andfries lunch, honestly now! In a province where 64 per cent of adults and 28 per cent of children are considered to be “overweight or obese,” according to Statistics Canada, any move to help consumers make informed selections right at the source is a quintessential no-brainer, with the only appropriate lament being:Why did it take so long?
CASE STUDY
16 Making Dough By Andrew Joseph Leading Canadian frozen-pizza producer leverages cutting-edge product and packaging innovation to entrench its hard-gained industry prominence, while utilizing a breakthrough biodegradable pallet-wrap film in its end-of-line packaging operations to reduce the company’s environmental footprint. COVER STORY
FEATURES
S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y 14 Forest for the Trees By George Guidoni Sustainable forestry gets traction across Canada with widespread embrace of FSC standards certification. PA C K A G I N G F O R F R E S H N E S S 21 Tasteful Endeavors By Andrew Joseph Hamilton meat processor leverages its local cult status to keep growing the family business through keen product development and fierce commitment to top-notch product quality.
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COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY COLE GARSIDE
Spreading the Joy By Andrew Joseph Continuous product and packaging innovation enable Quebec-based restaurant operator to expand its sideline niche to produce authentic Greek-style foods and sauces for the retail marketplace.
C O R R U G AT E D 28 Design & Conquer By Andrew Joseph Family-owned corrugated converter spares no effort or expense to maintain its brisk growth by wooing leading retail customers with environmentally-sound, turnkey merchandising and POP display solutions.
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AUTOMATE NOW
A U T O M AT E N O W 30 Lifting their Spirits Western Canadian manufacturer of auto-care fluids lightens up its endof-line packaging burden with a robust, double-duty robotic solution.
Canada Post Detailed Information: RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ITEMS TO: Canadian Packaging CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT, 8th Floor One Mount Pleasant Road,Toronto, ON M4Y 2Y5, ISSN 0008-4654
D E P A R T M E N T S 5 6-7
U P F R O N T By George Guidoni N E W S PA C K
Molson slims down for the summer.
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FIRST GLANCE
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EVENTS
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C H E C K O U T By Rhea Gordon
Upcoming industry shows and functions.
All the latest on environmental sustainability.
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i m PA C t
A monthly insight from the PAC.
New technologies for packaging applications. 32
PEOPLE
Joe Public speaks out on consumer packaging hits and misses.
Career moves in the packaging world. NEXT ISSUE: 2010-2011 BUYERS’ GUIDE CANADIAN PACKAGING • JUNE 2010 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
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Pack Molson slims down for summer with a new beer-can design Staying slim during the hot summer months is getting a tad easier for millions of Canadian beer-lovers thanks to growing availability of low-calorie beers such as the Molson Canadian 67 brand from Molson Coors Canada, which has just launched the canned version of the brand—said to be the first low-calorie beer in Canada—in sleek, ergonomically-designed 355-ml cans that make great traveling companions on golf courses, pool decks, patios and other popular summer settings offering a perfect occasion for kicking back with a tall cold one, without all the guilt over extra calories. Produced at the beermaker’s brewery in Moncton, N.B., the Molson Canadian 67 brand is a special blend of tworow malted barley and a touch of wheat that incorporates a ‘triple-hopping method’ and four different varieties of hops to create a light beer with rich color and creamy foam, according to Molson, with only 67 calories per a 341-ml serving. “The Molson Canadian 67 established the trend for low-calorie beer in Canada, and trendsetters like to stay dressed in the latest fashions,” says John Francis, assistant brand manager for the Molson Canadian product family. “So whether it’s on the golf course, poolside or courtside this summer, the Molson Canadian 67 slim can offers low-calorie refreshment and great taste in an attractive package that goes wherever you do.” Packaged in sleek aluminum cans manufactured at a Ball Corporation canmaking plant in Wallkill, N.J., and boasting striking bold graphics developed by the New York City-based Spring Design Partners, Inc., the low-calorie light beer—featuring three-percent alcohol content—contains about half the calories of a glass of wine or a single mixed drink, adds Francis, and one-third fewer calories than conventional light beer. Francis says that a recent Angus Reid consumer poll commissioned by Molson found that 49 per cent of Canadians who have tried to lose weight have broken a diet because they don’t want to give up the foods and drinks they love, making the Molson Canadian 67 cans— currently retailed in 12-can cartons produced by Master Packaging Inc. in Bordertown, P.E.I.—an attractive option for calorie-conscious beer-drinkers trying to stick to an effective diet.
Montreal upstart begins a beautiful journey The global beauty products business is no place for shrinking violets, and Montreal-based nutraceutical products upstart Functionalab is wasting no time in blooming into one of the industry’s newest sensations—scooping up the coveted Discover Beauty Award at the recently-held Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna 2010 exposition in Italy, the global H&B (health-and-beauty) industry’s largest showcase. Founded in 2008, the fast-growing company’s flagship Advanced Nutricosmetics and Advanced Nutraceuticals product lines—comprising over 25 innovative beauty-and-wellness aids and treatments—took the event’s top honors by excelling across the competition’s four key criteria: most unique and innovative brand, overall concept, ability to succeed in the marketplace, and market readiness. “We are extremely proud to have won this prestigious recognition, which represents a major endorsement by some of the most influential and prestigious retailers in the world at the leading global beauty exhibition,” says company cofounder and co-president Erick Geoffrion, noting the judging panel’s impressive line-up of international buyers from leading high-end retailers such as Galeries Lafayette (France), Harrods (U.K.), Sephora (Italy) and SpaceNK (U.K./U.S.), among others. Leveraging a highly-effective branding and packaging design strategy developed by the Montreal-based marketing and advertising group Sid Lee has not only attracted key new retail customers in the U.S., Europe and Hong Kong in recent months, according to the company, but also earned priceless publicity in prestigious international magazines such as Women’s Health, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, New Beauty and the U.K.-based, hip lifestyle publication Wallpaper, which listed the company as one of the “Top 40 reasons to live in Canada” in a recently-published feature story. “We have received so much positive feedback about our line and concept; no other company has developed such a comprehensive concept addressing this market,” says Functionalab co-president Francis Maheu, adding the company is currently finalizing its plans for a national product rollout in Canada following a successful launch in the U.S., where its products are currently retailing through Henri Bendel outlets and are also sold online. “We are in advanced discussions with a number of retailers in Canada, which means that Functionalab products will be available in stores across Canada in the next few months,” Maheu states.
Amcor catches lightning in a bottle with a lighter salad-dressing container Plastic container manufacturer Amcor Rigid Plastics of Manchester, Mich., says it has broken new ground with a recent launch of what the company claims to be the lightest salad dressing PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottle in North America. Boasting an oblong design and a rectangular footprint for optimizing cube efficiency and storage capacity both on the pallet and the store-shelf, the 16-ounce Curve container weighs in at just 29.5 grams, or almost 20-percent lighter than the industry standard 35.3gram containers, according to Amcor. Moreover, the container’s innovative design allows the bottle’s top-load strength to be significantly higher than that achieved by other lightweight plastic alternatives, says Amcor, which is starting up full-scale production of the Curve bottles at its manufacturing facility in Itasca, Ill. “Our extensive Finite Element Analysis (FEA) capabilities and lightweighting experience allowed us to dramatically reduce weight without compromising too much on performance, enabling us to ultimately deliver an attractive container that meets the sustainability demands of today’s packagers and brand-owners,” says Amcor technical manager Laurie Goetz. Goetz says the final design of Curve container was put through several testing phases where Amcor utilized FEA to build in improved top-load and overall strength and performance without altering the basic design, with the nearly six-gram reduction in the bottle weight offering several key sustainable packaging benefits, including using less material to produce the package, reduced transportation costs, and a reduced overall carbon footprint.
SUMMUM PLASTICS MANUFACTURER OF PET PLASTIC BOTTLES stock bottles • custom moulds • r & d new products • preform • the latest in-house blowmoulding technology
Contact:
Tél: 514-352-9992 | Fax: 514-352-0652 | Email: summumplastiques@bellnet.ca Summum Plastics | 7726 East Jarry Street | Anjou, Québec | H1J 2M3
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www.canadianpackaging.com • June 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
Pack Study forecasts better times ahead for corrugated and paperboard boxmakers A growing emphasis on packaging sustainability by leading CPG (consumer package goods) brand-owners and retailers, coupled with a rebound in manufacturing activity, point to a period of steady growth in the U.S. market demand for corrugated and paperboard boxes, according to a new study from the Cleveland, Ohio-based market research firm The Freedonia Group, Inc. After posting real declines between 2004 and 2009, demand for paper-based packaging is projected to increase by an average of 2.4 per cent a year to reach US$36.4 billion in 2014, according to the report, with higher shipments of food-and-beverage products and other nondurable goods providing suppliers of corrugated and paperboard packaging products with a timely opportunity to make up for some of market-share losses suffered in recent years. “Sales of US CORRUGATED & PAPERBOARD BOX DEMAND cor rugated (US$Millions) % Annual Growth and solid-fi 2004 2009 2014 2004-2009 2009-2014 ber boxes acCorrugated & Paperboard Box Demand 30,505 32,300 36,400 1.2 2.4 counted for Corrugated & Solid Fiber Boxes 21,593 23,300 26,600 1.5 2.7 more than Folding Paperboard Boxes 8,451 8,560 9,350 0.3 1.8 70 per cent Set-Up Paperboard Boxes 461 440 450 -0.9 0.5 of demand in Source:The Freedonia Group, Inc. 2009,” points out the Corrugated & Paperboard Boxes report, “and advances will be aided by their well-entrenched position as the shipping container of choice in nearly all manufacturing sectors. “Demand will also benefit from the favorable environmental profile of corrugated boxes,” the study notes, “which will become increasingly important as producers continue to seek ways to adopt sustainable packaging practices. “Moreover, value gains will be bolstered by heightened demand for the more costly linerboard grades that can support high-quality printing and graphics.” In contrast, the demand for folding paperboard boxes is expected to increase by a somewhat slower 1.8-percent annual average growth, the report predicts, citing stiff competition from pouches, blister-packs, clamshells and other alternative packaging formats across many CPG market segments, as well as concerted source reduction efforts by various key customers. “However, gains will be supported by advances in printing and graphics capabilities and a more favorable environmental profile than for plastic packaging,” the report states, “while set-up box demand will be supported by their widespread use in high-end confectionery, silverware and jewelry applications.” In terms of end-users,The Freedonia Group estimates that the food-and-beverage industries will account for a 45-percent share of the total U.S. demand for boxes by 2014, with frozen foods, dairy products, and meat, poultry and seafood products offering box suppliers the best prospects. “Other nondurable goods markets offering favorable opportunities for boxes include cosmetics and toiletries, and rubber and plastic products,” the study states, “whereas in the durable goods sector, box demand will post healthy gains in the machinery and equipment, motor vehicle parts, and instruments markets, as both industrial machinery and automotive industries recover from sharp declines in the 2004-2009 period. “In non-manufacturing markets such as retail shipping and carry-out foodservice, box demand will be supported by consumer preferences for online shopping and food that is prepared or eaten away from home.” Full copies of the 303-page Corrugated & Paperboard Boxes report may be purchased for US$4,800 each by contacting Corinne Gangloff of The Freedonia Group at (440) 6849600; or via email at pr@freedoniagroup.com
MATERIAL HANDLING, ROBOTICS
Years of industry experience ensures our advanced robotic and conveyor solutions are the most innovative, and cost-effective answer to your material handling needs.
30 Fleming Drive, Cambridge Ontario, Canada N1T 2B1 519. 624.1255 www.StrongPointAutomation.com FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE
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CANADIAN PACKAGING • June 2010 • www.canadianpackaging.com
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GLANCE KEY BENEFITS
Keystone Folding Box Company’s new Key-Pak Plus is a child-resistant, senior-friendly blister-card combined with an integrated, lightweight outer carton to provide a cost-effective packaging solution for clinical trial materials, compliance dosing, physician’s samples, and prescription drug applications—with its expanded billboard space allowing for additional branding opportunities and detailed dosing instructions. With the sturdy structure of its protective sleeve offering optimal protection for light-sensitive products, and the card firmly secured to the carton to keep the two components together as single unit, the KeyPak Plus card is fullycompatible with both thermoformed and
cold-formed blisters, while the custom heat-sealed board helps ensure shorter sealing time, fewer production defects, and minimal exposure of the product to heat. Available in a wide ranges of sizes, the Key-Pak Plus features an innovative ‘zipper’ design for clean and simple removal of the rear blister-card panel, while also facilitating damage-free dispensing of the product. Keystone Folding Box Company F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 401
Featuring innovative Grip & Tear functionality, the non-barrier, non-adhesion bags—made from tough, multilayer co-extruded material with high-shrink and high moisture barrier properties—are easily opened up by workers simply by inserting fingers into two holes located on the bag’s header and pulling apart. Sealed Air Cryovac
OUT OF THE BAG
F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E
The new Cryovac CNZ660 Grip & Tear Cook-In Bag range from Sealed Air Corporation is designed to enable meat processors to remove products from the bags quickly and efficiently—without using knives of adding new equipment—making these tough, heatresistant bags extremely well-suited for cooking and stripping roast beef, poultry, ham and other meat products exposed to further processing after being cooked.
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AN EXTRA DIMENSION
The new ColorRanger E camera from SICK— said to be the world’s first high-speed 3D (threedimensional) machine vision camera with highperformance color-sensing capabilities—is designed for high-speed inspection tasks by measuring shape, contrast and surface defects to ensure product quality and production reliability in applications previously requiring the use of several different cameras. Providing high-resolution RGB colour at up to 3,072 pixels per channel and simultaneous 3D and color information at more than 11 kHz, the ColorRanger E easily performs multiple inspections at full production speed across a broad range of applications requiring optimal accuracy in the measurement of shape, contrast and surface defects—including grading of fruits and vegetables; shape and baking degree verification of baked goods; board grading in the wood industry; quality assurance of electronic assemblies; and fill-level and color verification in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries. SICK F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 403 THE BAGGING RIGHTS
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The Vertek 1150 model vertical form-fillseal bagger from WeighPack Systems Inc.—designed for handling pillow, gusseted and zippered pouches—is a pneumatically-operated, highly reliable packaging machine capable of obtaining throughput rates of up to 50 pouches per minute when bagging a wide range of products such as nuts, snacks, candy, coffee, fresh and frozen foods, pasta, cheese, liquids, pharmaceuticals and hardware. Handling bag sizes up to 11.5-incheswide, the system is outfitted with an Omron PLC (programmable logic controller) and a Weinview color touchscreen interface to ensure user-friendly operation that is further enhanced with value-added features such as power film unwinding, dual digital heaters, encoder-controlled film displacement, an airrelease mechanism, and tool-free removal of the forming collar, with optional features including hole-punching, codedating, and gas-flushing capabilities. WeighPack Systems Inc. F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 404 CANADIAN PACKAGING
GLANCE
X45 ™
MAKING THE CASE
The new Alvey GS100 series palletizers from Intelligrated are designed as economical, entry-level, automated palletizing systems capable of handling speeds of up to 30 cases per minute across a broad range of food-and-beverage, consumer goods and general manufacturing applications with restricted floorspace availability. Featuring compact footprint design and rugged, durable construction, the GS100 machines are said to provide a perfect solution for end-of-line packaging operations not requiring high-speed pelletizing systems, according to the company, but who can still benefit from improved productivity and enhanced ergonomics to achieve a speedy ROI (return-on-investment). Offered with a complete range of pallet-handling options— from Alvey GS120 (manual pallet handling) to the Alvey GS130 (semi-automated pallet handling) and the Alvey GS140 (fully-automated pallet handling)—each model easily allows operators to create, store and change patterns using the palletizer’s pattern utility function and touchscreen operator interface. Intelligrated F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 405
during transit, including lighting fixtures, automotive components (wheels, trim, etc.), furniture, window frames, sporting equipment, electronics, hardware, jewelry, appliances, etc. In addition to providing superior cushioning and surface protection properties, the Microfoam PP sheet foam is said to offer good vapor transmission and thermal insulation properties, while its chemically-inert composition means that it will not tarnish or corrode any sensitive metals. Said to be manufactured with 40 per cent less resin than polyethylene and weighing less than small air-cushioning at equal square footage, Microfoam’s high melt point of 320°F makes it very well-suited for handling parts that may reach the packaging stage at elevated temperatures, as well as for use in various protective shrinkwrapping applications. Pregis Corp. F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 407
IN FINE FORM
The new POPLOK trayforming machine from Eagle Packaging Machinery— designed as a ‘self-locking’ tray-erector that erects corrugated trays in an environmentallyfriendly way without using any glue—is a highly versatile piece of equipment capable of creating any sort of one-tuck, two-tuck, multituck, and more intricate display trays to meet even the most demanding Club Store requirements, with or without a lid. The versatile design of the POPLOK enables it to erect multiple-size trays on the same machine, with or without a lid. Boasting heavy-duty construction with sealed ball bearings and self-cleaning tracks for clean and quiet blank transfers, the POPLOK machine—available with a choice of AllenBradley or Omron PLC (programmable logic controller) touchscreen controls—incorporates advanced vacuum technology for optimal tray extraction, top-sheet feed for positive tray control throughout the machine, and a highcapacity lift-table hopper to ensure long service life and low maintenance requirements. Eagle Packaging Machinery F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 406 BETWEEN THE SHEETS
The new Microfoam line of low-density polypropylene (PP) sheet foam from Pregis Corp. was designed specifically to provide superior protection for easily-scratched metal surfaces, according to the company, with the material’s high COF (coefficient of friction) enabling it to securely cling to the item it is meant to protect
Markem-Imaje Inc., the world’s leading provider of product identification systems, is pleased to announce that Charles Nadeau joined the company in March as an Account Manager. Charles is an experienced packaging sales consultant with over 24 years of experience in the industry. He is responsible for customers on the North Shore of Quebec and in the Maritimes.
X45 and X45e Compact and intelligent conveyors • • • • • •
Easy to integrate Plug and play modules Gentle product handling RFID prepared High uptime Low power consumption
SALES PROFESSIONAL TORONTO Metro Label Company Ltd., one of North America’s leading label companies and a proven environmental leader, with locations in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Napa, is seeking a highly motivated results driven Sales Professional to join our team.
F I R S T C H O I C E F O R PR O D U C T I O N LO G I S T I C S
We are looking for a sales professional with a proven track record, a self starter, well organized, aggressive, ambitious, with excellent time management and interpersonal skills, and who can work in a dynamic, fastpaced team environment. Must have the ability to acquire new business as well as previous experience selling pressure sensitive and/or glue applied labels or a related packaging background. Remuneration will include a base salary, commission, car allowance, and group insurance.
www.flexlink.com FlexLink Systems Canada, Inc. · Canada +1 - 8 8 8 - 74 8 - 8 6 7 7 · i n f o . c a @ f l e x l i n k . c o m
Please send your resume and salary expectations in confidence to jobs@metrolabel.com or fax to: (416) 332-2388.
CANADIAN PACKAGING • JUNE 2010 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
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ECO-PACK
NOW
PILOT PROJECT SHOWS BIG PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR RECYCLING Any recyclable package is ultimately only as recyclable as consumers are willing to make it, but as recent pilot program conducted in Sarnia, Ont., has shown, Canadian consumers are more than happy to do their part in closing the Blue Box loop when they’re given the tools to do it. Conducted across the city’s parks, schools, recreational facilities, transit stops, bars and restaurants, elementary and secondary schools, convenience stores and gas stations during the spring, summer and fall months of last year, the so-called “public spaces recycling” program—jointly administered by Refreshments Canada, the Canadian Bottled Water Association (CBWA), Nestlé Waters Canada and Waste Diversion Ontario’s Continuous Improvement Fund—was first established by the Canadian beverage industry and the Government of Quebec in 2008. In a nutshell, the project combines installation of designated public recycling bins and containers with public education campaigns and citizen participation initiatives to achieve significantly higher recycling rates for glass, aluminum, plastic and paper than those enabled through the existing Blue Box infrastructure, according to the sponsors.
During the first phase of the Sarnia project—conducted across three city parks—the average diversion rate for beverage containers such as aluminum can, glass and plastic bottles, and gabletop and aseptic containers averaged 75 per cent, translating into a 73.5-percent improvement. “Sarnia is now the home of Ontario’s first and most effective public spaces recycling program,” says Sarnia’s mayor Mike Bradley. “The pilot public spaces recycling program helped our community to kickstart the greening of Sarnia parks and arenas in a significant fashion. “We are implementing what we learned during the pilot in other parks and public spaces throughout the city and encourage the Government of Ontario to work with the Canadian beverage industry to include public spaces recycling as a permanent complement to the Blue Box program in this province.” “The implementation of the public spaces recycling program has been a success, and while there are still challenges to overcome, recycling rates for beverage containers have improved significantly in that community,” says Justin Sherwood, president of Refreshments Canada “The recovery rate for the beverage container stream is impressive, with no venue recovering less than 73 per cent of total containers generated, on average,” says Sherwood, adding that beverage containers account for 18 per cent of the wastestream by weight in Sarnia arenas,
BAMBOO PACKS A KEY ‘GREEN’ UPGRADE FOR DELL Computer hardware manufacturer Dell Inc. has upgraded the ongoing overhaul of the company’s packaging practices by obtaining an important environmental certification for the protective cushion-packs used for shipping its Dell Inspiron laptops to customers. Made from mechanically pulped bamboo—harvested from a Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)certified bamboo forest in China’s Jiangxi Province— the protective packaging was granted the D-6400 certification of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) for compostability last month, confirming that the packaging will compost and biodegrade at a rate comparable to known compostable materials when added to a hot, active compost pile, with resulting compost also being able to sustain future plant growth. “Developing packaging that is lightweight, yet strong enough to protect our products in transit, avoids the need to cut down hardwood trees, and can return to the ground to sustain new plant growth— those are the kinds of longterm, sustainable solutions we want to provide for our customers,” says Oliver Campbell, senior manager of worldwide packaging at the Round Rock, Tex.-based Dell. “We’re exploring the frontier of sustainable packaging here, and we’re actively working to integrate more innovative agricultural materials into our
packaging portfolio,” says Campbell, citing bamboo’s key performance and sustainability attributes that include: • Fast Growth. Capable of growing up to 24 inches per day, bamboo can reach full harvesting maturity in three to seven years—significantly faster than hardwoods. • Superior Protection. With its tensile strength said to be comparable to steel, bamboo is an extremely wellsuited packaging material to use for protecting technology equipment in transit. • Sustainability. The plant’s deep root systems are said to offer good protection against soil erosion and, when harvested correctly, it does not require replanting after harvest. Supplied by the Phoenix, Az.-headquartered Unisource Global Solutions (UGS), the bamboo cushion-packs used by Dell (see picture) are currently in the process of obtaining additional environmental certification for recyclability, according to Dell, which began using them to package its Mini 10 and Mini 10v netbook terminals last November as part of the company’s public pledge to achieve a 10-percent reduction in the amount of packaging it uses worldwide by 2012, while also increasing the amount of recycled content in its packaging by 40 per cent, and making 75 per cent of all of its packaging curbside-recyclable.
and about 13 per cent in the local Mac’s convenience stores and gas bars. “We were confident that this pilot program would be successful, and we were not disappointed,” says CWBA executive director Elizabeth Griswold. “The results speak for themselves and the conclusion to be drawn is simply this: public spaces recycling must become a part of the future waste management mix in Ontario and elsewhere across Canada,” says Griswold, adding that all the recycling infrastructure installed to support the pilot project has been turned over to the city of 72,000 people, situated on the south shore of Lake Huron at the headwaters of the St. Clair River. Having established Canada’s first permanent public spaces program in Manitoba in April, the Canadian beverage industry is currently conducting similar pilot programs in Niagara Falls and Halifax, after which the Toronto-based program consultants StewardEdge will present its finding to the respective provincial ministries of the environment in hopes of expanding the existing curbside recycling programs.
LIGHTER CAPS TOAST OF THE WATER BIZ While lightweighting of plastic containers has emerged as one of the beverage industry’s most effective tried-and-true methods for achieving meaningful carbon-footprint reduction, there are also big savings to be had in utilizing lighter-weight caps and closures, as the Laval, Que.-based water-bottler Danone Naya Waters, Inc. is quickly finding out after converting two of its high-speed filling lines to the Bericap 29/25 HexaLite closures near the end of last year. Supplied by the Bericap North America Inc. plant in Burlington, Ont., a subsidiary of the Germanbased plastic closures manufacturer Bericap GmbH, the HexaLite 29/25 caps—designed specifically for still-water filling applications—have enabled Naya to achieve about 33-percent resin savings in the neck and closure weight, according to Bericap, which earlier facilitated a similar, successful filling line conversion at the Danone Turkey water-bottling facilities. In North America, Bericap is also proceeding with several filling line conversions to the company’s recently-launched HexaLite 26 FB (suitable for lightweighted 26-mm neck finishes) and HexaLite 29 FB (30-mm nick finishes) closures—targeting potential resin weight savings of up to 40 per cent, according to the company.
BIOPLASTIC FREEZER PACKAGING COMES IN FROM THE COLD Putting things on ice in an eco-friendly way has just gotten much easier for countless producers and packagers of fruit, vegetables and even flowers—thanks to the new breakthrough deep-freeze plastic packaging from German bioplastics producer FKuR Kunststoff GmbH made mostly from renewable resources, and already boasting the vaunted ASTM D 6400 standard for compostability from the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). 10
Jointly developed with a number of flexible packaging converters, the film’s innovative, three-layer structure comprises the company’s three biodegradable, food-grade films— Bio-Flex F 2110, Bio-Flex A 4100 CL and BioFlex F 2110—produced from a blend of PLA (polylactic acid) and other biodegradable materials, according to the company, which is now marketing the new packaging (see picture) across North America through its new
FKuR Plastics Corp. subsidiary in Cedar Park, Tex. “The high content of renewable resources and the excellent mechanical properties have really convinced our customers”, says FKuR Plastics president Patrick Zimmermann, citing the material’s high impact strength and dart drop strength at deep-freeze temperatures; mechanical properties rivaling HDPE (high-density polyethylene) and PP films; good chemical resistance and barrier properties; clear transparency and a glossy surface.
WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • JUNE 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
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ACCESS THE GLOBAL PACKAGING NETWORK
1948… A Vi Vis ision 60 years ago passionate leaders had a vision to build an organization to advance the packaging movement in Canada. Today, PAC – The Packaging Association has remained true to the vision and objectives of our founding fathers. In addition to sticking with their core principles of education, networking and advocating for the industry they would be proud of our leadership on packaging for sustainability and food safety. Organization of Packaging Association of Canada – Excerpts from C. C. Cornell notes It was late spring of 1948, and I had just completed an assignment as a freelance writer for the First Annual Number of Canadian Packaging. The issue was offfff the press and the venture had convinced the publishers, MacLean Hunter, that the packaging field in Canada was indeed ready for a regularly published packaging magazine. About this time, the paper’s first manager and editor, H A Nicholson, suggested I outline a number of recommendations for the new publication to assist it on its way, based on the experience I had gained contacting leaders in the field for the Annual Number. By spring 1949, I had sounded out sufficient management people in the packaging field, both users and suppliers and also government people, to know that whether or not we would have an association, we would have a very interesting meeting. Both J. L. Craig, group manager of the division in which Canadian Packaging was a paper, and Harry Nicholson went over my proposal, agreed on calling the meeting, set up the MacLean Hunter plant as the locale and on May 26, 1949 this meeting was held.
Early Day Highlights Melville H MacA c rtr hur,r,r Vice President Sales, Hinde & Dausche Paper cA Company. To T ronto, ON, Chairman, Interim Committee 1949 – 1950. In the words of his associate, Charlie Cornell, “no one outside of Fred Hayes and myself, will ever know the org r anizing genius, the sheer rg brutal work and the long hours r that McA rs c rtr hur put into this effffffo cA fortr .” • Elected as first President on November 1, 1950, C. C. Callowhill, Manager of Purchases, Canadian Division, American Can Company, Hamilton, On. • In 1951 permanent headquarters were established at 24 Isabella St, T Toronto, ON and Fred Hayes of Container Statistics was appointed interim manager. • On September 18, 1951, the first regional conference was held at the Mount Royal Hotel in Montreal and organized by Lyle D Richardson. The conference was opened by the Mayor of Montreal, Camillien Houde. • On November 7 and 8, 1951 the PAC P Constitution and By-Laws were prepared for submission at the First Annual Conference.
The Melville H. McArthur Award is presented by Mel himself (left) to Maurice Blackwell for best low gross score in 1954.
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1) Packaging Institute 2) Packaging Association 3) Exposition Conversation went all over the lot for a good two hours. Then the tone became positive; we put the question of organization and the response was definite (I don’t recall if it was unanimous), for the organization of an association. Then came the nomination, in a very impromptu fashion, of Mel McArthur to act as Chairman of a steering group, the writer was requested to act as secretary and another nine or ten individuals present consented to join the steering group. The idea was on its way.
were sent out to Canadian business leaders to determine whether the association would be useful to them, and whether they would support it by membership, if organized. More than 2,500 manufacturers were surveyed by a steering group, enlarged to some 24 people for the purpose. The crowning event was the Organization Meeting of November 1, 1950, in the Sheraton Room of the King Edward Hotel, where 170 companies, were represented by packaging management numbering more than 300. On that day, day the association was organized as The Packaging Association of Canada.
None, I believe, outside of Fred Hayes and myself, will ever know the organizing genius, the sheer brutal work and the long hours that Mel McArthur put into this ef effort. He associated with himself, Fred Hayes and the writer as a sub-committee, responsible to the steering committee but to be most actively engaged on the cross-country surveys that were to be launched by mail. These
Yesterday… Y sterday… Ye
1950
Join PAC today!
Letters were sent to a list of 45 people whom I had gotten to know in a brief eight months. The agenda was short, and simplicity was the charm. Listed were three items for discussion:
Today… Today…
• On December 9, 1951 the board of directors appointed Charles C Cornell, formerly a director and representing Canadian Packaging Magazine, as the full-time secretary of the association. • There were 180 corporate members by the end of the first year. • In 1952 the First Annual Golf Tournament T was organized at Cutten Fields, Guelph, Ontario. • In 1952 the First Canadian Packaging Exposition was held at the CNE Coliseum concurrent with the Second Annual National Conference. Herb Romani, Vice President and Director of Purchasing for Christie Brown & Co., became the General Chairman of the first National Packaging Exposition. It was anticipated it would be a success if 5,000 individual registrants would attend. The actual registration exceeded 9,200. • Herb was asked again in 1953 to be General Chairman. A higher target of 12,000 registrants was set with twice the amount of floor
9th Canadian National Packaging Exposition, 1960.
From left: Grace Hutchings, Ed T Trump and George Ursaki, 1976.
space for exhibitors being offered. of Both targets were achieved. • In 1958, the Annual Exposition was being opened by the Governor General, The Right Honourable Vincent Massey. It was the culmination of months of planning, and may be considered the most significant official recognition which has been received from the Government of Canada. • Now, Now in 2010 we have over 350 member companies.
Packaging Association of Canada and The Packaging Institute (USA) launch North American Packaging Federation, April 23, 1969. From left: John A. Whitten, F F. John Briggs, Willem P P. A. Ditmar Ditmar,, J. M. Scott and LLyn yn G. Jamison
Contact Lisa Abraham: 416-490-7860 x213, labraham@pac.ca OR visit www.pac.ca WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • JUNE 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
THE PACkAGING ASSOCIATION
2010
Featured Speakers Sharon Beals
Donna Garren
Julian Caroll
Niagara-on-the-Lake Niagara-on-the-Lake
Packaging Summit September September 17, 17, 18 18 && 19, 19, 2010 2010
Senior Vice President, Food Safety & Quality Assurance, Maple Leaf Consumer Foods Marc Guay
an d
tin ova
Pa c
Vice President, Food Safety Programmes, The Consumer Goods Forum
David Jeffs
Nick Jennery
Pro ft
Inn g
Managing Director, EUROPEN Brussels, Belgum
kag in
g for People,
t ne a l P
President, Pepsico Foods Canada
Edward A. Klein
President & CEO, Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors
President, Operations, Ontario, Sobeys Inc.
Tom Szaky
Joan L. Pierce
A Collaborative Partnership to Advance Packaging for Sustainability and Food Safety
Commemoration to honour 60 Year Members at Château des Charmes winery on Friday, Sept. 17, 2010
Vice President, Environmental Affairs, Tetra Pak, Inc.
founder & CEO of TerraCycle Vice President, Packaging Sustainability, Colgate-Palmolive Company
Tomorrow…
S I T R E V D A
C E P S E H E IN T
N N A H T 0 6 IAL PAC
E U S S I Y R IVERSA G
PACKAGIN N IA D A N D BY CA
DUCE
O TO BE PR
Show your PAC pride. Ad closing date: July 31
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• includes special focuses and research on packaging sustainability and food safety. • distributes to all the consumer packaged goods and grocery executives who attend The Packaging Association/Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors Niagara-on-the-Lake Packaging Summit to be held in mid-September.
Contact Stephen Dean at Canadian Packaging 416-764-1497 or stephen.dean@packaging.rogers.com
Access the Full Summit Agenda at www.pac.ca and Register online today! CANADIAN PACKAGING • JUNE 2010 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
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SUSTAINABILITY
BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR
FOREST FOR THE TREES Global sustainable forestry certification system gains growing acceptance across corporate Canada
A
cknowledging a problem is always a key first step submit the draft treaty to their respective parliaments, othin its eventual resolution, and the spectacular er stakeholders around the world decided that maybe they failures of the world’s governments to develop a could do something to make up for that gap,” Marcil excommon action plan to address global climate change in plains. “So there was an intensive consultative process that a meaningful way—either at the Rio summit in 1992 or ultimately led to creation of our voluntary certification in Copenhagen last year—is a damning indictment of the system that is based on 10 core principles and 56 criteria modern consumer society’s inability to fully come grips that have remained unchanged to this day.” Implemented locally by FSC in more than 80 countries with its grim legacy of environmental degradation and that have FSC-certified rapid depletion of natural resources. forests, the 10 founding Likewise, it is a testament to the international principles sheer overwhelming enormity of a cover established rights of problem that, at the end of the day, tenure; indigenous rights; has little chance of being redressed community relations and without concerted joint efforts on workers’ rights; responsible both corporate boardroom and environmental stewardship; public grassroots levels to mend the maximizing benefits from consumer society’s long-entrenched the forest; and protection of wasteful ways for the sake of laying forests with high conservafoundation of a more sustainable tion value. planet for future generations. Although the certification As well as all the hard work of insystem is entirely voluntary, ternational ‘civil society movements’ its market-driven nature has like the Forest Stewardship already gained it support Council (FSC) to keep everyone of many leading Canadian involved honest, focused and comforestry producers and their mitted throughout the journey. corporate end-users, says Formed in Toronto in 1993 FSCC president Antony Marcil pointing out the vast tracks of forestland across Canada, about 12 per cent of the total Marcil, citing more than through joint efforts of leading en1,000 FSC CoC certifivironmental, social and economic acreage of managed forests, that have obtained FSC certification for responsible forestry practices. cates issued to date. stakeholders to develop a common “From the beginning, the idea was blueprint for more environmentally-sensitive logging that if we could create a common stanpractices and to stem the tide of rapid worldwide defordard to protect the forests to a higher estation, the Bonn, Germany-headquartered FSC is today level than what was being done by existone of the world’s leading certification agencies, mandated ing regulations,” says Marcil, “we would with promoting the use of sustainable forestry environbe able to get the producers and users of mental standards and practices worldwide by awarding forest products to get behind a purchasing inernationally-recognized CoC (chain-of-custody) accreditations to forestry companies and their customers able policy, or as part of their CSR (corporate social responsito prove that their products are sourced from sustainably- bility) policy, to buy their paper products made from fiber that is certified to have been harvested from a responsibly managed forestlands. “As good as it is to see paper recycling continuing to managed forest. “Fifteen years ago, the forestry industry’s customers grow and make big strides with businesses and the consumer public, there is only enough recycled fiber to go may have wondered about where the fiber for their paper around to supply about a third of market demand,” says came from, but there was nothing to prevent their paper Antony Marcil, president and chief executive of Forest suppliers from just telling them what they wanted to hear,” Stewardship Council Canada (FSCC) in Toronto, one says Marcil. “Today, having FSC certification in place provides a the 46 national branches FSC operates worldwide. guarantee mechanism for ensuring that what the company is telling them about the sustainability of their products BIG RESPONSIBILITY “And since the rest of the fiber still has to come from is in fact true,” says Marcil, citing a rigorous certification trees, it is important that it is obtained from forests that are process that can take up to two years, as well as compremanaged in an environmentally, economically and socially hensive yearly audits performed by one of eight Canadian responsible manner,’ says Marcil, who joined FSCC five companies accredited to issue FSC certification and to alyears ago after a prolonged career spell as a tax reform lob- low using the FSC symbol on their products. “It is all entirely market-driven,” says Marcil, noting that byist and advocate. “It’s somewhat of a career shift, but I find it deeply sat- until recently it has been the major Canadian banks and isfying on a personal level,” Marcil told Canadian Pack- insurance agencies who have been spearheading the adopaging on a recent visit to the FSCC mid-town Toronto tion of the FSC certification in corporate Canada. “If you go your mailbox today, you will find that all the offices it shares with the Canadian branch of the World envelopes mailed out by the big five banks and many maWildlife Fund (WWF). Founded on the underpinning premise of advancing a jor insurance companies will have the FSC logo printed “civil society movement” operating independently from on the back of them,” says Marcil. “When I joined FSCC five years ago, there were six government regulatory and legislative framework, according to Marcil, FSCC’s environmental criteria was devel- brands of paper in Canada that carried the FSC logo; tooped as a result of an intensive consultation process in- day there are more than 360 branded paper products with volving leading forestry companies, various environmental FSC certification, with companies using the FSC symbol groups, local community organizations and native leaders as marketing tool,” Marcil relates. “At while at that time there were four million hectares looking to fill the regulatory void left behind by the failure of national governments to sign the draft global forestry of certified forests in Canada,” Marcil adds, “today there are over 36 million hectares—meaning there are nine treaty presented at Rio in 1992. “Because the world’s governments failed to sign and times more certified sources of fiber available—with an14
other nine million hectares now awaiting certification. “All of the major paper manufacturers in Canada today produce at least some brands of paper today that are FSCcertified,” Marcil points out. “For example, Domtar now has a full product line, called EarthChoice, that is produced exclusively from FSC-certified fiber, which did not exist five years ago. “They started off their laser-copier paper, then followed it up with their photographic paper, later adding other higher-end papers… so that today almost every paper that Domtar makes can be purchased from this fully-certified EarthChoice product family.” And while it is “still early days” for the FSC certification process to work itself through the ranks of Canada’s paper packaging producers, Marcil says he’s encouraged by the enthusiastic embrace of FSC certification displayed by Norampac, the corrugated division of Kingsey Falls, Que.-based paper products group Cascades Inc., which that has just completed FSC certification for all its mills. “Cascades has always had a very robust environmental sustainability agenda throughout its history,” Marcil remarks, “so after Norampac became a fully-owned Cascades subsidiary, it took proactive steps to fulfill its parent company’s commitment to sustainable practices by having all of its mills and products certified. “It’s just smart business—a case of seeing where the market is going.” RULE OF LAW
Marcil says that forest management is far too complex, intricate and sensitive a field to be entrusted solely to the government or business interests. Says Marcil: “Almost every forest in Canada is legallycompliant in terms of upholding the minimal environmental regulations on the provincial level, but FSC feels that many of those regulations are simply not adequate. “In most provinces, if I hold a licence entitling me to log, there is usually a standard legal requirement to consult with local aboriginal groups to make sure that I’m not cutting trees on sacred burial grounds,” he acknowledges, “but that doesn’t always work well in practice. “But with FSC certification the companies wanting to obtain it are obliged to show proof that they not only invited aboriginal community leaders to participate, but that they also received all the information that will enable them to map out every hunting cabin, every track line, every burial ground, etc., that they must incorporate it into their forest management plan, with full approval of the affected aboriginal groups in the region.” States Marcil: “Responsible forest stewardship is not a black-and-white subject: it is very much a grey area that needs to be addressed based on a wide-ranging consensus of what constitutes the best forest management practices. “For example, if we decide that the idea of mosaic-cutting is not as effective at protecting the caribou herds as we might have thought five years ago, then we have to reassess this practice,” he relates. “Because it is a living and continually evolving process,” Marcil states, “it would be far too arrogant of us to think that we have arrived at the ultimate definition of what constitutes a responsibly-managed forest. “That said, I am sure that for companies who want to upgrade their environmental image in a meaningful way, obtaining FSC certification is one of the best things they can do for themselves in confirming the strength of their commitment to sustainable forestry practices to the Canadian public,” sums up Marcil. F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :
FSCC
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COVER STORY
CASE STORY COVER STUDY
BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE
Molinaro’s plant operates an Arpac low-profile stretchwrapper to secure and stabilize outbound palleted shipments of product using new OXO-Biodegradable green-tinted pallet-wrap film supplied by Canpaco Inc.
Vince Molinaro, President, Molinaro’s Fine Italian Foods Ltd.
Robert Appel, President, Canpaco Inc.
ROLLING IN THE DOUGH
Thriving Ontario pizza maker out for a bigger slice of the market with innovative new products and a more eco-sensitive mindset
T
hanks to its uncanny versatility and a universally adored taste profile, there are countless recipes out there today for firing up a tantalizingly delicious pizza pie—with all sorts of cheese, sauce and topping options to suit even the fussiest and most discriminating of diners—in just about every corner of the world. But only if you got the right crust to make it happen, according to Vince Molinaro, president of one of North America’s leading manufacturers of frozen and pre-made pizza products, along with a growing selection of upperend Italian-style pastas and other specialty dishes produced at the Molinaro’s Fine Italian Foods Ltd. facility in Mississauga, Ont. “At Molinaro’s, we believe that every great pizza begins and ends with a great crust—in fact, we’re known for our outstanding crust throughout the industry,” Molinaro told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the 150-employee, 105,000-square-foot food plant cranking out a dizzying array of shapes and sizes of fully-topped pizzas; par-baked pizza crusts; authentic Italian-style calzones; make-yourown-pizza kits; specialty flatbreads like gourmet foccacia; and IQF (individual quick-frozen) pasta-based dishes like Ravioli,Tortellini and Gnocchi. 16
“It was development of the perfect crust that laid down the foundation of our success,” says Molinaro, explaining a remarkable rise up through the industry food chain by a company his father founded back in 1975. “Continuing that success has been relatively more simple,” Molinaro quips. “We do it by offering unsurpassed product quality, topped with all the little extras— such as competitive pricing and line extensions—to help us increase our production volumes.
pany was bought out by the beermaking giant Labatt Brewing Company Ltd.—leaving the senior Molinaro with just a pizza-crust manufacturing operation in the U.K.—and later resold to the condiments empire H.J. Heinz Company, before eventually being brought back into the family fold. “By the time my dad bought the Canadian business back from Heinz in 1993,” Molinaro recounts,“we already had a nice little pasta operation going nearby, but the allure of buying back the old company was too great a temptation to resist. “Although we had two-and-a-half tough years after buy-
QUALITY FIRST
“Basically, our competitive edge is rooted in our ability to offer exceptionally high-quality products that are consistently produced in the most cost-effective manner,” says Molinaro, adding the company’s rise to industry prominence would not have been possible without the unwavering commitment to quality championed by its founder from the start. “My dad took over a 45,000-square-foot facility from an existing business with a lot of debt,” he recalls, “but in six short months he landed three major accounts and managed to turn the business around.” Turning it around so well, in fact, that in 1984 the com-
Molinaro’s popular do-it-yourself pizza kits are sealed with highquality, high-barrier flexible packaging film manufactured by Excel Pac.
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COVER STORY
COVER STORY
COVER STORY
A plant employee gets ready to place packs of sauce into the Pizza Starter Kits being packaged on a Multivac R5200 thermoformer.
One of two Multivac R5200 thermoform vacuum-packing machines running Excel Pac web stock at the Molinaro’s frozen-pizza production facility in Mississauga, Ont.
ing it back—ridding ourselves of money-losing contracts saw our sales drop from $14 million to $8-million in the first year alone—by the end of the third year we turned it around and began growing our sales,” he relates.
Today serving all the major Canadian retailers with both private-label and its own flagship Molinaro’s brand products—with private-label work now generating nearly 60 per cent of annual revenues—the company has grown its business by a stunning 15 per cent, on average, over the past five years, Molinaro relates. Despite the phenomenal growth, Molinaro says it is important to remain level-headed in the increasingly competitive marketplace, and to manage that growth wisely. “Being big is a good thing, of course,” he allows, “but only when it’s tempered with quality products and the right mix of people and equipment to manufacture it.”
Each of the two Multivac R5200 thermoformers utilizes a MarkemImaje S8 small-character continuous inkjet printer to apply lot and best-before data onto all the passing product packaging.
CAPITAL GAINS
Capitalizing on unfolding market trends through relentless product innovation is a key part of this approach, Molinaro reasons, citing recent launch of a new private-label brand of organic pizza and crusts—made without any artificial ingredients or GMOs (genetically-modified organisms). And the recent arrival of an authentic stone-baked oven from Italy—installed this past January—has enabled the company to launch a new 10-inch private-label pizza offering, as well as 12-inch Molinaro’s brand pizzas that are “flash-cooked” in a minute to 90 seconds at 800ºF—compared to six to seven minutes it takes to cook a pizza in the conventional oven at 400ºF—to faithfully replicate the taste profile of stone-baked pizzas made back in Italy. A line worker ensures that each Molinaro’s pizza has a generous helping of toppings before being sealed by a Texwrap shrinkwrapper.
CANADIAN PACKAGING • JUNE 2010 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
Continues on page 18
An SEW-Eurodrive motor powers the Groen Process Equipment blender below, used for mixing big batches of pizza sauces.
17
COVER STORY
CASE STORY COVER STUDY
Continued from page 17
“Aside from us, there is only one other company in North America who has this type of equipment, which allows us to cook our pizzas on a conveyor of granite stones,” explains Molinaro. “Its ability to produce a true authentic pizza will help us bring an even tastier product to our customers. “This new taste experience will take North American
All freshly-made pizzas are securly sealed by the model T1809SS side-seal shrinkwrapper manufactured by Texwrap Packaging Systems.
consumers by storm,” Molinaro enthuses. The new oven adds a nice crowning touch to an impressive arsenal of high-performance packaging systems and equipment employed at the Molinaro’s plant, including: • two Multivac R5200 thermoform vacuum-packing machines—used to package Molinaro’s pizza kits using flexible packaging film manufactured by Excel Pac Inc. of Terrabonne, Que.; • two Markem-Imaje S8 Classic small-character continuous inkjet printers to apply lot-code and bestbefore data to all food packages processed on each Multivac machine; • a Groen Process Equipment blender, powered by a SEW-Eurodrive motor, for mixing batches of sauce; • an automatic T1809SS servo side-seal shrinkwrapper and a T1322-2 dual-chamber shrink-tunnel, both manufactured by Texwrap Packaging Systems, with the shrinkwrapper using 45-gauge Clysar shrink film from Bemis Company, Inc.; • an Alpha 86 HS pressure-sensitive label-applicator from Weber Marking Systems Inc.; • a Langen cartoner utilizing a Series 3700 hot-melt adhesive applicating system from Nordson Corporation; • rolls of industrial tape supplied by Vibac Canada Inc. to seal loaded cases of product; • a Loma Systems metal detection unit, utilized for highspeed inspection of pizza toppings, along with another metal detector from Thermo Scientific employed on the bakery/crust manufacturing line. Keenly aware of the retail industry’s concerted effort to reduce its overall carbon-footprint burden by using more sustainable packaging products, the company has also started doing its part this past spring by utilizing a newly-launched OXO-Biodegradable range of eco-friendly pallet-wrap film developed by the Montreal-based In-
tertape Polymer Group Inc. (IPG), and distributed by Canpaco Inc. of Woodbridge, Ont. “I’ve noticed that people are interested in the environment, but not everyone wants to do something about it,” Molinaro reflects. “So when our long-time equipment supplier Canpaco came to see me about a new environmentally-friendly product they were selling, I listened.” Says Canpaco president Robert Appel:“This revolution-
Sealed pizzas being labeled by this high-speed model Alpha 86 HS label-applicator manufactured by Weber Marking Systems.
COVER STORY
A Nordson series 3700 hot melt applicator (background) is used for gluing the flaps of corrugated boxes coming offthe Langen cartoner.
An line operator moves a carton of product through a case sealer using rolls of Vibac Canada industrial tape.
ary wrap significantly reduces the amount of pounds of waste plastic that is put into our landfills. “Not only is it completely recyclable,” Appel asserts, “it also does not contaminate the recycling stream, as it simply biodegrades into the soil as carbon.” Appel explains that the green-tinted OXO-Biodegradable stretch film contains a special additive that initiates and accelerates the breakdown of the film when exposed to direct sunlight, which then breaks it down into carbon dioxide, water and biomass, completing full degredation in less than a year. As long as the film is not exposed to direct sunlight during its actual application, he points out, it fully maintains all of its original mechanical properties—ensuring optimal operational performance. According to Appel, many companies are still too hesitant to source more sustainable packaging alternatives based on fears of paying a significant price premium, but as
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he explains, “We continuously explore new and different products that will actually reduce their packaging costs, while helping us achieve compliance with our own zerolandfill strategy at our operations.” Appel estimates that since Molinaro’s began using the OXO-Biodegradable films for its end-of-line packaging— utilizing the ARPAC semi-automatic Pro Series 4006-LP pallet-wrap machine, also supplied by Canpaco—it has been achieving film savings of five to 20 per cent, depending on actual application. ADD IT UP
“While some may say that using the OXO-Biodegradable film might seem like it would have little imapct, it all adds up,” he says, while acknowledging that Canpaco still has some work to do to win over the skeptics. “Even with the savings and our free trial roll offer, I have found that the greatest challenge for Canpaco has
COVER STORY
been to get people to listen about our eco-friendly line,” Appel remarks. “We feel very strongly that individuals have a social responsibility not only to their corporation, but also to their community and to one another when it comes to the environment.” Molinaro concurs:“Canpaco has been a great supplier to us—always finding quality equipment at a good price, and always looking out for new machinery or products that will be beneficial to us and our customers. “With our friends at Canpaco and their packaging expertise, Molinaro’s looks forward to maintaining its reputation as a leader in the manufacture of Italian foods here in North America,” he sums up, “while also doing our part in contributing to the growth of more sustainable packaging at large.”
COVER STORY
F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :
Canpaco Inc. ARPAC Group Intertape Polymer Group Inc. (IPG) Multivac Canada Inc. Excel Pac Inc. Markem-Imaje Canada Groen Process Equipment SEW-Eurodrive Co. of Canada Ltd. Texwrap Packaging Systems Bemis Company, Inc. Weber Marking Systems of Canada Langen Packaging Group Nordson Canada, Limited Vibac Canada Inc. Loma Systems Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455
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PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
Reza Shahbazi, Buyer of Raw Materials and Equipment
BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE
Frank Kolvek, Production Manager Rana Denninger, R. Denninger Limited A Denninger employee places sliced bacon onto a tray to be packaged on a new Multivac R125 thermoformer.
Packages formed on the Multivac R125 machine stand out with exceptionally clean edges.
TASTEFUL ENDEAVORS Ontario producer of European-style meats boosts its growing product portfolio with new-generation thermoform packaging machinery
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hile there is definitely nothing wrong with the old way of doing things, especially when producing European-style meat products with recipes demanding strict adherence to timeless tradition, there is nothing wrong with throwing some processing and packaging innovation into the mix now and then to carve oneself a bigger slice of the meat market pie. It’s a formula that has worked wonders over the years for the Hamilton, Ont.-based R. Denninger Limited—a Triple A-rated, provincially-licensed processor of high-quality European-style meats operating six nearby retail outlets and a warehouse to supply the growing ranks of meat-loving local consumers with a tasty and comprehensive offering of sausages, smoked and fresh meats, and other prepared foods made with the finest ingredients the company can get. “What makes Denninger special is that our customers can depend on the freshness of our products,” says Rana Denninger, part of the family-owned company’s management team whose meat-processing heritage traces back to Germany’s famed Black Forest region, where her grandfather Rudolf Denninger made his living as a master sausage maker until moving his family to Canada in 1953.
“Six months after arriving, they established their first store on King Street in Hamilton’s downtown area, bringing with them their famous family recipes of European meats,” Denninger told Canadian Packaging over a recent visit to the company’s lively, 60,000-square-foot Hamilton manufacturing plant housing all the butchering, smoking, cooking, chilling, packaging and shipping of its products to the company-owned shops on a daily basis. DAILY FIX
“Each store receives a daily delivery of freshly-made products, backed up with the strictest quality and freshness control assurance, made from raw materials sourced directly from the best Ontario farms,” states Denninger. “We currently produce just under one million kilograms a year of our own poultry, pork and beef products—consisting of over 200 SKUs (stock-keeping units) of cold-cuts, sausages and smoked meats—and well over 100 additional prepared fine foods,” says Denninger, adding that the company also imports a range of upscale foods from around the world, nicely complementing the in-store bakeries and snack-bars operated on the premises.
CANADIAN PACKAGING • JUNE 2010 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
Keeping its distribution strategy on a relatively tight leash has proved to be a very successful business model for the company, Denninger explains, in terms of building up enviable consumer awareness and loyalty to its signature Denninger’s brand—tirelessly nurtured on a continuous basis through countless in-store tasting events and new product demonstrations and samplings. “Because our products are only sold through our own six locations, our customer loyalty is very high,” states Denninger.“We try to grow that family loyalty by doing things like giving a free slice of our hugely popular Lyoner-style Bologna to every child coming into our stores, something we have done right from the start. “And over the years, many of these children have grown into our present-day customers, still often reminding us how that first slice of bologna turned them into a fan,” she relates, noting that the company does ship a small part of its processed product, about five per cent, to a few select deli shops around Toronto and in the Niagara Falls region. “Retail has always been our big strength,” says Denninger. “Our customer loyalty is a direct result of the reputation for our product quality, freshness and service that we have built up over the years. “People just keep coming back to Denninger—choosing us even over the so-called ‘convenience’ of a supermarket retailer.” Continues on page 22 21
PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
A slab of Vienna-style smoked salami coming off the VC999 vacuum-packer.
A plant employee plucks bags of ham from a red Buckhorn plastic tote to seal the meat on a VC999 vacuum-packing system
An electronic weighing computing scale from DIGI quickly generates accurate pricing information.
Denninger’s tasty soups and stews are packaged in tubs manufactured by rigid plastics specialists IPL Inc. of Saint-Damien, Que.
Continued from page 21
The company’s local focus and customer service has earned it something of a cult status in the Hamilton region, with its long list of industry and community awards including the Hamilton Spectator and Burlington Post Reader’s Choice Awards for Best Deli, Best Specialty Food Retailer, Best Butcher Shop and Best Sandwich; the Outstanding 22
Business Achievement Award of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce; and the Canadian Retailer of theYear Award from the Canadian Specialty Food Association. Despite its German roots, the company likes to think of the whole world as its kitchen, according to Denninger, citing a string of successful recent new-product launches such as the Japanese Kobe-classic Beef Slider Burgers and Prime Rib Sliders; British-inspired Steak, Cheddar & Ale Pie; French-style Yellow Pea Soup; Italian Marinara sauce; fresh chipotle sausage and glutenfree turkey burgers. Naturally, growing the company’s product portfolio goes hand-in-hand with expanding the capabilities of its processing and packaging equipment, says Denninger, relating the September 2009 purchase of new model R125 thermoforming machine from Multivac Inc. “This is our third Multivac system,” Denninger reveals. “We purchased our first one back in the early 1980s—an M800 D machine—and a few years later purchased a second identical model, which allowed us to have two lines running simultaneously to pack sliced cold-cuts, bacon and pepperette-style sausages.” The new Multivac R125, which replaced one of the
older models, not only performs better when packaging bacon and sausages, according to Denninger, but also provides the production flexibility of being able to pack products containing liquids, such as marinated steak and cabbage rolls with sauce. “For us, the new R125 machine is faster, more versatile, and has the added bonus of having other capabilities that we can utilize in the future when we are ready,” explains Denninger. “For now, we are using it to pack food products with and without liquids, and with or without MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) gases, including bologna, ham, bacon, back bacon, turkey and other selected cold-cuts, as well as fresh and smoked sausages, marinated steaks, cabbage rolls and meatballs.” Conceived and engineered as an economical, nextgeneration thermoforming machine for smaller, growing companies making more use of flexible packaging formats, according to Multivac, the fully-automatic R125 system boasts a new hygienic design and several technological enhancements to optimize the machine’s performance, ergonomics and operational cost-efficiencies. “While price is obviously a major factor for all smaller
WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • JUNE 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
companies making major capital expenditures,” reflects Denninger, “so too is the quality of the equipment, and having our other Multivacs work as well as they did for the past 30 years really made our decision to purchase a new model a nobrainer. “We found that the R125’s design has actually made the cleaning process on both the interior and exterior of the machine faster,” says Denninger, explaining that the open design of the chain and chain-guide facilitates quick-and-easy removal of any contaminants and impurities without the need to disassemble the chain. Moreover, the R125 machine’s exterior design eliminates all the crevices and other dead spaces with smooth graded surfaces that prevent water or dirt from pooling during the daily cleaning—complementing other important hygienic design perks of closed return shafts, a sanitary film intake mechanism, and elimination of exterior threads on height-adjustable feet. “And while the hygienic aspects of the machine are very important to us,” notes Denninger, “so too is its packaging capabilities that have helped us create fantastic seals around our products in a faster and more efficient manner. “As we continue to experiment with this fine piece of equipment,” she extols, “we feel that its ability to package meats and liquids together will prove to be even more financially lucrative for us in the very near future.”
Liverwurst sausages hanging around Denninger’s cold-storage room await their turn to be packed and shipped to one of the six local retail outlets the company operates in the Hamilton area. F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :
A recent equipment purchase by Denninger includes a CCS 304 slicer manufactured by Weber Inc., used in conjunction with a new Multivac R125 thermoformer.
Multivac Canada Inc. Reiser (Canada) Limited Weber Inc. VC999 Canada Ltd. Packall Packaging Inc. Cryovac (Div. of Sealed Air Corp.) Canada Inc. Canadian Pack., April, Format 200 x 273 mm, LCS, Buckhorn CC-en37-AZ042 03/10 IPL Inc.
FINE SLICE
To get the most mileage from its new Multivac, Denninger adds, the plant also purchased a CCS 304 slicing machine from Weber Inc. to work alongside it. Boasting maximum blade speed of 600rpm (revolutions per minute), the compact CCS 304 system can produce up to 1,200 slices per minute in six different presentation styles—including ultra-thin shavings only 0.5-mm-thick—with open-access design also facilitating tool-free disassembly for a fast, thorough cleaning. All the packaging machines employed at the Denninger plant in Hamilton— also including the Dixie Union machine supplied by Reiser (Canada) Limited for packaging sausages; as well as a pair of VC999 model 07 DK vacuum-packers, a shrink tunnel and a dryer to package hams, roasts and smoked meats—use high-quality flexible packaging films that Denninger purchases from top suppliers such as VC999 Canada Ltd., Packall Packaging Inc. and the Cryovac food packaging division of the Sealed Air Corporation, Denninger relates. “Along with the family name, over the past 55 years there has been one main constant at Denninger—and that is the high quality of all of our products,” asserts Denninger. “Quality was the founding criteria of our company, and it still is the same today. “So even though we are now into our third generation,” she concludes, “Denninger continues to uphold the high ideals of our grandparents to offer the very best in specialty food items, as we look forward to serving our loyal customers for many more years to come.” CANADIAN PACKAGING
»Almost perfect« isn’t good enough A Krones line is like fine sterling silver. Superb and sophisticated design, engineering and craftsmanship. Meticulous attention to detail. A line you can sit back and enjoy, confident that it will serve you flawlessly into the future. Just like fine silver, your line will eventually require maintenance and elbow grease to eliminate the “tarnish” and wear of everyday use. Not to worry. Krones Lifecycle support team will return it to its original brilliance. Perfection is our heritage. www.krones.com FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE
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PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
Tina Kalogrias, Vice-President
BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY PIERRE LONGTIN
Christos Kalogrias, President, Arahova Inc.
George Kalogrias, Vice-President, Research & Development
SPREADING THE JOY Tasty spreads and dips enable Greek-food restaurant operator to gain a solid foothold in the retail markets
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ometimes, simply being the best in your chosen field is not enough. But it certainly wasn’t vanity or greed that prompted Laval, Que.-based restaurateur Arahova Souvlaki to dip its toes in the consumer marketplace—just the fact that burgeoning local demand for the company’s mouthwatering range of tasty and flavorful Greek-cuisine dips and sauces grew way too big to be satisfied through the 15 family restaurants it operates in the Montreal area. Once voted as the best souvlaki restaurant in Montreal in a local consumer survey, the family-owned Greek restaurant chain—founded in 1971 by company president Christos Kalogrias, and named after a picturesque village set in the foothills of Delphi in his native Greece—offers a compelling example of how paying attention to the little things can work true wonders for the big picture. “While our menu consists of original Greek dishes such as tzatziki, taramosalata, skordalia, spankopita, pita specialties, gyros, kids menus, salads and, of course, our outstanding souvlaki, we have become quite renowned for our variety of Greek dipping sauces,” says Les Produits Arahova (Arahova Inc.) vice-president Tina Kalogrias, relating how this niche forte ultimately prompted the company to open up its own dedicated processing plant in Laval in 1993—not only to supply its restaurants, but also to spread around the joy of its all-natural dip creations in the local retail and foodservice markets. “Our retail products have been highly successful for us—they contain no preservatives, have a great taste, and are created from a secret file of family recipes,” Kalogrias told Canadian Packaging in a recent interview, while singing praises of the Mediterranean diet as one of the healthiest around. “We credit our success and ingenuity to our Greek
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family recipes and the fact that Arahova is always reinventing itself with new products based on those recipes,” she says, citing the recent launch of “light” versions of the company’s bestselling dips. The company’s 8,000-square-foot processing and
packaging Laval plant churns out nearly 10 tonnes of dip products per week, according to Kalogrias, with its signature ArahovA Tzatziki spread brand—packaged in bottles and plastic tubs—accounting for nearly 75 per cent of its retail business.
Arahova uses a ControlGMC FDS2500 to fill bottles, tubs and pails with its dips and sauces.
WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • JUNE 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
Other retail products produced at the HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points)-certified facility include tantalizing original creations such as Feta Cheese & Greek Olives; Taramosalata; Hot Feta Cheese; Roasted Pepper & Feta Cheese; Greek Spinach; Tzatziki Light and Greek Spinach Light, chicken souvlaki seasoning spices and hummus. Because the competition in today’s retail marketplace is so fierce, Kalogrias acknowledges, Arahova has formed a partnership with a nearby third-party meat products copacker Expresco Foods Inc. of Mount-Royal, Que., to reproduce some of its signature restaurant dishes in retail-friendly packaged foods such as Arahova’s Moussaka Mediterranean Meat Pie, the 12-portion Kreatopita Filo Meat Pie, Spanokapita Spinach and Feta Filos and Triopita Feta Cheese & Filo, which are sold across Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick through Loblaws, IGA and Costco supermarkets, with Walmart expected to follow suit soon. “There is also ‘combination packages’ of cuisine featuring a tzatziki dip produced at the Arahova facility, but packaged at Expresco with its souvlaki meat products,” notes Kalogrias, estimating that Expresco processes about five tonnes of pork per week specifically for the souvlaki sold at Arahova’s restaurants and through the retail stores. According to Kalogrias, building up a solid presence in retail markets has naturally required the company to acquire a fair bit of knowledge and expertise about food packaging techniques and technologies, as well as make significant investments in related packaging machinery, equipment and supplies.
Arahova’s popular Tzatziki spread is filled in PET bottles manufactured by Summum Plastiques.
A plastic tub manufactured by Jokey Plastics has lot and best-before product data printed on it by a Hitachi PB-260U continuous inkjet coder supplied by Harlund Industries.
HOME BASE
For various reasons, Kalogrias says the company prefers to deal with Canadian-based packaging suppliers, citing the September 2006 purchase of a new FDS2500 model filling machine manufactured by ControlGMC Inc., a wellestablished designer and manufacturer of fully-automatic tub, tray, bucket, and pail filling and closing lines based near Montreal in Boucherville, Que. Featuring a modular design configuration that enables it to fill liquid, dry, viscous or sticky products on the same machine in many different shapes and sizes of plastic, paperboard and aluminum containers, the machine’s highperformance features include a oneby-one lid and container escapement system, an air-removing closing head, and a user-friendly touchscreen Simatic HMI (human-machine interface) control panel from Siemens. “It’s been a very good machine for us, running at a speed of 40 cycles per minute,” says Kalogrias. “We’ve found that the set-up time for our dips only takes about 20 minutes or so,” shes notes, while also complimenting the high quality of 12- and 16-ounce plastic tubs and five-liter pails—supplied by the Goderich, Ont.based Jokey Plastics North America Incorporated—used for dips and sauces dispensed by the FDS2500 filler. “We’ve been using the Jokey plastic tubs for quite a while now,” she remarks, “and the strength of their product translates directly into the strength of our product—providing the ArahovA Continues on page 26
A powerful package! The new EGC electric axis - as a spindle or toothed belt axis - is setting new standards for power, dynamics, precision and smooth running. For loads up to 400 kg and strokes up to 8,500 mm - try it yourself!
Festo Inc. Tel: 1 877 GO FESTO Fax: 1 877 FX FESTO festo.canada@ca.festo.com www.festo.ca/egc FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE
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PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
SPREADING THE JOY Continued from page 25
brands with great visual appeal on the retail shelves.” In addition to Jokey tubs, the FDS2500 filler also handles clear, 500-gram plastic PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles—supplied by the Anjou, Que.based plastic container manufacturer Summum Plastiques Inc.—for packaging sauces and condiments such as the popular Tzatziki spread, using a shrink-tunnel manufactured by Saturn Packaging Equipment Ltd. of Ville St-Laurent, Que., to apply colorful fullbody shrinksleeves for maximum shelf appeal. To take care of its product coding and traceability requirements, the Arahova plant employs a Hitachi model PB-260U CIJ (continuous inkjet) coder supplied by the Edmonton-headquartered automated identification technologies distributor Harlund Industries Ltd. Positioned right above the ControlGMC filler, the two-line small-character coder—rated for moderate
line speeds and equipped with a specially-designed ink circulation system for minimizing fluid evaporation —is programmed via an 8.9-inch monochrome LCD (liquid crystal display) touchscreen panel, with its easyto-use on-screen menu to facilitating fast operation, maintenance and troubleshooting. According to Hitachi, the coder’s nozzle and gutter are automatically cleaned prior to shutdown to avoid clogging, thus requiring no special procedures, while its viscosity and density control features ensure stable ink drop formation and high print quality when applying the best-before dates, lot code data and other variable product information onto the plastic tubs, just below the lidding. All the filled, sealed and coded Arahova products— some of them packed into folding cartons supplied by the Kingsey Falls, Que.-headquartered Cascades Canada Inc.—are then readied for shipment by being hand-packed into pre-printed corrugated boxes sup-
The FDS2500 filler utilizes a Simatic HMI control panel from Siemens.
plied by the Cascades’ corrugated division Norampac, which also manufactures POP (point-of-purchase) displays for some of Arahova’s product lines. While the Arahova plant’s packaging operation is not about to break any speed or capacity records in the near future, Kalogrias says it does a nice job of helping maintain the company’s carefully nurtured upscale image. “I think that being able to maintain a healthy respect for the culinary traditions of our native Greece here in Canada is what has helped Arahova grow into the successful and well-respected company that it is today,” Kalogrias states. “Combined with our uncompromising insistence on using only the highestquality and freshest ingredients for all of our food items, we’ve managed to carve out quite a fine reputation for ourselves.
YUMMY SHOULD STAY YUMMY! Norampac corrugated cartons filled with bottles of ArahovA’s Tzatziki spread await their turn to be shipped to retail customers in eastern Canada.
“Along with partnering with our friends at Expresco Foods,” she adds, “we realize it is also important to have good working relationships with our equipment and materials suppliers— and we do. “As much as our products’ great taste is responsible for drawing in the customers in the first place,” Kalogrias concludes, “I can’t overstate the importance of the key role that our packaging suppliers play in helping us keep growing the popularity of our products.” F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :
No question – when it comes to our packaging, we‘re at the front of the pack. For 40 years now Jokey has stood for innovation, know-how and an customer satisfaction. Have your product arrive at your customers home as fresh as if it was just packaged! Our unique Fresh Snap and Tamper Evident design guarantees taste, aroma and customer safety. For whatever you package, use Jokey packaging. Your customers will thank you for it.
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ControlGMC Inc. Siemens Canada Limited Hitachi America, Ltd. Harlund Industries Ltd. Jokey Plastics North America Summum Plastiques Inc. Saturn Packaging Equipment Ltd. Cascades Canada Inc. Norampac
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CANADIAN PACKAGING
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PACK EXPO International 2010 now has an expanded focus on packaging, processing and marketplace innovations. Count on finding everything you need to improve efficiency and increase productivity across the line. If you only attend one show in 2010, make it PACK EXPO—the largest packaging and processing show in the world!
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P R O D U C E D B Y: CO-LOCATED WITH:
CORRUGATED
BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY SANDRA STRANGEMORE
Warren Pearce, Co-managing Director, PearceWellwood Inc.
Joanne Caines, Business Development and Marketing Manager Chris Pearce, Co-managing Director
DESIGN & CONQUER Ontario corrugated producer gets a new lease on life in the 21st Century by focusing on new POP market dynamics
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ometimes a corrugated box is just a corrugated box. But for folks in charge of the fast-growing paperboard converter PearceWellwood Inc. in Brampton, Ont., the humble brown-colored shipping carrier represents much more—being a symbolic springboard for a 10-year journey during which the company completely transformed itself from a fairly ordinary brown-box sheet plant into a dynamic supplier of innovative turnkey point-of-purchase (POP) solutions for the North American retail marketplace. Formed back in 1974 by the husband-and-wife tandem of Ed and Sherry Pearce under the Pearce Containers moniker, the family-owned company really started hitting its present-day stride in 2000, when the couple’s two sons, Chris and Warren, moved into senior leadership roles as co-managing directors—ushering in a new strategic direction and corporate vision. While the company still manufactures corrugated shipping cartons today, and doing it very well, corrugated graphic packaging and purchasing displays now account for 50 per cent of its business, according to Warren Pearce. “And out of that 50 per cent, 80 per cent of the POP business is co-packed in-house by us and, again, half of that is fully co-packed, fulfilled with the customer product, and distributed into the market right from our docks,” he explains. “In fact, we see this aspect of our business growing much further, because providing one-stop turnkey solutions, like we do, helps reduce the shipping costs and environmental footprint on behalf of our customers.” The company’s impressive client list certainly gives much credence to his enthusiasm. Along with serving many leading food-and-beverage, software and entertainment, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, and other key consumer packaged goods (CPG) sectors both in Canada and the U.S., PearceWellwood also enjoys the much sought-after “preferred vendor” designa-
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tion of retailing giant Walmart Canada Corp. As part of its relationship with Walmart, PearceWellwood finds itself in a position of being one of Canada’s foremost developers and designers of the so-called ‘retailready packaging (RRP)’ systems, according to Pearce, whereby all the packaging and merchandising materials are designed to enable the products to move directly to store-shelves with minimal handling, while optimizing secondary packaging to display them for shoppers in the most attention-grabbing manner. TOP SCORE
Touted as a perfect companion initiative for Walmart’s vaunted Packaging Scorecard supplier evaluation system, the RRP concept fits in perfectly with PearceWellwood’s own commitment to environmental and packaging sustainability. “As a Walmart preferred supplier, we utilize a special single-face laminating process to reduce the weight of paper by 16 to 20 per cent, which makes it an excellent sustainable product,” states Pearce.
A sample of Singleface Lamination.
“We’re also running the same process for Walmart’s Stationary and Back-To-School marketing campaigns. “We also run our own annual Holiday Program that is set up on a vendor-managed PDQ (pretty darn quick) basis for Walmart,” he quips, “to allow participating vendors to benefit from large-run quantities which we inventory for them and release as holiday requirements come in during the months of June, July and August.” Today employing 135 people at its state-of-the-art Brampton production facility—located about a half-hour drive northwest of Toronto—and a nearby 45,000-squarefoot co-packing and fulfillment center, the company managed to grow and prosper even during the recent Great Recession, contends Pearce, by offering customers unrivaled ‘one-stop-shop’ service capabilities, backed up with superior product quality and competitive pricing. “The POP displays and graphic packaging sector is very
PearceWellwood uses the FMZ 1450 laminator to run Singleface Lamination process for its graphic displays.
WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • JUNE 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
CORRUGATED
BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR
A 160-Vision Bobst diecutter used by PearceWellwood at its Brampton facility.
competitive, but there are few others involved who offer what PearceWellwood offers—a turnkey merchandising solution,” Pearce told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the lively Brampton facility. “I really think what helps set us even further apart is our design sensibility. We know the retail sector, and we always partner with our clients to get the best advice possible to create a display solution that works for the customer, the retailer and the consumer.” Pearce says the company takes a lot of pride in being able to complete challenging projects right from the project conception—from counter units and ‘club packs’ to floor-stands and pallet displays—through all the design, printing, co-packing and delivery stages.
For its part, the QUIKSET Counter Display enables significant reduction in the amount of corrugated used for shipping, Pearce explains, with its clever and flexible design allowing for products to be displayed in individual cavities or grouped together inside a single cavity, while also presenting two sets of completely different graphics—
PEOPLE POWER
According to Pearce, the company’s success is rooted not only in continuous investment in the latest cutting-edge technologies, but also in its dedicated, motivated and highly-talented workforce. “Technology is the enabler, while people create the solution,” he states. “By investing in both, the company protects and enhances its point-of-differentiation for our clients.” Naturally, PearceWellwood is extremely well-versed in all aspects of packaging sustainability, says Pearce, citing several innovative products and processes it has recently brought to market, including: • the SmartPak club-packs manufactured from recycled material; • the Q-Series displays for maximizing pallet-load efficiencies; • the QUICKSET Counter Display for RRP applications; • the aforementioned Singleface Lamination printing process. “The Singleface Lamination production process has proven to be a huge success,” beams Pearce. “The majority of our customers have already switched over to it, because the environmental benefits are too impressive to ignore. “This process enables an overall paper weight reduction of 16 to 20 per cent, which is great for suppliers entered into the Walmart Packaging Scorecard system, and it really does deliver a superior product as well.”
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The Valco Cincinnati Flexoseal Plus MCP-4 quality control system works in tandem with the SunFlexo 1228 folder-gluer to ensure optimal glue application.
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including English and French text, for example—on a single display piece. Meanwhile, the Q-Series system helps achieve significant carbon-footprint reduction through an overhaul of an internal pallet structure by using a thicker printed sheet to wrap a complete pallet display—thereby significantly reducing set-up times, while enhancing in-store presence and pallet stability. According to PearceWellwood, a typical run of 20,000 Q-Series displays has shown to deliver enormous sustainability payoffs compared to using conventional pallets, such as saving 3,836 trees; eliminating 412,500 display components; saving 394,386 liters of oil and 1,568,858 KW of energy; sparing 528 cubic meters of landfill space; and preventing 60,079 kilograms of air pollution. Over the last two years, PearceWellwood has carried out several significant capital investment projects to overhaul and replace most of its key production systems and equipment, Pearce reveals. Continues on page 31
AUTOMATE NOW
LIFTING THEIR SPIRITS A robust multitasking robot takes a heavy burden off the packaging line workers’ backs As empty corrugated cases are conveyed along the righthand side of the Motoman robot arm, the robot simultaneously places two filled bottles into the cases, with the packed cases then making a U-turn at the far-left side of the cell to return for palletizing.
The end-of-arm tool features a special mechanism designed for securely clamping the 20-kg cases during palletizing, typically in three layers of 13 cases each, to ensure absolutely no overhang anywhere on the pallet.
H
eavy lifting may be fun when it’s done for exercise, but doing it repeatedly, shift after shift, on highspeed packaging lines of a major manufacturing operation is not really anybody’s idea of a good time. And for a little while about 18 months ago, a three-person crew manning end-of-line-packaging operations at the Recochem Consumer Packaging Division (Canada) plant in Edmonton, Alta., had little reason to enjoy themselves, as they struggled to keep up with packaging and palletizing large, 9.46-liter containers of windshieldwasher fluid that were suddenly flying off the store-shelves wherever they were sold. “Sales levels of washer fluid and paint thinners in the large 9.46-liter bottle have amazed us in terms of market demand,” recalls plant manager Lawrence Winter. “Sales climbed by 30 per cent in 2009, and they are now up more than 50 per cent since 2007. Accounting for all the various products that we offer in that large container, we’re now processing more than 100,000 cases per year of those large and heavy bottles at our plant.” However, this stellar market success came at a price of very sore and tired packaging crew at the plant—now manhandling fairly heavy, two-bottle cases weighing nearly 20 kilograms each—with the risk of serious back injuries becoming a frightening, and a very costly, possibility. “About 18 months ago we realized we were pushing our people on the packaging line too hard, loading the bottles two at a time into cases and then palletizing 39 heavy cases per pallet in three layers of 13 cases each,” Winter relates. “The physically demanding work not only tired our workers, but the neatness of the pallets also began to suffer, and any overhang of the cases can be a sufficient cause a customer to refuse delivery. “ We needed more precision, and we also wanted to protect our workers from repetitive strain injuries,” says Winter. “That’s why in mid-2008 we began to investigate automated solutions for case-packing and palletizing.” After trying several semi-automated systems, with mixed results, Rechochem’s western operations manager Richard Wu ultimately settled on a fully-automated solution in the form of a model EPL80 palletizing robot from the West Carrolton, Ohio-based Motoman, Inc., a renowned robotics manufacturer now operating as Motoman 30
Robotics Division of the Waukegan, Ill.-headquartered industrial group Yaskawa America, Inc. Boasting 80-inch (2,032-mm) reach and 176-pound (79.8-kg) payload capacity, the compact five-axis EPL80 robot model was designed with a wide, 360-degree work envelope and a minimal footprint that did not require any more floorspace than the 10x25-foot workspace occupied by the manual packing lines it replaced, according to Winter, while its customized end-of-arm tooling enables the robot the both pack the cases and palletize them at high speeds without skipping a beat. Installed in June of 2009 at a total project cost well within the budgeted $182,000—including installation of a customengineered conveyor line—has been getting rave review right from its arrival, notes Winter. “Compared to conventional case-packing and palletizing lines, the robotic line requires minimal maintenance and occupies relatively little floorspace,” he states, explaining that the new conveyor was designed specifically to allow filled cases to flow back into the workcell from an elevated space a foot or so above from where they exit the filling room. GOING UP
“This is accomplished by conveying the bottles onto a small elevating platform that lifts the bottles up 12 inches and deposits them onto a channelizing conveyor,” he explains. “A diverter fills two lanes simultaneously, feeding the bottles side-by-side down the channelizing conveyor and into the packaging cell.” Once sensors signal the robot controller that bottles are in position for pick-up, the robot grabs the bottles two at a time and drops them into a case. Filled cases then convey underneath the channelizing conveyor through a top-sealing operation and make a Uturn back into the robotic cell on the opposite side of the case-packing station, so that the robot can start palletizing them, with the end-of-arm tool allowing it to switch from case-packing to palletizing without a tooling change. Once the cell control senses that a sealed case is ready for palletizing, explains Winter, the robot temporarily stops case-packing and moves towards filled cases on the opposite side of the cell.
“All the robot actions are completely directed and guided by sensors throughout the conveying line,” says Winter. “Its controller knows when a filled case needs to be palletized, as well as sensing the arrival of filled bottles. “So if the filling line should shut down for some reason, the robot will focus on palletizing any remaining filled cases, and then will stand by awaiting the arrival of more filled bottles once the filling line resumes operation.” The entire workcell is managed simultaneously by two control systems, relates Winter. “A PLC (programmable logic controller) side controls all of the conveying elements in the cell, while the robot controller (Motoman’s NX100) directs the robot during case-packing and palletizing.” While one side of the robot’s end-of-arm tool employs pneumatically-actuated mechanical grippers to manipulate the plastic bottles, the opposing size of the tool—used for palletizing—features a small steel plate that slides underneath each packed case. After a mechanical clamping arm applies downward pressure on the top of each case to ensure a firm grip, the palletizing program stored in the robot control locates the precise assigned position of each case on the 40x48-inch pallets, as specified by one of the four different pre-programmed pallet configurations. “The robot has all but eliminated any overhang issues, while dramatically increasing our throughput,” Winter states. “We’re running the cell at 10 bottles per minute, or 35 per cent faster than when we packed and palletized manually. “And we went from three operators required to casepack and palletize on that line to one operator, who only has to monitor cell activity and keep the caseerector filled with flat cartons,” he adds. ‘The other two operators, who were earlier reassigned to the line from other areas of the plant when volume picked up, were able to return to their original, less-physically demanding work areas.” F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :
Motoman Robotics Division of Yaskawa America, Inc.
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WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • JUNE 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MOTOMAN ROBOTICS
Custom-designed, pneumatically-controlled mechanical grippers on the robot’s custom-built end-of-arm tool pick and place 9.46-liter bottles into the cardboard case two at a time.
CORRUGATED
BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR
DESIGN & CONQUER Continued from page 29
“We need state-of-the-art fire-power to run the dynamic, packaging sustainability in coming years. “We’re looking for double-digit growth over the next leading-edge products we’re designing for our customers.” five years by growing our designed merchandising soluThe new technology includes: • a SunFlexo 1228 flexographic folder-gluer, made by the tions segment,” Pearce sums up, “which means we must Korean-based Sechang Machine Ind Co., Ltd., to continue to invest in resources and our people. “We’ve got the creative people, the desire and the techmanufacture retail-ready packaging and corrugated boxes. Designed for quick set-ups and rapid changeovers, this nology, so the future looks very bright for PearceWellcomplete equipment line automatically prints, shapes, folds wood indeed.” and glues corrugated board, with its onboard, microprocessor-based Flexoseal PLUS MCP-4F glue system from F O R M O R E I N F O R M A T I O N O N : Valco Cincinnati Inc. boasting precise adhesive patSechang Machine Ind Co., Ltd. 460 tern control for ensuring accurate application of optimal Meiguang Machinery Co., Ltd. 461 amounts of glue onto the board. Bobst Group Inc. 462 • a model FMZ 1450 automatic laminator from Meiguang Bay Machinery Company 463 Machinery Co., Ltd. for making graphic display packSiemens Canada Limited 464 aging, utilizing the Singleface Lamination process. Valco Cincinnati Inc. 465 Featuring a Siemens PLC (programmable logic conRockwell Automation Inc. 466 troller) that simplifies the machine’s electric structure Operator prepping the SunFlexo 1228 flexo folder-gluer for a run. Alliance Machine Systems Int’l 467 and stabilizes the control system, the FMZ 1450 also utilizes a variable-frequency drive to achieve varying machine speeds without needing to stop first, while handling a broad range of paper sizes at throughput speeds up to 6,000-sph (sheets per hour). • a model 160-Vision diecutter manufactured by Bobst Group—rated for throughput speeds up to 5,500-sph and handling a broad sheet size from 600x520-mm up to 1,600x1,100-mm. Protect your investment. More than “It’s been a very good machine for us—not 40,000 packaging machines are in use only is it highly automated, it’s easy to operaround the globe with Schneider Electric ate and it allows the operators to set up and and Elau solutions. run quickly,” explains Pearce. “It continues to give us optimal production performance Get connected to our worldwide with each and every run.” service and complete machine • a powered conveyor system—manufaclifecycle management. tured by Bay Machinery Company— Ask Schneider Electric’s North America utilizing a combination of 60- and 72Packaging Technology and Solution inch rollers and four- and five-bar chain Center experts to help your machines transfers in an innovative design configubecome faster, more flexible, more reliable ration that helped the plant eliminate two and more energy efficient. tow-motors from its process. In addition to the above equipment, the For more information visit www.SEreply.com and plant also operates two other flexographic enter keycode s956w, or call us at 800-265-3774. folder-gluers, two rotary diecutters, several gluing lines, and a jumbo-sized printing press. With both of its facilities fully-certified to the ISO 9001 international quality FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 126 management assurance standards and the HAACP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) protocol for food contact safety—the fulfillment center also boasting the DEL (Drug Establishment License) designation that allows it to package products regulated by Health Canada—Pearce insists the company is well-positioned to take advantage of the improving economy and continued industry emphasis on
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Improve machine and business performance.
An Allen-Bradley PanelView 300 Micro interface from Rockwell Automation controls operations of the Alliance Machine Systems’ Loadmaster semi-automatic palletizer.
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people People
l Industrial automation systems and technologies supplier Bosch Rexroth Canada Corporation of Welland, Light Ont., has appointed Tom Light as president and general manager; John Mataya as financial controller, with additional responsibilities for human resources and information technology departments; and Ed Cloutier as director of national sales and marketing, in addition to his current responsibilities as head of the company’s Factory Automation unit.
business, once the company’s recently-announced acquisition of CCE North America—expected by the end of the year—has been successfully completed. l Lenze Americas, Uxbridge, Mass.based supplier of motion control systems and equipment, has appointed Deb Kling as manager of distribution programs.
Mataya
Hutchings
Kling
l Cambridge International, Inc., Cambridge, Md.based manufacturer of metal conveyor belting and wirecloth products for food-and-beverage processing, high-tech manufacturing, automotive assembly and other industrial applications, has appointed Tracy Tyler as president and chief executive officer, and Tyler Ross Tom Ross as chief operating officer.
Cloutier
l The Coca-Cola Company has announced plans to appoint Steve Cahillane, currently president of the North American business unit for Coca-Cola Enterprises Cahillane (CCE) in Atlanta, Ga., as president and chief executive officer of the newly-formed Coca-Cola Refreshments, Inc. (CCR) bottling
Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) has appointed Howard Hutchings as the company’s chief information officer.
l German printing press technologies manufacturer
l Barry-Wehmiller International Resources (BWIR), St. Louis, Mo.-based designer of software systems for engineering and discrete manufacturing industries, has appointed Chris Hric as business development manager for the company’s Global Hric Engineering Solutions business unit. l Toray Plastics (America), Inc., North Kingstown, R.I.-based manufacturer of polyester and polypropylene films for packaging applications, has appointed Gianfranco Chicarella as product manager for the company’s Torayfan Division, and ScottVanWinter Chicarella as vice-president and general Van Winter manager of the Lumirror Polyester Film Division unit. ®
l Nordson Corporation, Duluth, Ga.-based manufacturer of dispensing and applicating systems for adhesives, sealants, coatings and other industrial materials, has appointed George Porter as vice-president of North American adhesives sales and service; John Schnarr as director of strategic marketing; and Alan Ramspeck as manager of product management. l Astro-Med, Inc., West Warwick, R.I.-based manufacturer of digital-based priniting systems, has appointed Eric Pizzuti as vice-president and worldwide sales director of its QuickLabel Systems business unit. l TricorBraun, St. Louis, Mo.headquartered designer and manufacturer of rigid packaging products for consumer packaging applications, has appointed George Dempsey as chief operating officer and Mark Shepherd as executive vice-president.
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l Multi-Color Corporation,Batavia, Ohio-headquartered manufacturer of pressure-sensitive, heat-transfer, glueapplied and in-mold labels for consumer packaging applications, has announced the promotion of current chief operating officer Nigel Vinecombe as new president and chief executive officer—taking over from the company’s former chief executive Frank Gerace, who is retiring this month. l U.K.-headquartered product coding, marking and identification technologies group Domino Printing Sciences plc has appointed Alan Mutch as product manager for the company’s TIJ (thermal inkjet) product lines, Peter Lister as product manager for the company’s secondary coding technologies, and Jon Pritchard as sector manager for the digital Mutch printing market—all to be based at the c o m p a n y ’s global headquarters in Cambr idge, Lister Pritchard England.
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CANADIAN PACKAGING
events EVE N T S
June 22-25 Mexico City: EXPO PACK Mexico, international packaging technologies exhibition and conference by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). Contact PMMI at (703) 243-8555; or go to: www.packexpo.com June 29-30 Barcelona, Spain: Digital Label Summit, digital labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc. At Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I. To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com July 14-15 Miami, Fla.: MATTECH 2010, material handling, manufacturing, packaging and supply chain technologies exhibition by B&B Expositions.At the Miami Beach Convention Center. Contact B&B at (941) 320-3216; or go to: www.mattech.us
Oct. 4-8 Baltimore, Md.: Corrugated Week 2010, joint fall meetings and supplier trade fairs of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) and the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters (AICC). At the Hyatt and Hilton hotels.To register, go to: www.tappi.org or www.aiccbox.org Oct. 17-20 Norfolk,Va.: TAPPI PEERS Conference, technical symposium on Pulping, Engineering, Environment, Recycling and Sustainability (PEERS) by the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI).To register, go to: www.tappi.org Oct. 20-22 Monaco: Luxe Pack Monaco, luxury packaging exhibition by Luxe Pack Monaco. At Grimaldi Forum.To register, go to: www.luxepackmonaco.com
Oct. 27 - Nov. 3 Düsseldorf, Germany: K 2010, international trade fair for plastics and rubber by Messe Düsseldorf. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf Canada at (416) 598-1524; or via email: messeduesseldorf@germanchamber.ca Oct. 31 - Nov. 3 Chicago: PACK EXPO International 2010, international packaging technologies exhibition and conference by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). At McCormick Place. Contact PMMI at (703) 243-8555; or go to: www.packexpo.com Nov. 1-3 Chicago: AIM Expo, auto ID (automatic identification) technologies conference and exposition by the Association for Automatic Identification and Mobility (AIM). At Hyatt Regency O’Hare. To register, go to: www.AIM-Expo.com
July 14-16 Shanghai, China: ProPak China 2010, international processing, packaging and end-line printing exhibition by Allworld Exhibitions. Concurrently with the China BevTek 2010 exhibition. Both at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. In Canada, contact Canada Unlimited Inc. at (416) 237-9939; or go to: www.propakchina.com July 22-23 Tokyo, Japan: Label Forum Japan 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc and Label Shimbun. At Bellesalle Shiodome.To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com Sept. 8-9 Baltimore, Md.: Ink Jet Technology Showcase 2010, by Information Management Institute, Inc. (IMI).At Sheraton Baltimore City Center Hotel. Contact IMI at (207) 235-2225; or go to: www.imiconf.com Sept. 7-10 Beijing, China: China Brew China Beverage (CBB), international brewing and beverage processing technology and equipment exhibition by China National Building Material & Light Industrial Machinery Group Corp. and Messe München GmbH. At the International Exhibition Center. To register, go to: www.chinabrew-beverage.com Sept. 14-16 Chicago: Labelexpo Americas 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc. At Donald E. Stephens Convention Center. To register, go to: www.labelexpoamericas.com Sept. 17-19 Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont.: Packaging Summit, packaging sustainability conference by PAC-The Packaging Association and the Canadian Council of Grocery Distributors (CCGD).At Queen’s Landing Hotel. Contact Lisa Abraham at (416) 490-7860, ext. 213; or via email labraham@pac.ca Oct. 1-4 Bangalore, India: PROMACH 2010, international exhibition of process and plant machinery by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). At the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre.To register, go to: www.promach.co.in
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C H E C KO U T
BY RHEA GORDON
Product variety and packaging savvy telling signs of organic growth
••• Rebranding truly iconic food products is always a risky proposition, but hats off to Kraft Canada Inc. for clever use of its collective ‘noodle’ to pitch the old stalwart Kraft Dinner Original macaroni-and-cheese boxes to a
new generation of college and university students with catchy ‘Gotta be KD’ television commercials—serving up various dinner scenarios to capitalize on the product’s long-enduring allure of great taste, unrivaled convenience and ultimate coolness. Glad to see that the 225-gram paperbox itself hasn’t been put through too much of a makeover—firmly retaining its timeless brand identity— except for an updated, vibrant blue-hued background topped with a crisp image of the familiar mound of cheddar-orange macaroni noodles on a fork that seems to virtually jumps right off the box. Naturally, the brand’s phenomenal success has inspired a lot of imitators over the years, including organic variations on the theme such as the Life Choices Organic Macaroni and Cheese— imported here by Life Choices Natural Foods Corp. of Toronto. In addition to the USDA Organic symbol to legitimize the product’s organic credentials, the 170-gram of whole-wheat shells with flax and a white-cheddar sauce mix also boasts a playful Kid Certified checkmark at the top of the box—a welcome reassurance to parents everywhere that their kids will gobble the stuff up despite all of its ‘good-for-you’ pretensions. And while I still find it odd that two boxes of virtually identical dimensions are used to package a fairly varying amount of product by weight—some 55 grams to be precise—both brandowners deserve credit for using boxes made from 100-percent recycled fibers. ••• Offering consumers eco-friendly alternatives to traditional products is fast becoming an established modus operandi for leading retailers, but it is still something of a leap of faith for CPG (consumer packaged goods) brandowners such as The Clorox Company of Canada, Ltd., whose new Green Works natural all-purpose cleaner— a mixture of a coconut-based cleaning agent (non-ionic surfactant) and corn-based ethanol—will undoubtedly cut into the sales of the company’s traditional, signature
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
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416-764-1497 X-RAY INSPECTION SERVICE What would you do if you have or suspect Foreign Object Contamination?
RISK IT? SCRAP IT? INSPECT IT? Reclaim good product so you can ship with confidence & protect your brand reputation. CFIA approved x-ray system detects metals down to 0.8 mm. Stainless (even foil packaging) as well as glass, stone, bone, etc. Case-size also available. Onguard Product Inspection Inc. Tel: 905-631-8456 Fax 905-631-9307 info@onguardinspection.com www.onguardinspection.com
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R.S. No. 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119-124 125 126 127 128 129 130
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX Page Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. 4 Canpaco Inc. 18 CombiScale 36 29 Eagle Packaging Machinery Eriez Magnetics 33 Festo Inc. 25 Flexlink Systems Canada 7 Fortress Technology Inc. 31 Harlund Industries Ltd. 7 Intelligrated 8 Jokey Plastics North America 26 Krones Machinery Co. Inc. 23 Markem-Imaje 35 MetroLabel Ltd. 9 15 Norampac Inc. Nordson Canada 20 Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute 27 Premier Tech Systems 33 QuickLabel Systems, 11 An Astro Med Product Group SEW-Eurodrive Co. of Canada 2 Schneider Electric 31 Scotiabank 32 StrongPoint Automation 9 Summum Plastiqes 6 Videojet Technologies Canada 3
household cleaner brands. Recommended for use on counters, appliances, stainless steel, sealed granite, chrome, cook-top hoods, sinks and toilets, the product’s light-green color is a perfect natural complement to the 946-ml spray-bottle’s green label—nicely accentuated with an orange-yellow flower image—offering a calm and reassuring message of environmental consciousness on retail shelves brimming with bottles packing purple, burgundy, brown, bright-blue and other loud-colored formulations. ••• One thing that might have held the organic products back from gaining more widespread consumer acceptance so far is the fact that many of them just take themselves a little too seriously, with their packaging designs typically dominated by somber colors and subdued, nature-inspired imagery that simply gets all too repetitive after a while. Hence, many thanks to Pure Fun Confections Inc. for daring to have some real fun with the packaging for its Pure Fun Better For You Candy Organic Pure Pops brand by using 1960s-inspired imagery and colors—hot-pink, brilliant blue, mustard-yellow et al—to capture the imagination of both kids and their parents alike. Packing 22 lollipops per bag—with wickedly-named flavors ranging from Wacky Watermelon to Loony Lemon and Giddy Green Apple— the USDA Organic-labeled, Kosher-approved lollipops offer a reasonably healthy alternative to the traditional sugar-loaded suckers that even the strictest of parents could possibly acquiesce to, especially after reading the package’s resounding assurances of containing absolutely no pesticides, artificial flavors, GMOs (genetically-modified organisms) or gluten. Rhea Gordon is a real-estate law clerk living in Toronto.
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PHOTOS BY ELENA LANGLOIS
Messy bowls, measuring cups, spoons and forks, mixers, wet ingredients, dry ingredients, not enough space to lay everything out, the spills, the clean-ups .... really, why on earth would anyone really want to make pancakes from scratch in the 21st Century? What if you only needed a spatula, a hot griddle, and a couple of magical spray containers that would spray out the pancake mix and some non-stick oil into the pan, and all you have to do is watch them sizzle, turn color, and flip them over when it’s time? And also make sure that it’s healthy as well? Well, that time has arrived at our household following a fairly involved scouting mission that has unearthed two wonderfully innovative, organic spray-on products. The all-natural Martelli 100% Italian Grape Seed Oil Spray—imported here by the Vaughan, Ont.-based Carrara Foods Inc.—is a picture of slim kitchen elegance and convenience, with the elongated 250-ml container topped off with a well-designed nonaerosol pump that places perfectly-sized deposits of the oil right where you want it to go on the skillet. For its part, the towering 454-gram spray canister of the Organic Batter Blaster Original Pancake & Waffle Batter is a perfectly fitting packaging tribute to the much-romanticized boldness, brashness and frontier spirit traditionally associated with the U.S. state of Texas, where the stuff is made by Batter Blaster LLC. Packing enough batter to make 10 to 12 decent-sized pancakes, or a good plateful of waffles or crepes, the product’s noticeably ‘organic’ taste may not sit all that well with the more discriminating pancake purists, but it’s not anything that a nice dash of some organic, 100-percent Canadian maple syrup couldn’t fix in a hurry.
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