Canadian Packaging November 2023

LINERLESS LABELING Page 22

PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS Page 28

AUTOMATE NOW Page 34 SERVING CANADA’S PACKAGING COMMUNITY SINCE 1947

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CASHING IN THE CHIPS Pita chips producer puts food safety first by partnering with third-party X-Ray inspection and rework service provider Story on Page 17

FROM LEFT: AMEEN FADEL, PRESIDENT, SURRIA FADEL, CO-FOUNDER, CEDAR VALLEY SELECTIONS

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November 2023 Vol. 76, No. 9 canadianpackaging.com

COVER STORY

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17 CASHING IN THE CHIPS Family-owned snack-food producer overcomes a potentially devastating food safety scare with the help of a new third-party X-Ray product inspection and rework service founded to help food producers avoid costly recalls and tarnished brand reputation.

FEATURES

22 The Veal Appeal 22

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Canada’s leading veal and lamb processor beefs up its sustainability credentials with installation of an automated weighing and labeling system incorporating revolutionary linerless labeling technology that leaves virtually no landfill-bound waste behind.

28 The Right Stuff

Rural Ontario meat processor resolves its packaging line bottleneck issues with new high-performance automated meat packaging and processing equipment.

DEPARTMENTS

COLUMNS

NEWSPACK 6-8 Packaging news round-up.

FROM THE EDITOR 4 George Guidoni Coca-Cola Canada’s switch to 100-percent recycled bottles is leadership by example.

NOTES & QUOTES 10-11 Noteworthy industry briefs.

ECO-PACK NOW 13 Sustainable packaging innovations.

ECO-PACK NOW 14 Sustainable packaging innovations.

CHECKOUT 40 Myles Shane Joe Public speaks out on packaging hits and misses.

IMPACT 15 A monthly insight from PAC Global.

PEOPLE 38 Celebrating a stellar career in packaging.

34 The Centre of Attention

A brand new facility for live testing and demonstration of high-end automated packaging solutions is already drawing rave reviews from Crawford Packaging’s customers looking to improve their packaging line efficiencies and productivity.

38 Life of a Salesman

Bidding a fond farewell to one of the Canadian corrugated packaging industry’s beloved elder statesmen calling time on a distinguished 50-plus-year career in the corrugated business.

ISSN 0008-4654. Canadian Packaging is published 10 times per year by Annex Business Media. Canada Post Publications Mail Agreement No. 40065710. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to: Circulation Department, 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1. No part of the editorial content in this publication may be reprinted without the publisher’s written permission. © 2023 Annex Publishing & Printing Inc. All rights reserved.

Opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or publisher. No liability is assumed for errors or omissions. All advertising is subject to the publisher’s approval. Such approval does not imply any endorsement of the products or services advertised. Publisher reserves the right to refuse advertising that does not meet the standards of this publication. Printed in Canada.

ON THE COVER Cedar Valley Selections co-founders Ameen Fadel and Surria Fadel strike a cheerful pose alongside a corrugated merchandising display filled with family-size stand-up pouches of their company’s flagship brand pita chips.

Cover photo by Ahmad Sayed.

CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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FROM THE EDITOR

Coca-Cola Canada takes early lead in the race to Circular Economy

M

7.6

MILLION

Pounds of new plastic projected to be taken out of production each year starting in 2024

4

oving the needle on packaging sustainability in a really meaningful way is naturally getting trickier all the time, as companies large and small continue to jump on the sustainability bandwagon en masse to demonstrate their commitment to the cause with presumably more sustainable packaging options for their products.

While all these efforts are commendable, they often lack the critical mass or scale to produce quick, tangible and far-reaching results that make a significant contribution to larger efforts to fight global warming and climate change.

Part of that is due to the fact that packaging is actually less of a contributor to the global warming than it is often portrayed to be and, frankly, not all seemingly sustainable packaging options are cut from the same cloth in terms of their effectiveness, reliability and availability.

So with that said, the recent announcement by Coca-Cola Canada that it intends to switch all of its 500-ml PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles sold in Canada to same-sized 100-percent recycled PET containers packs a lot of promise in what shapes up to be a truly enormous undertaking for the soft-drink giant next year.

According to The Coca-Cola Company, all of its 500-ml sparkling beverage bottles sold in Canada will be made with 100-percent recycled plastic—excluding caps and labels—by early 2024.

This will mark the first time that the 500-ml sparkling beverages will be sold in bottles made from 100-percent recycled plastic in Canada, which sounds a little late in the game for a company that has been championing packaging sustainability for a great many years, but being a killjoy is neither here nor there.

According to the company’s early estimates, the nationwide initiative is projected to save 7.6 million pounds of new plastic in 2024 alone, as well as eliminate nearly 7,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually—a rough equivalent of taking 1,500 cars off the road.

“With this transition, no virgin PET plastic will be used for our sparkling 500ml bottles under normal circumstances

CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

going forward in Canada,” says Kurt Ritter, vice-president and general manager for sustainability at Coca-Cola North America.

“We hope that transitioning our 500ml sparkling portfolio to 100-percent recycled plastic will increase the amount of high-quality, food-grade, recycled plastic available in Canada and, ultimately, enable us to offer more of our brands in this sustainable format.”

As Ritter asserts, bottles made with 100-percent recycled plastic help create and sustain a Circular Economy for plastic packaging.

Once the material (PET) is recycled, it is cleaned, sorted and ground into small flakes that become raw material for more new bottles. To build awareness and encourage consumers to continue recycling bottles, all the 100-percent recycled plastic bottles will feature visible Recycle Me Again messaging.

For all proud patriotic Canadians, the fact that all these new bottles will be manufactured in Canada—specifically by the Coca-Cola Canada Bottling plants in Brampton, Ont., Calgary, Alta., and Lachine, Que.—is another good reason to give credit where credit is clearly merited.

“We are proud to partner with The Coca-Cola Company on our transition to 100-percent recycled plastic bottles across Canada,” says Todd Parsons, chief executive officer of Coca-Cola Canada Bottling Limited, which employs about 6,000 Canadians at its costto-coast operations.

“Were on a journey to be the leading beverage partner in Canada,” Parsons states, “and one of the ways we’re doing that is by earning our social license to operate by driving a Circular Economy for our packaging.

“Every one of these 100-percent recycled plastic bottles represents meaningful progress on that journey.”

It’s a wonderful thought: let’s hope it lives up to all the hope, hype and expectations. Cheers!

NOVEMBER 2023 | VOLUME 76, NO. 9 Reader Service Print and digital subscription inquires or changes, please contact Angelita Potal, Customer Service Tel: 416-510-5113 apotal@annexbusinessmedia.com Mail: 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1 Senior Publisher Stephen Dean | (416) 510-5198 SDean@canadianpackaging.com Editor George Guidoni | (416) 510-5227 GGuidoni@canadianpackaging.com Account Coordinator Barb Comer | (888) 599-2228 ext 210 bcomer@annexbusinessmedia.com Audience Development Manager Barbara Adelt | (416) 510-5184 Fax: (416) 510-6875 badelt@annexbusinessmedia.com Media Designer Brooke Shaw | (519) 428-3471 bshaw@annexbusinessmedia.com President/COO Scott Jamieson SJamieson@annexbusinessmedia.com Annex Business Media 111 Gordon Baker Rd., Suite 400, Toronto, ON M2H 3R1; Tel: 416-442-5600.

Canadian Packaging, established 1947, is published 10 times per year except for occasional combined, expanded or premium issues, which count as two subscription issues.

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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, republish, distribute, store and archive such unsolicited submissions in whole or in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort.

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NEWSPACK

states Broun. foray into the direct-to-consumer Frustrated by the lack of market. consistency and availability of As a company built on the high-quality protein powders to promise of healthy living, Impact fuel the needs of Impact Kitchens’ Kitchen took the time to ensure its health-focused menu, the founders product packaging would have set out to create their own minimal environmental impact, formulations to offer the cleanest according to Broun. nutrition possible, Broun relates.

“We opted for Rootree’s flexible Crafted in Canada, the powders packaging because it considerably reduces plastic waste, extends food are meticulously formulated using the best ingredients to fuel an shelf-life, and reduces transportaactive lifestyle. tion costs and emissions due to The whey protein formulation increased space efficiency in a HP Indigo digital press by Toronto wellness eatery is sourced using grass-fed dairy transport truck,” he explains.

Burlington, Ont.-based converter out to make a big impact with no hormones or antibiotics, “Moreover, the packaging was Rootree, and decorated with bold in protein powder market and produced using a proprietary produced in a facility that is lettering and eye-catching With a burning passion for healthy filtration process that concentrates powered by ‘green’ (renewable) upside-down crown logo designed eating and nutrition, Toronto’s energy in partnership with Bullfrog the proteins in a highly purified

by Colborne, Ont.-based branding popular wellness restaurant form, resulting in a product with Power,” Broun adds. agency The Republic.

Impact Kitchen is expanding its exceptional nutritive value.

“And finally, the pouches were “We’re all about challenging the business by launching retail packs For plant-based lovers, Impact printed on carbon-neutral HP status quo and flipping the of the new Impact Everyday Everyday plant protein powder is a Indigo presses digitally, meaning industry upside down,” company protein powder to help athletes blend of four plant-based protein no hefty printing plates that often and other sports enthusiasts stay at co-founder Josh Broun told sources, including organic yellow inevitably end up in the landfill.”

Canadian Packaging while their peak on daily basis. peas, brown rice, organic pumpkin With a mission to provide explaining the logo’s origins.

Available in both Grass Fed seeds, and organic chia seeds. high-quality nutrition that “For us, the inverted logo Whey and Plant Protein formulaWith about 23 grams of protein positively impacts lives, “Impact represents seeing an opportunity tions, the new protein powder per serving, both formulations are Everyday isn’t just about nourishand doing things our way,” says blends are packaged in multiavailable in delicious-tasting ing bodies: it’s about nourishing Broun, adding the new product serve, color-coded resealable chocolate or vanilla flavors. the lifestyle of our community,” represents the company’s first stand-up pouches printed on an 23_007775_Canadian_Packaging_NOV_CN Mod: September 15, 2023 12:00 PM Print: 10/10/23 page 1 v2.5

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Sports drink brand sets sights on Canadian hydration market

Aiming to replicate its mainstream success in its home U.S. markets, the fast-growing BODYARMOR sports drink brand has announced plans to take the Canadian market by storm at the start of next year, rolling out eight different flavors of the coconut water-based product whose widespread popularity enticed The Coca-Cola Company to acquire it outright in 2021.

To be launched in partnership with CocaCola Bottling Canada starting in January, the game-changing sports drink brand will bring its original product, BODYARMOR Sports Drink, as well as the low-calorie version, BODYARMOR LYTE, to consumers across Canada.

Packaged in stubby-shaped, wide-mouth 473-ml PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic containers, the brand’s first wave of flavors to be released in Canada will include: • BODYARMOR Sports Drink: Strawberry

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Banana, Fruit Punch, Orange Mango, Strawberry Grape, Tropical Punch; • BODYARMOR LYTE (hydration drink): Peach Mango, Blueberry Pomegranate, Dragonfruit Berry.

“This is a major moment and key milestone for the BODYARMOR brand and one we do not take lightly,” says Federico Muyshondt, chief executive officer of BODYARMOR Sports Nutrition.

“We have seen incredible growth in the 10-plus years since our inception,” he says, “and are excited to bring our premium line-up of products to new markets, with Canada being our first stop.”

As Muyshondt relates, “We’ve designed the packaging with quick hydration in mind, allowing consumers to enjoy the sport drink through a wide-mouth closure.

“We use a 38-mm-wide mouth closure to hydrate you more quickly and our bottle has a proprietary design and premium feel, as the ribs on the bottle add strength and rigidity,” Muyshondt told Canadian Packaging.

In addition to being sold individually, BODYARMOR also plans to introduce Club-size multipacks at selected Canadian retail locations throughout the year.

Says Muyshondt: “International expansion has been on our mind for quite a while, and we are extremely proud to be able to make this happen in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company and Coke Canada Bottling.”

Founded in 2011 by Mike Repole, BODYARMOR shook up the sports drink category by offering a premium coconut water-based product, packed with electrolytes and antioxidants. Low in sodium and high in potassium, the BODYARMOR Sports Drink contains natural flavors and sweeteners, with no colors or dyes from artificial sources.

After experiencing resounding success and seeing first-hand that consumers were looking for better hydration options than what was currently on the market, the brand went on to create BODYARMOR LYTE—a low-calorie hydration drink (just 15 calories per serving), and similar to Sports Drink in terms of having a coconut water base with no artificial flavors, colors or dyes.

“Canadians’ love of sports is as diverse as the people who live in our communities, making Canada a great choice to lead BODYARMOR’s international expansion,” says Coca-Cola Canada Bottling president and chief executive officer Stephen du Toit.

“There’s nothing like BODYARMOR in the Canadian market today,” he says, “and we know this product is going to delight Canadians coast-to-coast-to-coast.

“We’re very pleased to partner with the BODYARMOR team as the first international market to deliver this breakthrough brand to our customers early next year.”

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NOTES & QUOTES

Kellanova Canada president Tony Chow (left) and the rest of the newly-announced leadership team pose for a group at the official celebration of the company’s rebranding last month.

As part of its parent company’s formal restructuring into two separate global businesses, Kellanova Canada and WK Kellogg Canada are the two corporate names of Canadian subsidiaries of the former Kellogg Company, which has competed its split into into two new stand-alone corporations Kellanova and WK Kellogg Co. last month.

Headquartered in Mississauga, Ont., Kellanova Canada will continue to operate as part of a global snacking powerhouse with a renowned portfolio of iconic world-class brands

such as Pringles, Cheez-It, PopTarts, Kellogg’s Rice Krispies Treats, RXBAR, Eggo, Nutri-Grain and MorningStar Farms. “This is the beginning of a new era for Kellanova Canada,” says company president Tony Chow. “We are a bold, ambitious and innovative company with fresh leadership who will steer our new vision and strategy into the future,” Chow adds. “I’m excited about embarking on this journey together to achieve our vision of becoming a global snacking powerhouse, unleashing the full potential of our differentiated brands and our passionate people. The future never tasted better.”

Premium water products manufacturer Flow Beverage Corp. has landed a three-year co-packing agreement with U.S.-based Joyburst Beverages Inc. calling for production

of at least 15 million units of the Joyburst Hydration brand of energy drinks per year at Flow’s production facility in Aurora, Ont. Like the Flow brand of infused waters, the Joyburst Hydration drinks are packaged in Tetra Pak cartons, and are offered in three flavors, complementing Joyburst’s seven existing flavors of energy drinks produced without sugar or natural caffeine sources. “Joyburst is developing a very unique offering in the enhanced hydration market, and we are delighted they have chosen to work with Flow to get Joyburst Hydration Tetra Paks in the hands of consumers across North America,” says Flow Beverage founder and chief executive officer Nicholas Reichenbach. “Our Aurora production facility is ideally suited to help Joyburst reach its production goals, while offering us the expansion potential to grow alongside our partners.”

Leading Toronto-based metal detection and checkweighing systems manufacturer Fortress Technology Inc. has completed the

acquisition of Dynamic Inspection, located in New Zealand, establishing the company’s fourth global manufacturing site in addition to existing facilities in Canada, Brazil and the U.K. Founded in 1998, Dynamic Inspection is the only manufacturer of inline food-grade metal detectors in New Zealand, serving a fast-growing food and dairy processing markets throughout Oceania and neighboring APAC countries. “Dynamic Inspection has always been aligned with maintaining quality and putting every customer’s needs first,” says Fortress Technology regional sales manager Eric Garr, adding Fortress will share its latest advancements in inspection technology with the New Zealand team (picture above)—enabling local engineers to adopt identical manufacturing processes with access to the Canadian teams’ extensive R&D and global food

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safety market intel. “Regardless of where customers purchase our inspection technologies,” Carr says, “they will look the same, and will deliver the same food safety quality control, inspection performance and processing efficiencies.”

Packaging machinery manufacturer R.A. Jones has commenced a massive solar upgrade at its manufacturing facility in Covington, Ky., with installation of a solar roof mount system that is expected to produce more than two million kWh of clean energy annually—more than half of the 250,000-square-foot facility’s energy needs—in the first year. According to R.A. Jones, the installation will make it the first Coesia company in the U.S. to power its facility with photovoltaic systems, which are expected to reduce the company’s electric bill by US$6.4 million over its 30-year life span. When fully operational, the ballasted solar power system will generate 100-percent sustainable, zero-carbon electricity to offset 33,200 tons of atmospheric carbon, which is equivalent to taking 252 cars off the road for 30 years or planting nearly a half a million trees. “For years, R.A Jones has been working to help some of the largest consumer brands in the world meet their sustainability initiatives by lessening the impact their manufacturing processes and packaging have on the environment,” says Jonathon Titterton, chief executive officer of Coesia Americas and R.A Jones. “Our company is firmly committed to being environmentally responsible and ready to transition to renewable energy at our Covington plant.”

Montreal-headquartered frozen fruit and vegetable products manufacturer Nature’s Touch has completed the acquisition of certain assets of Sunrise Growers, SunOpta Inc.’s frozen fruit business with an extensive presence in the U.S. private-label markets. According to Nature’s Touch, the acquisition of Sunrise Growers frozen fruit operations in Edwardsville, Ks., and Jacona, Mexico, aligns perfectly with the company’s vision of creating value for consumers through synergies in scale, product diversity, innovation, geographic

reach and growth prospects. “This acquisition is more than just a business transaction—it marks a deliberate step towards a future that is more integrated, innovative and impactful,” says Nature’s Touch chief executive officer John Tentomas. “It puts us in the unique position of providing North American consumers with the most expansive network of freezing and distribution facilities on the continent, with our combined strengths propelling us to new heights—quicker and with renewed vigor.”

Packaging machinery and consumables distributor Crawford Packaging of London, Ont., has reached partnership and distribution agreement in central Mexico with StePacPPC, a leading global supplier of MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) solutions for shelf-life extension of fresh produce by naturally altering gas composition and controlling moisture within the packaging—creating an environment that extends the produce shelf-life, preserves freshness, and reduces spoilage in the supply chain. According to Crawford, the new agreement builds upon an already well-established cooperation between the two companies in Canada. “We are excited to announce our partnership with StePacPPC in Mexico,” says Xavier Peña, general manager of Crawford’s produce division. “This collaboration will allow us to offer a wider range of innovative packaging solutions and further strengthen our position as a trusted industry partner.”

November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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Dan Schmidt Vice President and General Manager STRETCHING THE LIMITS Designed to provide beverage, food, home and personal care product companies a new sustainable solution for secondary packaging, Sidel’s new EvoFilm Stretch stretch film technology can enable end-users to achieve 90-percent energy savings and a 50-percent reduction in plastic film consumption, according to the company. Removing the need for any heat, the breakthrough wrapping technology involves pre-stretching the film and wrapping it around the primary packaging, thus reducing plastic film consumption while using significantly less energy. With speeds up to 80 packs per minute, the new solution quickly stretches the film and applies the correct wrapping force to any packaging format. Applicable to all types of containers from 0.1- to eight-liter capacity in bulk or multipacks, and for a wide range of pack formats, the versatile EvoFilm Stretch is a modular solution that can be used as a single unit as well as part of a complete line, with its user-friendly design facilitating a tool-less manual format changeover in less than 12 minutes per module. Capable of handling recycled film structures, EvoFilm Stretch also removes the need for a shrink tunnel and tunnel discharge equipment—creating a smaller, more compact operational footprint for the users.

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Blacksburg, VA — ESS Technologies, a Pacteon Company, is pleased to announce the appointment of Dan Schmidt to Vice President and General Manager for ESS. Dan will lead overall operations of the company with a focus on delivering to the Pacteon Promise to Make it Right. Dan brings extensive engineering and packaging equipment industry knowledge having spent 25 years in the industry.

Prior to joining ESS, Dan served as Director of Engineering for Triangle Packaging Machinery Corp, Manager of Engineering for Buehler, A Division of Illinois Tool Works, and Senior Principal Engineer for Baxter Healthcare. Dan is also a Wisconsin Air National Guard Master Sergeant, retired, having served from 1985 to 2009.

About ESS Technologies, Inc. ESS Technologies, Inc., founded in 1993, specializes in end-of-line packaging design, manufacture, and integration. Our product expertise includes horizontal and vertical cartoners, vertical, horizontal, and wrap around case packers, robotic pallet cells, and TaskMate Robotic Systems® custom designed robotic cells for pick-and-place, machine loading and unloading, and assembly processes.

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Compostable films producer gears up for a greener future

A

s the sustainability agenda continues to drive positive change across many industries, including the fresh produce sector, the search for environmentally responsible packaging alternatives has taken centre stage for many brands and producers.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Futamura Group is the world’s leading manufacturer of cellulosic films, having has supplied renewable and compostable packaging solutions to the fresh produce industry since 2003.

Produced at manufacturing plants in Japan, U.K. and the U.S., the company’s flagship NatureFlex brand of films are made from renewable wood pulp sourced from responsibly managed plantationsand meet all standards for industrial composting, including the international EN13432 standard.

With the demand for viable alternatives to conventional plastic packaging greater than ever, these versatile cellulosic films can be used independently or in conjunction with materials like

paper and cartons for a broad range of sustainable packaging solutions.

Today, NatureFlex films are used for packaging a broad array of fresh products—ranging from peppers and radishes to a diverse selection of whole fruits and vegetables— making them an adaptable and sustainable choice for a cross-section of packaging needs..

To address growing demand, Futamura has recently celebrated the opening of a new state-ofthe-art production line, in Wigton, U.K. (see picture), increasing the plant’s manufacturing cap-

acity by 25 per cent and improving customer lead-times.

According to the company, the new one-ofa-kind casting machine will boost the production site’s capacity by around 25 per cent.

“The successful commissioning of this tailor-made machine is a testament to the unwavering commitment and hard work of our team, especially our engineering department, who has carefully built the machine from the ground up,” says Adrian Cave, managing director at Futamura Cellulose Films Europe.

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COVER STORY

Cedar Valley Selections co-founder and president Ameen Fadel founded the company as part of his high-school project back in 2017, using his family’s authentic Middle Eastern cuisine recipes to create a fast-growing brand of all-natural fried pita chips now retailing across Canada.

CASHING IN THE CHIPS Third-party X-Ray inspection and rework service helps fledgling pita chips producer save its precious cargo from the garbage heap

By George Guidoni, Editor Photos by Ahmad Sayed

CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

I

n these days of runaway food inflation and high anxiety about food security, throwing away pallet loads of packaged food items on a mere suspicion of foreign material contamination is definitely in bad taste, if not morally reprehensible.

And yet, it happens more often than the food industry would like the public to know, with food producers often taking the better-safe-than-sorry route of sending the suspect foreign material contaminated products to landfill rather than trying to pinpoint the source of contamination on the account of it being too difficult, too time-consuming, or otherwise too inconvenient.

While this is to some extent under-

standable, since sending unsafe food into the market can lead to disastrous consequences—from costly product recalls to heavy fines and serious damage to a brand’s reputation—the fact remains that two wrongs hardly make a right.

While avoiding accidental food contamination is naturally the best safeguard for not having to face such a difficult choice, there are many ways that tiny contaminants and debris can make their way into the finished packages during high-speed packaging line operations typically involving a lot of moving machinery and metal components generating tiny waste particles that can get inside food packages completely undetected.

No matter the size of the food procesNovember 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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COVER STORY

Above: Made from 100-percent Canadian wheat, the Cedar Valley brand pita chips are fried in coconut oil to make sure that they are completely free from saturated fats, while maintaining their all-natural ingredient deck and flavorful, crunchy texture and taste profile.

Right: The family-size, resealable stand-up pouches used by Cedar Valley Selections to package its retail product are made from a three-layer structure containing a middle aluminum foil line to extend the product’s shelf-life and freshness. sor, they can experience contaminate issues whether they have metal detectors of not.

The reality is that these devices have their technological limitations, and even though they are operating as designed and the line inspection doesn’t yield a concern, foreign material contamination concerns can still occur, and these problems can find their way to the market.

Happily for them, a new third-party X-Ray product inspection and reclamation service started up two years ago by PLAN Automation in Bolton, Ont., offers a convenient and cost-effective way for food producers to find out whether their ‘on-hold’ product is truly contaminated and the extent of that contamination.

By doing that, more often than not the companies can reclaim a significant por18

CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

tion of their inspected products by virtue of them still being safe for human consumption, since contamination typically affects only a small portion of the suspected product batch.

Since opening up the 15,000-squarefoot reclaim facility in Bolton about a year ago, PLAN Automation has served an estimated 500 customers looking to ascertain the safety of their product, according to PLAN Automation president J.P. Perreault, while saving an estimated $50 million worth of product from the landfill this year alone.

As Perreault points out, “In addition to saving customers money by enabling them to sell the reclaimed product, there is also the environmental issue related to sending food out to the landfill because it produces methane, which is extremely

detrimental to the environment.

“So instead of essentially throwing food into garbage, companies can use our service to pinpoint the problems and send the uncontaminated product back into the retail market, which is a better solution both for the environment and the consumers.”

Says Perreault: “It doesn’t matter how much food you direct to the landfill: it all has an impact on the price of food on the retail shelf.

“Even if the companies use insurance to mitigate some of their losses, eventually their premiums will rise later at some point, and those costs will eventually find their way into the price of that product on retail shelves,” Perreault states, “affecting food security.”

As Perreault relates, it is often the CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Clockwise from left Automated weighscales dispensing bulk product into the buckets in precise portion sizes; company cofounder Surria Fadel performs an informal taste test; the back of the Cedar Valley brand bags relating the family Fadel family story behind the product; plant employee looking thoroughly inspects the bucket elevator conveyor where a missing metal bolt caused a serious food safety scare; fried pita chips bing dispensed into product transfer buckets straight from the seasoning drum.

smaller food producers who can least afford to simply throw away their product if they suspect product contamination, just as they are the least likely to be able to afford losing a client due to a food safety issue.

This was exactly what recently happened to Cedar Valley Selections, a small but fast-growing producer of CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

all-natural fried pita chips based in Windsor, Ont. Founded in 2017 by a mother-and-son team of Surria and Ameen Fadel, the company sprang into being as Ameen’s high-school project aimed at sharing his family’s authentic recipes inspired by its heritage in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon.

“After I received a $3,000 grant from

my high school, I partnered with my mom to bring her authentic home-made pita chips to Canadian families,” says company president Ameen.

Fried in coconut oil and made without any artificial ingredients or preservatives, the square-shaped chips currently come in four delicious flavor varieties—including Classic Spice, Sea Salt, Garlic & Herb and Cinnamon Sugar—crafted at a 5,000-square foot HACCP-accredited facility primarily managed by his cofounder mother.

“Our products are now sold across Canada and major retailers such as Sobeys, Whole Foods, Loblaws, Costco and a variety of other grocery outlets,” Ameen relates.

“You can find them in about 1,300 stores across Canada from coast to coast, and in every province,” he says.

“You can also buy them online on own website and also on Amazon,” he adds, “to have them delivered right to your residence.”

With a pending move to a bigger 11,000-square-foot production plant slated for the end of this year, Ameen says he expects to grow the company’s listings to about 3,000 to 4,000 stores in the next couple of years, as well as try his luck in the nearby U.S. markets.

“Obviously we will need to have more automation, scale and capacity,” he says, “but we have good team members and business partners who we know can help us reach our goals and expand our distriNovember 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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COVER STORY

bution across North America.

“It has been just awesome to see our products on store shelves across the country,” Ameen states. “The business is booming, and we are very thankful for that.”

Made from 100-percent Canadian wheat, the Cedar Valley brand pita chips are currently sold in 180-gram single-serve bags and in the larger familysized 540-gram stand-up pouches made from a three-layer film structure containing an inner foil layer for extra products freshness and shelf-life.

The high-quality pouches are beautifully decorated with vivid and confident product photography on a black background with large white lettering combined to give the package a distinctly high-end look that Ameen is eager to make a more common sight on the retail level.

While the current location has capacity to produce up 6,000 bags of product daily, Ameen says the company expect to easily double that output at its new factory.

According to Ameen, the company is already working on obtaining the vaunted international BRC product safety standard certification, which will open up new international markets for Cedar Valley to pursue.

“Being a food manufacturer food safety is obviously a key part of our operation,” says Ameen, “both from the legal standpoint and for quality control.

“We always strive to make sure that food safety and quality go hand-in-hand by striving to provide our customer with the best experience when they’re crunching down on our pita chips.

“We want to ensure that everything that goes out our door is safe for consumers to consume.”

Despite taking all the safety precautions required by the plant’s HACCP certification, a few months ago Cedar Valley was stricken by a potentially devas20

CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

tating safety scare when the plant’s maintenance staff discovered that the plant’s bucket elevator conveyor in the packaging area was missing a metal bolt.

Unable to find the missing bolt anywhere on the plant floor, the plant staff concluded, correctly, that the bolt must have ended up in one of the thousands of finished bags of product processed that day, which amounted to 14 full pallet loads of product.

After trying everything to locate the bolt, including going over the load with a hand-held hobby metal detectors designed for outdoor treasure hunting, the company had to make a hard choice on what it had to do with the suspected low.

“Initially I wasn’t sure what to do because this kind of thing never happened to us before,” recalls Surria Fadel.

“Nothing we tried to do ourselves worked, so reached out to our packaging supplier in London, who then connected us with J.P. Perreault of PLAN Automation.

“After a few emails and phone conversations, he explained to me who they would go through our entire product case by case at their facility with their X-Ray machine until they identified the contaminant, after which they would and all the good product back to us.

“So we arranged our carrier to send that load to them,” Surria recalls, “and within a day they called to tell us that they were able to identify the contaminant well before completing the whole load.

“Of course, they proceeded to check all the remaining bags we shipped them to confirm that the damage was limited to just one bag, which as a huge relief for us,” Surria recalls.

“It was really beautiful,” she says, complimenting PLAN Automation for the quick turnaround of just three day and the extensive report and documentation they have provided to confirm and validate the safety of that Cedar Valley batch of chips.

Above left PLAN Automation technician performing X-Ray inspection on one of several high-performance PXT X-Ray systems, manufactured by Eagle Product inspection, house at the company’s Bolton facility.

Above right A colorful corrugated merchandising display filled with high-impact bags of Cedar Valley pita chips.

“It certainly relieved a lot of stress and anxiety I had experienced after we first realized we had a problem,” Surria states.

Hearing that thousands of dollars’ worth of our product was saved from landfill was just phenomenal, she recalls.

“I’m still holding on to that bolt as a souvenir,” Surria chuckles, “along with a very detailed PLAN Automation report outlining exactly what they did, what they found, and what the final results of their investigation showed.

“It’s a very useful thing for us to have for traceability and quality purposes,” Surria states.

According to PLAN Automation’s vice-president Mat Bedard , this final report is actually an amalgamation of several reports that the company prepares at different stages of the entire rigorous process.

As Bedard explains, “Once a customer discovers that they have a problem, they place a ‘discovery’ call to us and we ask a few questions to determine if we can help them—usually making the decision by the end of that discussion.

“If we are comfortable with the detectability of the problem, we move on to the co-ordination phase, at which point we do a full inspection study.

“This inspection study is based on a detailed test where we take the product with the foreign bodies embedded in it, CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

and proceed with a full-blown, detailed test.

“The inspection study is a scientifically and statistically proven test to demonstrate our inspection capabilities,” he continues, “this inspection study report provides our inspection capabilities and is the basis of our performance guarantee for the product recovery.

“Once the customer has confidence to proceed with the service, we provide a formal quotation for the service, and if the customer is happy with the cost and our capabilities, we will then proceed with the recovery,” Bedard says.

“After the product has been inspected and the foreign bodies have been isolated and labelled, we re-package all the product that was not contaminated and either ship it back to customer or arrange for a pick-up by customer.

“We then provide a detailed statistical and traceability report that outlines all the relevant information about the recovery process, along with a calibration report for all the equipment used in that recovery,” Bedard elaborates.

“In addition, we save all the X-ray images for the product we inspected, and provide all relevant reporting and statistical process controls such as bar charts and histograms that can be used for traceability purposes.

“We also remove the flagged rejects for further identification and documentation, and we send the fully completed report to the customer using a confidential digital portal,”says Bedard.

According to Ameen, the PLAN Automation service saved Cedar Valley about $18,000 worth of product on this occasion.

“For a business of our size, that’s a fairly substantial amount of money,” Ameen points out.

“It’s capital that we can reinvest in other areas of our business to make it stronger still,” says Ameen, saying he expects the company to accelerate its growth at the new facility to show the market that Cedar Valley Selections is a really serious played in its chosen market segment.

CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Above A strtechwrapped, fully-inspected and repacked pallet load of product has a special seal of approval attached to it to validate that the product can be safely sold after undergoing a rigorous and thorough X-Ray inspection.

Right Bolton plant employees performing an X-Ray inspection and rework service on glass jars of tomato sauce, one jar at a time, to make sure there are no glass fragments or other tiny contaminants inside the filled and sealed containers.

“We have a big opportunity,” Ameen explains. “There is only one really big pita chip manufacturer in North America, and our intention is to change that game around by bringing a real better-for-you product into the market.

“We really believe we can do that,” he states. “Once we are BRC-verified and have all out automation and scale in place, we will be looking to make an entry into the U.S., quick-service outlets, airports … we want to see our chips everywhere!

Says Ameen: “Today’s today consumers are looking for a better ‘free from everything’ products made with healthy oils, such as coconut oil.

“I think we really have a competitive advantage because there are a lot of consumers looking for this kind of product.

“It is very much on trend, with the

Middle Eastern diet being ranked as the healthiest diet in the world,” he says.

“With a good product to market, a great team to make it, and an ability to scale will put us on a path to reach a leadership position in North America, “ he states.

“Naturally, the more a company grow the bigger challenges it will face,” Ameen points out, “including food safety.

“But having a partner like PLAN Automation nearby to help us out in those tough times gives us great confidence about providing a high-quality product to the market and perfectly safe product for consumers to enjoy.”

SUPPLIERS PLAN Automation

To see a video about how PLAN Automation helped Cedar Valley Selection address its potentially devastating food safety issue, go to Canadian Packaging TV at www.canadianpackaging.com November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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LABELING

Montpak International’s engineering product manager Ballo Kounadi (left) and Bizerba Canada’s industrial sales director Derek Wagget holding up trays of Fontaine brand veal products decorated with linerless labels applied with Bizerba’s breakthrough CleanCut labeling technology.

THE VEAL APPEAL Breakthrough linerless labeling technology enables leading veal processor to make big strides in packaging automation, sustainability and retail shelf impact

By George Guidoni, Editor Photos by Pierre Longtin

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CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

L

ean, tender, flavorful and nutritious, veal has a lot going for it as a healthy red meat dining option for North American consumers—except the all-important mainstream popularity and dinner table prominence accorded to beef, pork, chicken and other more conventional sources of animal protein.

But thanks to tireless efforts by companies like the Laval, Que.-based Montpak International, there is no reason to think that this relative market obscurity is destined to be entrenched as a permanent fait accompli forever.

Established in 1959 in Montreal, Montpak patiently built up its reputation over the years as a family-owned, quality-driven processor of a diverse range of veal products ranging from meatballs and scallopini to roasts, chops, shanks, cubes and ground veal.

Owned by the Fontaine family since

1989, in 2006 Montpak merged with Bellivo Transformation, another family owned veal processor, to form Montpak International, which has since grown into a leading veal and lamb processor in North America.

Operating one of the largest federally inspected, HACCP-accredited slaughter facilities for veal and lamb on the continent, as well as a federally inspected, HACCP-certified 80,000-square-foot processing plant in Laval boasting the international SQF (Safe Quality Food) Level 2 certification, the company’s knack for developing innovative and varied ready-to-cook products has been aptly rewarded with a growing customer base and genuine respect in the North American meat industry circles.

Employing about 150 people working on a one-shift schedule through most of the year, the so-called ‘Transformation’ plant in Laval houses six production lines to process and package nearly 100 different SKUs (stock-keeping units) of high-quality veal, lamb and beef products CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

for customers in the grocery retail, foodservice and further processing markets across Canada.

“By respecting the highest standards in quality and food safety, our products have gained a world-renowned reputation,” says Montpak’s engineering product manager Ballo Kounadi.

“We are proud to provide food retailers, foodservice distributors and further processors a full range of quality milk-fed and grain-fed veal, as well as lamb products,” he says.

“Given the demanding nature of our clientele, we also offer Kosher and Halal products to specific markets,” Kounadi adds, noting that the company’s vertically integrated structure, as part of the Préval AG agri-food group, ensures full product traceability and quality assurance from the slaughterhouse through to processing and distribution.

With veal products accounting for about a half of the plant’s production output—including both milk-fed and grain-fed calves—the company’s hardearned reputation as a reliable, flexible and innovative meat processor has also opened up some lucrative international markets in recent years, including Japan and Dubai.

In addition, Montpak has also launched an online store for direct-to-consumer sales, becoming one of very few large Canadian meat processors to enter the burgeoning e-commerce marketplace.

To meet the growing demand for its products, the company’s Laval facility— started up in 2010—has seen a significant influx of automated processing and packaging equipment onto the plant floor in recent years, including palletizing robots, mobile scales and automated strapping machinery.

“Our secondary packaging operations have been significantly automated,” Kounadi relates, “but our engineering team is always on a mission to automate more of our processes, including primary packaging.”

As part of that endeavor, Montpak has recently invested into a leading-edge, fully-automatic weighing and labeling system manufactured by renowned German slicing, weighing and labeling technologies expert Bizerba SE & Co. KG, and distributed in Canada through its Bizerba Canada Inc. subsidiary, based in Mississauga, Ont. Featuring ground-breaking linerless labeling technology, the CleanCut Linerless Solution represents a giant technological leap in retail labeling technology because it uses specialty-converted label rolls without any liner— the paper or film backing that protects the adhesive on the label until it is ready to be applied by the label applicator.

CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Top Right A perfectly sealed tray of the Fontaine Family brand’s veal scallopini overwrapped with a linerless CleanCut label featuring no backing layer, while prominently displaying all the required variable product information obtained at the system’s weighing station.

Middle and below A roll of linerless CleanCut labels can typically accommodate 40 per cent more labels per roll due to the absence of the backing liner layer, resulting in far fewer roll changes, while the CleanCut Label Applicator is designed for exceptionally quick roll changes to keep production running smoothly.

November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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LABELING

Top from left All the required variable product information and barcodes are precision applied into the provided white space positioned near middle of the overwrap label strip, so that all that information is clearly legible right on the font of the pack after label application.

Right The Reiser ROSS IN850 tray sealer used to seal Fontaine Family products is a versatile high-performance machine for production of high-quality modified atmosphere (MAP) and vacuum skin (VSP) packages at up to 16 cycles per minute.;

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With this thicker backing layer removed from the roll structure, CleanCut Linerless Label users are able to get up to 40 per cent more labels per roll, according to Bizerba, while generating no waste from the process—with no leftover backing materials to send to landfill.

This combination of less roll changes and the cumulative benefit of the elimination of labeling material waste from the process proved to be irresistible for a progressive company like Montpak, for whom environmental sustainability is a core corporate priority, alongside animal welfare.

“Montpak International’s ecological footprint is in line with environmental best practices,” says Kounadi, citing continuous company-wide efforts to: • Reduce greenhouse effect gases; • Use eco-friendly packaging; • Recycle systematically; • Recover and manage waste; • Reduce energy consumption.

With such mindset, selecting a technology that would not only replace a much slower manual process, but deliver instant waste reduction was virtually a no-brainer for Montpak, who commissioned its latest automation investment at the Laval plant in June of this year.

As Kounadi recalls, “We got some quotations from other equipment manufacturers other than Bizerba, but ultimately the Bizerba solution was the best option for us.

“Their CleanCut Linerless Label Applicator machine can weigh and apply labels with all the product information we need, and its automatic set-up allows us to set up a recipe for each tray size,” says Kounadi, complimenting Bizerba for the high-quality linerless label rolls it supplies to the plant.

Once those rolls are loaded onto the CleanCut Linerless Label Applicator, the machine kicks into high gear to apply full-wrap and/or C-wrap labels on to the passing tray packages conveyed from the system’s weighing station.

As soon as that weight is determined, it is is used to generate all the associated product information for that package to be added to the pre-printed linerless label attached onto the tray, typically as a nar-

CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

row band or ribbon tightly overwrapped around the tray’s curvatures along the middle of the tray—much like a more commonplace paperboard sleeve but at a fraction of material size and weight.

While the CleanCut system is capable of performing this task at speeds up to 100 trays per minute, depending on tray size, the Laval plant runs it at 28 trays per minute to match the speed of the Reiser

ROSS model IN850 tray sealer packaging the final product inside the plastic trays.

While linerless labeling technology is still widely considered to be in its infancy, the introduction of the CleanCut Linerless Solution into the market is clearly positioning Bizerba as an early industry leader in this game-changing technology.

According to Bizerba, the technology CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

is supplied a complete solution consisting of labels, hardware, software, service and support from a single source in a powerful, high-performance package delivering instant improvements in productivity, efficiency and sustainability by: • Considerably lowering effort: Significantly less blade cleaning due to CleanCut’s adhesive-free area on the label where the blade makes the CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

• • • •

package changes through automated adjustment; • High-quality product presentation on the store-shelf, even if the label carries a lot of information; • Avoiding waste: No liner, no punching residues, rolls used up to the core.

Aptly called BRAIN2, Bizerba’s powerful software system helps users turn their production steps into an intelligently networked business process with one software to digitize all management and device tasks to provide: • Qualified data pool in real time as a decision-making tool; • Centrally-controlled management, documentation and analysis of all processes; • Full transparency and dynamics of a fully automatic production process; • Simple integration with customers’ ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems.

• Compatibility with third-party hardware or software enabled by the software’s open architecture.

According to Kounadi, the installation of the system was expertly handled by Bizerba highly professional technicians who had the machine up-and-running within three days of its arrival.

In addition, they also providing comprehensive staff training for using the BRAIN2 software and other operating essentials to ensure a highly successful system start-up.

“This machine has been working very well for us since we bought it a few months ago,” says Montpak president and chief executive officer Alex Fontaine, one of three Fontaine bothers working in various senior management roles at the company.

“We’ve been working with Bizerba for 15 years,” says Fontaine, “and they have always delivered high-quality solutions.

“We recently bought a very efficient scale system from them that works very well with our trays,” he relates, “and this new linerless labeling system has provided more automation for our line by applying linerless sleeves automatically.”

As a result, the Laval plant was able to free up six plant employees who previously did the tray labeling manually by hand for other more meaningful jobs within the facility.

As Fontaine remarks, “Like many companies, we have our own labor shortcut; Fewer roll changes: Up to 40 per age challenges, so removing labor from a cent more labels per roll compared manual process into more value-added tasks has become a priority. to labels with liner; “Being able to apply the sleeve autoSaving storage space: Less rolls in stock because CleanCut Linerless matically is a great tool for freeing up people and simplifying the process,” label rolls have more labels; Using entire rolls to the core: Fontaine states, “and using less packaging material, while providing all the Even adhesion application; Minimal set-up times for product/ required product information with liner-

From top The Videojet DataFlex 6530 high-speed thermal transfer overprinter incorporated into the CleanCut Label Applicator to print all the required product into the designated white spaces incorporated into the CleanCut Label graphic design.

The high-performance Stealth metal detector from Fortress Technology administers the final quality check for the finished traypacks conveyed on to secondary packaging.

Montpak’s Ballo Kounadi (left) and Bizerba Canada’s sales rep Derek Wagget having a discussion about the print quality and label placement accuracy levels provided by the CleanCut technology solution.

November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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LABELING

The Fontaine Family products are packaged in attractive signature purple, 100-percent recyclable Cryovac trays overwrapped with clean, highly legible but unobtrusive linerless labels allowing shoppers to get a good view of the high-quality product inside the tray.

26

and they decided to move ahead with it.

As such, the CleanCut Linerless Solu“They certainly liked the sustainability tion effectively addresses both of these part of the technology,” Wagget says, requirements with unerring precision “but they also wanted to have a nice atand minimal environment impact. tractive label that did not cover up the “We hear a lot of people talk about our less labels, is totally in line with our am- product in the tray too much, looked purple trays in the meat cases of their bitious environmental goals and object- good, and contained all the required in- grocery stores,” says Fontaine, “and it’s formation on one single label with min- all been very positive. ives.”

“For anyone shopping for veal or lamb, Such endorsement is a priceless feed- imal environmental footprint.”

As Wagget relates, the actual rolls of they know exactly what to look for to back for Bizerba Canada’s industrial sales director Derek Wagget, who played an linerless labels for CleanCut system’s quickly find it in the meat case.”

Although Fontaine says he was initialinstrumental role in the CleanCut system operation are made and printed at the Bizerba Tekno Label Inc. (BTL) ly hesitant about using family surname installation at Laval.

As Wagget notes, “There are a lot of plant in Boucherville, Que., which sup- as the actual brand name, doing so also very exciting things going on in packaging plies labels for all of Montpak’s flagship proved to be a brilliant marketing right now in regard to reducing landfill Fontaine Family range of high-end masterstroke.

“It really gives consumer a sense of waste, and linerless labels are a perfect retail veal products packaged using MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) confidence when they see a family litexample of that. and thermoform skin-packing processes. erally standing up behind their product,” “Whereas conventional labels come Boasting a fairly diverse product port- he states. with Silicone-coated paper backing that “This is really important for a family cannot be recycled, all that liner really has folio, the Fontaine Family products—originnowhere to go but landfill at the end of ally launched about 10 years ago—are business like ours because it demonpackaged in distinct, 100-percent recyclable strates just how passionate we are about the day,” Wagget explains. purple meat trays that effectively stand out our products,” he adds.

“So if you look at all these plants run“Everything we do at Montpak at ning labels all day long, they produce in retail meat cases to break through the thousands of miles of non-recyclable wall of white and/or black trays typically every step of our farm-to-fork process is done with passion: from humane treatSilicone liner that can only go to landfill,” dominating the meat counters.

As Fontaine notes, “With veal being ment of animals at the farm level to resays Wagget, asserting that linerless labeling is bound to revolutionize the entire such a niche product, we really needed ducing our environmental impact labeling industry in the not-so-far future. to have a distinct look to make it easy for through our in-house sustainability the shoppers to find it. programs and innovative new technolo“The technology has now been around “Choosing purple trays was a big decigies like Bizerba’s CleanCut solution,” for four or five years in Canada,” Wagget relates, “but it sometimes takes a long sion for us,” says Fontaine, adding the Fontaine sums up.

“We are a passionate family that emtime for people to change their mindsets striking, eye-catching color was selected about how labels should be put on the as part of a major packaging design ploys a team of people who also share overhaul for the brand a couple of years our strong passion for what we do,” he pack.”

With the Bizerba CleanCut system be- ago in partnership with the Montreal concludes, “and we’re working all the ing introduced into the North American office of the Pigeon Branding pack- time to share that passion with consumers by offering delicious innovative market in 2019, the global COVID-19 aging design agency.

As part of the new look, it was import- products in attractive, high-quality and pandemic also had a major adverse impact on the technology’s marketability for ant that the product labeling would have sustainable packaging.” a minimal physical footprint to provide a couple of years, he points out.

According to Wagget, Montpak ap- full product transparency through the proached Bizerba about the CleanCut clear film topping the in-tray product, SUPPLIERS system after hearing about an On- while also providing all the required Bizerba Canada Inc. tario-based seafood processor that had product information generated at the Bizerba Tekno Label Inc. already purchased one from Bizerba weighing station.

Canada earlier for its operations.

“Ballo Kounadi actually flew into Toronto and asked me to take him to that Watch a video of the Bizerba CleanCut Linerless customer to see the system in action,” Solution system in action at Montpak’s Laval Wagget recalls. processing facility on Canadian Packaging TV at “After he got back to Laval, he had a www.canadianpackaging.com good conversation with Alex Fontaine,

CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

FOOD SAFETY

There’s An Easier Way to Reduce Waste

By Davor Djukic, National Sales Manager – Product Inspection, METTLER TOLEDO aste is a thorn in the side of food producers worldwide – it can be a problem during many stages of production and can seriously impact profitability. Some product inspection processes contribute to ‘acceptable’ levels of waste every day – but should it be acceptable and how can we further minimize waste?

This article looks at three main consequences of waste and how next generation metal detection, x-ray, checkweighing and vision inspection systems can reduce waste in processed and packaged food facilities.

W

WASTING TIME Optimizing production processes to maximize efficiency is one of the keys to reducing wasted production time. Unscheduled or long downtime represents lost production time. Minimizing this can make significant contributions to performance and bottom-line profitability.

Minimizing the time taken to set up equipment or change the settings of product inspection equipment between batches can now be achieved quickly and efficiently. Rapid or automated product set-up can also save time. In addition, clustering the parameters of multiple products into a single setting in metal detectors for instance can eliminate change over time completely.

Another common cause of extended downtime, particularly in food processing environments, is cleaning. Thorough clean-down is essential to avoid bacterial and cross-contamination in many processing areas. Keeping cleaning time to a minimum reduces lost productivity.

METTLER TOLEDO product inspection equipment is designed with hygiene in mind.

Able to perform in harsh production environments with high pressure wash-down regimes, all inspection equipment features sloping or curved surfaces to allow water to run-off during clean down.

WASTING PRODUCT When operating any food production process, some waste is inevitable. The process of removing non-conforming products leads to the creation of waste, so it’s important to minimize the amount wherever possible.

The risk of rejecting good products when inspecting high-moisture or conductive products for metal contamination is high. This not only leads to more physical waste but also reCANADIANPACKAGING.COM

sults in lost time in investigating the causes and reworking the product.

Addressing this phenomenon with MultiSimultaneous Frequency (MSF) and Signal Suppression technology can all but eliminate false rejects, leading to significantly less waste and increased productivity. Sometimes product rework is more costly than simply discarding rejects. However, when those rejects are a result of false signals, the costs start stacking up. By using improved technology and significantly reducing false reject levels, you can be confident that only truly contaminated product is being thrown away.

Another area where product is frequently wasted is as a result of overfilling. Weighing technology, such as dynamic checkweighers, are able to weigh every package before dispatch to ensure compliance and ensure minimized giveaway.

WASTING MONEY One of the biggest costs to any business in any manufacturing process is the need to withdraw or recall a product from the market.

Correct product labelling is vital and is one of the most common causes of recalls. Vision inspection systems ensure that labels are legible, undamaged and contain the correct information.

Any label that falls short can be immediately

flagged and rejected, giving you the chance to correct the issue before it arrives with your customer – that’s when it becomes a real problem.

Physical contamination is also a major risk factor. Having advanced systems in place to ensure that the smallest possible and widest range of foreign objects are detected and removed will give you peace of mind that your brand is in safe hands.

Bacterial contamination is another huge recall risk and prevention is the best solution.

Selecting equipment that is designed for easy wash-down ensures hygiene standards can be maintained in the production area. Having IP69 rated equipment in demanding production areas means that thorough cleaning can take place to avoid the risk of recalls due to bacterial contamination.

Through listening to customer challenges, METTLER TOLEDO has developed a range of product inspection solutions that are designed and optimized to account for the most challenging applications – from conveyors and rejection, to detection sensitivity and functionality of the inspection device itself.

DAVOR DJUKIC is national sales manager for product inspection at METTLER TOLEDO Inc. in Mississauga, Ont. November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

The Atwood Heritage Processing senior management team includes (from left) Arash Abbasifar, Executive Director of Food Safety & Quality Assurance; Eric Bauman, General Manager; and Jonathan Ropp, President.

THE RIGHT STUFF Smoked meat processor eliminates its packaging bottleneck with new-generation automated processing and packaging equipment

By Andrew Snook

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CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

F

or more than 60 years, Atwood Heritage Processing has been producing quality summer sausage for smoked meat enthusiasts.

The company was founded by Noah S. Martin, who enjoyed making summer sausage as a hobby through the 1950s.

Over the next several years, popularity of his sausages grew steadily, and in 1962 Noah decided to purchase his first smokehouse and turn his hobby into a business.

The company enjoyed regular growth over the next few decades.

In the early 1990s, Martin established N.S. Martin Processing with the assistance of his granddaughter, Rebecca

Martin, and in 2001, relocated his business to its current location near Atwood, Ont. In 2010, Rebecca sold the business to Jonathan and Marie Ropp, who rebranded the company to Atwood Heritage Processing.

Atwood Heritage Processing’s biggest claim to fame are the specialty coldsmoked, dry-cured summer sausages that come in a variety of flavors including Original, Spicy, Garlic, and All-Beef with Maple Syrup varieties.

The company also makes various dried pepperette sticks marketed under the Snack Sticks label.

These are a truly unique product that for whatever reasons only a few manufacturers produce in Ontario.

The Snack Sticks are made using authentic cold smoke and fermentation CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

process that takes about 11 days to go from being stuffed to being fully packaged for the market.

They come in a broad variety of flavor options, including its 100% Grass-Fed Beef line of products that are offered in Honey Garlic, Mild and Hot; an All-Beef with Maple Syrup product; and Hot, Medium and Mild Snack Sticks that are made with a combination of beef and pork.

The company has two production plants on-site: the original provincially-licensed processing plant; and a second federally-licensed processing plant that was built in 2017.

With the market demand for Atwood Heritage Processing’s products growing significantly in recent years, the company recently decided to accelerate that growth further by investing in some of the latest technologies to keep pace and to ensure consistently high product quality.

To accomplish that, Atwood management reached out to Burlington, Ont.-based food packaging specialists Reiser Canada Inc. of Burlington, Ont. After some consultations and demonstrations, Atwood proceeded to purchase a Variovac Optimus 35 thermoformer, a Vemag HP 15 stuffer, and a Vemag TM208 de-linker— all commissioned in August of 2023.

Atwood Heritage was first introduced to Reiser’s technologies several years ago at a meat and poultry industry trade show, but no sale was made at that time.

However, three years later Aled Bryant joined Reiser Canada as its southwestern Ontario sales representative, and he decided to knock on their doors.

“That’s how the relationship started: just me showing up and sitting down with them, getting to understand their business, what their trajectory is, what their plans look like, and so on,” Bryant recalls.

“There was nothing pertinent going on at that time, but then fast-forward about a year later, and there was some interest.”

As Bryant relates, Atwood Heritage Processing was interested in upgrading its packaging line to solve the biggest bottleneck at its production facility, while also improving the look of its retail packaging, single packs, and other product options.

“This is when the Variovac discussions began,” Bryant recalls. “In most instances in plants, your packaging is the bottleneck.

“So we spent time determining which are their largest-volume products, and then we built the machine backwards from that.”

As Bryant recalls, Reiser Canada spent a lot of time going through the package layout drawings with actual products— making sure that Atwood Heritage Processing would get the thermoforming solution it needed to eliminate its packaging bottleneck.

“We were using a double-vacuum chamber that had been doing well for us for many years, but we were getting behind in our packaging,” says Jonathan Ropp.

CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Above An Atwood Heritage plant employee moving the mobile loaded racks into the plant’s smokehouse area for curing and fermentation.

Right from top Close up shots of the VEMAG HP 15 E stuffer and the Vemag TM203 delinker supplied to the Atwood Heritage meat processing plant

by Reiser Canada.

November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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From left: Atwood Heritage Processing’s Jonathan Ropp, Eric Bauman and Arash Abbasifar join Reiser Canada’s sales rep Aled Bryant in front of the high-performance Variovac Optimus thermoform packaging machine installed and commissioned at the Atwood facility in late summer.

Freshly smoked pepperettes being manually loaded inside the cavities of the Variovac Optimus thermoform packaging machine controlled via the touch-screen HIM (human-machine interface) terminal featuring user-friendly operation and ample recipe memory storage for quick production set-up.

Adds Bryant: “We understood there were going to be multiple changeovers, so we made that part simple for them with our roller top die, which is an easy solution for changing your forming station that ensures a really rapid changeover— keeping your productivity at maximum levels,” Bryant adds.

Reiser Canada also designed its thermoforming solution to be

compact and fit efficiently within their production space.

“We spent time making sure it was going to be the right fit in their packaging room,” Bryant says.

According to Bryant, the new Variovac thermoformer eliminated the need to load the bags manually—generating instant labor savings.

“Since you’re not spending time

putting the product into the pouch, you’re able to reduce your labor numbers,” say Bryant.

“I believe they had six people around the table loading into the bags and onto the double chamber, whereas now they’ve got just two people putting product into the thermoformer—allowing them to move people to other parts of the facility,” Bryant says.

For its part, the new Vemag HP 15 E stuffer The Vemag HP 15 stuffer was deemed vital to improving the consistency of the company’s various Snack Sticks products.

“We used to have another stuffer, but it was not consistent in making the size of Snack Sticks that we wanted,” Ropp explains.

“We were looking at what we

The Variovac Optimus thermoform packaging machine instilled at the Atwood Heritage meat processing facility uses high-quality rollstock barrier film produced and converted by a prominent flexible packaging product manufacturer Duropac.

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CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

“You’re not spending time putting the product into the pouch, so you’re able to reduce your labor numbers.” could do, and that took us down the road to check out the Vemag line.”

In short order, the Vemag HP 15 E stuffer allowed Atwood Heritage to have consistent production for its Snack Sticks, with equal lengths and weights per portion.

Bryant says a small footprint was one of the advantages that Reiser Canada was able to provide as part of its total solution.

“Typically, when you’re looking at a stuffing line, you have the filler or the stuffer, the Vemag, and then you would have a linker in the middle of it, he explains.

“So we were doing natural casings, we would need to have a four-and-a-half- or five-feet-long attachment that goes in front of that before you have the hanging line,” Bryant says.

“But based on their products, we were able to use some of our technologies and eliminate the need for a large linker.”

Instead, Reiser Canada was able to supply a built-in two-feet-long linker went straight onto the hanging line.

“This gave us a competitive advantage from a footprint standpoint,” Bryant says.

Eric Bauman, general manager for Atwood Heritage Processing, agrees that the consistency of the Snack Sticks lengths and weights has improved dramatically since the installation of the Vemag HP 15 E stuffer.

“The stuffer that was in there previously could not do a consistent job and it varied in weight and length, which we noticed when we were making packages CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Atwood’s packaging line operator using a BestCode continuous inkjet printer, supplied

by Sterling Marking Products, to apply clearly legible lines of product codes and best-before dates onto the back of the thermoformed twin-packs of Snack Stick pepperettes.

and weighing them,” Bauman says.

“We did not have a stuffing line previously,” he notes, “so now we’re saving a lot of time by being able to take the product off the stuffing line and putting it on the smoke trucks—as opposed to manually draping the product over a station and then placing them onto the smoke trucks.

“It has increased our consistency and

our production levels.”

Another advantage of the new Reiser Canada equipment is that it is easy for employees to learn.

“It takes a few weeks before an employee is proficient,” Bauman remarks, “but once they understand them, the machines are pretty simple to operate.

“Reiser offered good service and was there to help train people,” he adds.

November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

“They went out of their way to make that happen, and were there for us as long as we needed them,” says Bauman, noting that having Reiser Canada bing located only a 90-minute drive away is a big bonus.

In addition to Reiser’s contributions, leading flexible packaging solutions provider Duropac also played a role in helping Atwood Heritage Processing transition from using digitally-printed vacuum pouches to a high-speed inline automated vacuum packaging process.

Operating plants in Candiac, Que., and Mississauga, Ont., provided superior film structures to provide optimal shelf-life and an attractive look for Atwood’s products.

“What sets Duropac apart is their remarkable flexibility, allowing us to manage multiple SKUs (stock-keeping units) with exceptionally low minimum requirements,” Ropp relates.

“Their support from the very beginning to the end of the process has been outstanding,” he says, “making Duropac an invaluable partner for us at Atwood Heritage.

“The clarity of Duropac’s films is absolutely exceptional.”

Focusing on solving all of Atwood Heritage Processing’s problems, rather than just selling them a piece of equipment is what makes Reiser Canada stand out from the competition,” according to Bryant.

“We weren’t even looking for them to buy a Vemag stuffer from this sale, but we had to solve the problem with their size variation before they could move into getting a Variovac,” he recalls.

“I could have just sold them the Variovac and said, ‘You’re on your own,’ but that’s just not how Reiser works.

“That’s not the type of relationship we like to build,” Bryant states.

“And so we really concentrated on solving their problems to make sure that the packaging operation went as smoothly as possible, which ended up getting us a sale on the stuffing side of their operation,” Bryant says.

Before installing the new Variovac thermoforming line, Atwood Heritage Processing was losing days of production every week due to the packaging bottleneck.

“We could only run about three days per week of production in order to keep pace with the packaging,” Bauman recalls.

But since commissioning the equipment from Reiser Canada, the plant’s packaging efficiencies have improved dramatically.

“It has been a tremendous change in our packaging operation,” says Ropp.

“Our packaging was our bottleneck, but that’s been totally changed.”

Bauman agrees: “We’re not only faster with the new packaging equipment, but we’re also more efficient because we’re able to cut back on the number of staff needed to package our products.

“It’s also easier to print the lot codes and package ID numbers right on the packages, whereas before we were printing them on the November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

33

pouches before they were stuffed.

“We also have a bigger area on the back of the package to print the lot number, he says, “giving it a much nicer look.

“Above all,” he concludes, “it allows us to save about 70 per cent of or packaging costs with the

thermoforming system compared to the old packaging system we used before.”

SUPPLIERS Reiser Canada Ltd. Duropac

Please see a video of the new automated processing and packaging equipment supplied by Reiser Canada to the Applewood Heritage Processing plant running in full flight on Canadian Packaging TV at www.canadianpackging.com

AUTOMATE NOW

THE CENTRE OF ATTENTION New equipment testing and demonstration facility a vivid showcase of innovative high-end automated packaging solutions to help Canadian companies grow their business

By George Guidoni, Editor

ust like few consumers purchase a car without actually kicking some tires first, making a large capital investment in automated packaging machinery is not something that should be done purely online, remotely, or based on hearsay or computer-generated simulations.

To put it plainly: there is no substitute for a real-life demonstration right in front of one’s eyes to help potential customers get a real feel for the machinery they may need to improve their operations.

And true enough, the new Automation Experience Centre facility in Mississauga, Ont.—opened up this past September by leading Canadian packaging machinery and supplies distributor Crawford Packaging—is quickly proving to be a win-win proposition for the company’s customers and business partners.

Since opening its doors for business with a celebratory open house event bringing together some of the company’s key OEM vendors, consumables suppliers and end-use customers, the spanking new 40,000-square-foot facility has been booked solid for weeks in advance.

Booked by appointment by companies large and small looking to improve their operation, the new facility houses

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CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

an extensive array of high-quality automation solutions set up to perform all kinds of product test runs and demonstrations to enable potential customers to make intelligent and well-informed purchasing decisions.

Moreover, the tests and demonstrations are conducted by the exceptionally knowledgeable and experienced Crawford Packagin staff boasting deep inside knowledge of the specific types and brands of packaging equipment and technologies carried in-stock by the company at its multiple distribution centers and warehouses.

For Craig Gray, for example, looking after the sales of German end-of-line

Samples of the finished packages produced on the model Evolution S single-lane tray sealer manufactured by Packaging Automation.

packaging specialists BVM Brunner is a major part of his role as Crawford’s packaging specialist.

“I think the facility is already booked for about two dozen demonstrations a month in the near future,” says Craig, who joined Crawford Packing about six years ago following Crawford’s acquisition of his former employer Celplast.

As part of that sale, Crawford acquired the North American distribution right for all of the high-quality machinery manufactured by BVM, which is considered to be the industry’s ‘golden standard’ for shrinkwrapping and automated mailer systems, among others.

Soon after the Automation ExperiCANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Held in late September, the official opening of Crawford Packaging’s new Automation Experience Centre brought together dozens of the company’s customers, vendors and staff together for an exciting few hours of live product demonstrations and an impressive display of the broad range of packaging machinery and consumables housed at the new state-of-the-art facility. ence Centre was open for business, Craig was dispensing his knowledge of BVM equipment to the senior engineering team visiting from Molinaro’s Fine Italian Foods, a leading producer of frozen pizzas and other popular Italian cuisine offerings for the private-label market.

“They had already purchased a BVM shrink-wrapping machine a few months ago that they plant to commission this December,” Craig says, “but because it had not yet arrived

from Germany, they were eager to take the opportunity of seeing that machine in action.

“They wanted to see the product run at high speed,” recall Craig, “and we were able to demonstrate the product to their satisfaction,” Craig recalls.

“I was highly impressed by the expertise of the Crawford team,” says Molinaro’s maintenance manger John Debartolo.

“They answered all of my questions and demonstrated a deep knowledge of their field,”

he states.

“They also took the time to understand our business needs and proposed an equipment solution that closely aligns with our requirements.

“We have decided to purchase a BVM Genius machine and are eagerly anticipating its arrival,” Debartolo continues.

“We are confident that this high-quality, robust machine will provide us with the level of performance and flexibility we need in our

Some of the-generation automated packaging equipment displayed at Crawford Packaging’s open house even to mark the formal inauguration of the company’s new Automation Experience Centre included the Global AGV range of self-driving forklifts (below left) and the fully-automated mailer systems manufactured by BVM Brunner for e-commerce packaging applications.

AUTOMATE NOW

Above: Visitors to the Automation Experience Centre taking in live equipment demonstrations on the plant floor and informative boardroom presentations.

Below: Open house visitor taking a good close look at a workcell solution incorporating a high-performance rotary arm stretchwrapper made by Wulftec. operation.” he adds.

According to Molinaro’s industrial engineer Dinesh Vasudevan, “We had a great experience visiting the Crawford Packaging Automation Experience Centre.

“The facility was truly impressive, and the equipment on the floor left me in awe,” Vasudevan adds.

“It is extremely beneficial to have the opportunity to walk into a facility like this and witness the solution first-hand before making a purchasing decision.”

It was a similarly positive experience for Martin Kamil, chief financial officer and chief operating officer at the Black Fly Beverage Company Inc. in London, Ont., which has spent tens of millions on packaging automation in recent years on boosting its co-packing capacity to accommodate major North American beverage brand-owners.

“We’ve had the pleasure of working with Crawford Packaging for several years now, and we’ve been consistently impressed with the quality of their service,” Kamil relates.

“It’s incredibly convenient to have a knowledgeable and trusted supplier who can provide us with best-in-class complete solutions, including equipment, consumables, and technical support,” says Kamil, adding his visit to the Centre was partly motivated by his company’s interest in the new Global AGV range of self-guided, autonomous forklifts manufactured in Denmark by Bila A/S. “We were very intrigued by the self-driving forklift, which seemed like the perfect solution for our repetitive tasks,” Kamil states.

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CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

“We are seriously considering purchasing it to optimize our material handling processes.”

Says Kamil: “Throughout our visit, the Crawford PackagingsSpecialists went above and beyond in addressing all our questions and reaffirming their position as the trusted partner we’ve come to rely on.”

Like all other visitors to Centre, Kamil says he was inspired by the high quality and broad diversity of the automated packaging solutions assembled at the Automation Experience Centre.

“The facility houses a wide range of packaging and end-of-line equipment,” he says, “from automatic stretchwrappers and side-sealers to case-sealers and autonomous forklifts.”

Some of the high-end stretchwrapping machinery making a big impression on Kamil and other visitors is actually made in Canada by Wulftec International, a Duravant Group subsidiary operating out of Ayers Cliff, Que. “We have been working with Crawford for about 20 years and they have been a great partner for us from the start,” says Wulftec’s Canadian sales rep Michel Rouleau.

“Over the last five years, they have become our biggest distributor in Canada,” he says, “accounting for 15 to 20 per cent of all our Canadian sales.

“They also have what is possibly the largest group of highly skilled technicians working in all the different branches of their business,” Rouleau says, citing the five consecutive Supplier of the Year plaques that Wulftec has awarded to

Crawford in recognition of its customer service excellence.

According to Rouleau, Wulftec has already made arrangements for a pending installation of a fully-automatic combination stretchwrapper/strapper at the Centre in early 2024, adding he has full confidence in Crawford personnel’s ability to make optimal use of “The Cadillac” of end-of-line packaging machinery.

“We are currently the only manufacturer in North America who can supply a solution to do both strapping and wrapping on the same line,” Rouleau concludes, “and I’m sure that having Crawford demonstrate the machine’s capabilities live at their showcase facility will give it a great marketing push that will make this new machine a big bestseller for us.”

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PEOPLE

LIFE OF A SALESMAN Canadian corrugated industry veteran and champion calls time on a stellar career with Atlantic Packaging Products ver since he was a kid growing up in Vancouver, Roger Keeley knew he wanted to be a salesman.

And while such a career choice may seem a little odd for young people today, spending 58 years of your life doing something you love and enjoy proved to be a highly rewarding way of making a living that the recently-retired former director of corporate affairs at Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. in Toronto would not change for a second.

“My dad was salesman and a great mentor for me,” recalls Keeley, who announced his retirement earlier this fall after spending 51 years with Atlantic Packaging in a variety of progressive corporate positions.

With his father enjoying a stellar rise up the corporate Canadian landscape during Keeley’s formative years and eventually going on to head 3M Canada, no less, “He was my true idol growing up,” Keeley told Canadian Packaging during a recent interview at the Atlantic Packaging headquarters earlier this month.

Following the family’s move to Ontario, Roger got his first taste of life in the packaging business in 1955 at the age of 19 by joining Hygrade Containers, a one-time major manufacturer of sixpack carriers for the beer business, where he quickly developed a life-long affinity for the corrugated packaging business and appreciation for its growth potential.

“People will always need boxes to package their products,” remarks Keeley, who followed his time at Hygrade with gigs at a couple of other local packaging companies before joining International Paper, the world’s largest paper company, in the early 1960s.

While working for such a large high-profile employer had its share of perks and other benefits, Roger still

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CANADIANPACKAGING · November 2023

longed for an opportunity to put all of his work and people skills to fuller use than he would be able to do at a megasized corporation like IP, leaving himself open to the idea of moving on if the right offer came along.

As it turned out, that life altering offer came around in 1972, when Roger was approached by family-owned Atlantic Packaging to join its ambitious, passionate and progressive management team headed by the living Canadian corrugated business legend Irving Granovsky.

“They made a very interesting offer,” recalls Roger, whose first order of business with the new employer was to head the company’s plastic bags business, where Atlantic Packaging enjoyed a very strong market share at the time.

Eventually, Atlantic Packaging sold off its Consumer Packaging Division to concentrate on 100-percent recycled paper mills and corrugated box plants.

The company’s change in strategic focus was accompanied by extensive capital upgrades at its existing facilities and a series of well-executed strategic

Roger Keeley takes a moment to flip through the October 2023 issue of the Canadian Packaging magazine featuring a cover story on Atlantic Packaging’s major recent capital investment in a state-of-the-art Durst digital printing press acquired for making high-end retail packaging products in commercial quantities at robust operating speeds.

acquisitions that helped Atlantic become one of North America’s largest independent family-owned, vertically-integrated corrugated producers in North America, today running a tight network of 22 production facilities across Canada and the U.S. The move not only enhanced Roger’s appreciation of the corrugated business, but being “at the center of the action” also dramatically raised his personal and professional profile within the industry with his de facto status as the company’s goodwill ambassador and a highly respected decision-maker and industry thought leader.

Combined with his outgoing personality, natural curiosity and superb communication skills, Roger quickly became a popular figure not only within the Atlantic Packaging organization, but also among the large Canadian packaging community through his work with PAC Global and other high-profile industry organizations and charitable foundations.

Despite the enormous workload that CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

“I think that corrugated will be around forever— just like Roger Keeley.”

Roger Keeley proudly shows off his commemorative rings from Atlantic Packaging Products for Lifetime Service Achievement, and one form the Canadian Football League in recognition of his work for five consecutive seasons as a CFL referee.

all this activity entailed, Roger still managed to make time for a part-time gig as a referee in the Canadian Football league (CFL) for five consecutive seasons in the late 1980s, which he naturally considers a high gratifying personal experience.

“I also got to referee in the Vanier Cup, Canada’s national university champion ship game,” says Roger, who proudly wears his CFL ring on a daily basis, along with the Lifetime Achievement ring gifted to him by Atlantic Packaging in recognition of his indelible contribution to the company’s success.

A significant part of that success can be traced to the highly professional and hardworking sales-force focused on customer service excellence.

Says Roger: “It’s a customer-driven business and we’ve been fortunate to have good people and good leadership driving our sales force by looking at ‘win-win’ scenarios with our partners all over Canada and the U.S. “It is a great organization with very little staff turnover because of the great emphasis it places on the employees— CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

getting good employees and training them right to do their job the best they can.

“Working for a family-owned company rather than a big multinational corporation makes it easier to make quick business decisions than going through multiple layers of approval to make those decisions, which fits well with our owner’s philosophy of, ‘Ready, aim, fire and get it done,’” he chuckles.

“It is like riding a bicycle compared to navigating a big battleship.”

According to Roger, company owner Granovsky deserves a lot of personal credit for creating the company’s spirited work culture and ethos that strongly focuses on customers and employees’ growth as key pillars of the company’s corporate philosophy.

“It’s a philosophy based hiring good people, training them properly, and reinvesting in our machinery and facilities to always meet our customers’ expectations,” Roger states.

“He’s always putting money back into the company because he deeply cares about the company’s future, the future

of our employees and, of course, our customers,” says Roger.

“Most people his age would be spending half of their time flying around the world and spending their time in the sun,” he notes, “but Irivng is here practically every day, looking for new ways to move the company forward.

“If you’re not growing or evolving, you are moving sideways or falling behind,” Roger says, “which is not an option either for the company or the industry.”

According to Roger, the ongoing boom in e-commerce, rapid technological advances in corrugated production, printing and converting technologies, and growing global demand for more sustainable and eco-friendly packaging have resulted in a unique opportunity for corrugated packaging to reassert itself as the perfect packaging material for ongoing development of the new Circular Economy business model rooted, first of all, in meaningful conservation of natural resources.

“We have never cut down a tree to make any of our packaging products,” says Roger, estimating that Atlantic Packaging’s exclusive reliance on using recycled paper fibers to make its products saves about 14 million trees from being cut down each year.

“That’s the nice thing about corrugated—it can be reused six or seven times before the fibers completely break down,” Roger points out.

“That’s why I think that corrugated will be around forever—just like Roger Keeley,” he deadpans.

“My big regret is that I am not 40 years younger, so that I could experience the amazing evolution and growth that Atlantic Packaging is going to experience in coming years,” he says. “It will be a very exciting time for the industry, where the best is still yet to come.”

While Roger readily admits that he’s going to miss his Atlantic Packaging colleagues and the rush of the daily hustle and bustle, he says he will always remain proud of the instrumental role he played in the company’s stellar growth track record to date.

As he humbly sums up, “If I am remembered as a good person who showed up to play every day, that will be good enough for me.

“Doing something you love everyday has been a true privilege that not many people have enjoyed in their lives,” Rogers concludes, “so if it was possible to do it all over again, you would not have to ask me twice.”

November 2023 · CANADIANPACKAGING

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CHECKOUT

Tween-friendly packaging makes a lasting statement / Myles Shane

I

fondly remember the days before junior high, when my buddies and I were the stuff of legends. We ruled the playground, playing football and hockey like champions. Every night, I’d lay in bed, dreaming of the epic games we’d have at recess the next day.

If there was an all-Canadian Recess Dream Team, you bet we’d be on it.

When the school bell rang, we’d head back to class, covered head to toe in sweat, mud, snow, and battle scars. We were 12-year-old gridiron heroes, and I was the Dan Marino of our imaginary NFL games, dodging sacks and blitzes for a full hour. If I smelled like a piece of cheese that had gone rogue, it didn’t faze me. But soon after that sweet phase of life ended, all my teammates suddenly turned into young fashionistas dressed in trendy brands like Polo, Benetton, and Beaver Canoe, and nothing was the same since. Cut forward to today, and I watch in awe as my 13-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter are going through their own post-childhood TikTok-influenced transformations, and cultivating their own brand loyalties in the process.

For my son, a naturally-gifted athlete who usually dominates the playground with his physical exploits, his insistence on a purchase of the Hummer Eau De Toilette Spray on a recent family shopping trip was a clear signal of a growing self-awareness and a sense of style. Sold as a specialty item at Shoppers Drug Mart, the set contains four distinct travel-sized fragrances packed in masculine, color-coded containers squarely shaped to project the rugged and powerful vibe of the Hummer brand with a look that captures the monster jeep’s power and durability. The multipack’s color scheme is straight out of the brand’s identity playbook, with the Hummer logo and branding are prominently displayed on the front of the packaging—displaying the Hummer name in the same font and color scheme as the vehicle that inspired the product.

But that’s not all: flip the packaging around, and you’ll discover all the vital info, specifying each bottle’s ingredients and even a cautionary warning in six

Clockwise from top left: The Hummer Eau De Toilette Spray four-pack; The Neutrogena All-in-One Makeup Removing Cleansing Wipes; The TheraPearl Pals Hot or Cold Compress remedy packs for minor skin cuts, scrapes and burns.

different languages. The packaging has a stylish, transparent outer box that’s a perfect match for the bottles’ design—adding another layer of protection and presentation, while allowing the consumers to view the products they are purchasing. Each box is sealed on the sides to guarantee authenticity and ensure the product has not been tampered with prior to purchasing. Using this product allows impressionable younger consumers to be a part of the Hummer legacy, without the burden of a killer price-tag and terrible fuel efficiency.

For her part, my daughter’s heart was all set on the set of Neutrogena All-inOne Makeup Removing Cleansing Wipes, hailed as a top-end product for make-up removal and skin cleansing.

Having earned their stripes in the beauty world with their unrivaled efficacy and clever packaging, these wipes are made from 100-percent plant-based fibers that biodegrade in just 35 days—making them an eco-conscious choice—while the rectangular, resealable plastic case in which they are packed is a clever blend of aesthetics and practicality designed to keep the wipes fresh and moist at all times. The incorporation of a color-matching recyclable, wraparound cardboard sleeve featuring all the essential product information in English and French—along with the logo, name and standout product features—perfectly complements the brand’s classic baby blue-and-what color scheme to project a sense of wholesome cleanliness. Moreover, the stylish package is exceptionally consumer-friendly, with a resealable flap at the top allowing for quick access to

pull out a wipe, one at a time, and quickly reseal it. As a solid example of the bigger trend towards more sustainable packaging, these planet- wipes not just good for your skin, but for the environment too.

To complete the trip, we picked up a package of the TheraPearl Pals Hot or Cold Compress—the ultimate companions for therapeutic hot and cold relief.

These innovative therapy gel-packs aren’t just effective: they’re non-toxic, reusable, and come in a variety of playful animal shapes such as pigs, puppies, pandas, and frogs—making them an instant hit with the kids. Each of the animals sits in a transparent plastic box to allow consumers to see the product they are purchasing, while a circular cut-out plastic window on the front allows one to feel the product. There are also helpful instructions in the corner of the front panel guiding the user how it works best for quick relief of minor bumps, burns, bruise, bee stings and so on. In a nutshell, the TheraPearl Pals are the perfect blend of effective therapy and playful packaging to make you feel better and put a smile on your face. The world of selfcare products has brought about a significant transformation in my kids’ lives as they transition from toddlers to teens, with packaging playing an important role along that journey. For companies that take the time and make their effort to make their packaging captivating and sustainable, the rewards of life-long brand loyalty can be absolutely priceless in the long run.

MYLES SHANE is a freelance writer living in Vaughan, Ont.

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