Baking & Snack - November 2018 - 103

get to the customer intact and doesn't destroy the product it's intended to protect."

Some equipment has the flexibility to change from
retail-ready packaging to standard packaging, which
increases efficiency.

Making the move

Delkor Systems, Inc.

Shelf-ready packaging is a game of would
you rather for retailers: Would you rather
your employees stock products one by one
or all at once, which could save time and
money? For those big retailers, the answer is an obvious one. But for baking and
snack companies, shelf-ready is more than
just a choice of this or that. It's a complicated decision that affects equipment, run
rates, packaging material and design.
Some machines run standard and
retail-ready packaging. "You want to be
able to go back and forth between the two
formats efficiently and quickly, so make
sure the equipment has that capability,"
Mr. Gessler said. But more often than
not, a company will have to invest in new
equipment for shelf-ready packaging.
"Think about a box of pasta. They normally get packaged flat, are too wide and
create a layer probably three-high that
gets pushed sideways into a case. But
that conventional case pack pattern with
tertiary packaging is not retail-ready because a retailer wants just one carton to
be in the front as they stand it on its edge,"
Mr. Kehrli explained. "So, the challenge
is the baker sometimes has to buy all new
packaging equipment to accommodate
that, which can be costly."
When it comes to equipment, there's
constantly a push and pull between speed
and flexibility. "Secondary packaging can
be an evident bottleneck if not well-conceived," Mr. Vivona said. "Correct speed
machines with 10 to 20% extra capacity to
spare, combined with reliable, long-lasting
technology and smartly designed primary
and secondary packages are the keys for a
successful line." The advancements in ro-

botics and servo technology have helped
tremendously with speed.
But despite the importance of speed,
flexibility is currently winning. "The need
for flexible packaging lines that can work
with different formats and sizes seems
even more relevant for retail-ready packaging, as retail-ready packaging printing
and formats frequently change based on
seasonality and new SKU introductions,"
Mr. Izquierdo said. This flexibility not only
saves on cost and provides a justification of
investment, but it also allows companies to
enter a variety of markets and work with a
variety of retailers.
Most retailers have their own rules for
shelf-ready packaging, including dimensions and performance. Baking and snack
companies shouldn't assume one design
will work for all their customers; communication with retailers is necessary. "Maybe
there's one customer asking for you to create a specific type retail-ready presentation.
Get in touch with your other customers
before you go through the process of developing it," Mr. Izquierdo said. "Make sure
that whatever you're designing and investing on will work for the majority of your
customers."
Mr. Gessler advised bakers to get
educated before making a decision on
retail-ready packaging. He added that
it's important to create the right samples,
get them approved by customers and
test the package's performance, especially if it's all new. "It's a really big deal
to change your package style, and there's
often a lot of unknowns that you have
to make it through," he said. "Don't take
the change too lightly."

*
http://www.endflex.com
Baking & Snack - November 2018

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