CPAC03_2010

CUTTING IT FINE! Expresco’s tasteful foray into the ready-made meat market Story on page 12

George Tiritidis, Vice-President of Operations, Expresco Foods Inc.

LO C K & LO A D Page 24

PM40070230. R10812 Return Canadian undeliverable addresses to: Canadian Packaging Circulation Dept., 7th floor, 1 Mount Pleasant Rd., Toronto ON M4Y 2Y5

IN THIS ISSUE: PRODUCT ID NOW • CANADIAN CONVERTING • SUSTAINABILITY

The stretch film that makes gauge irrelevant.

AEP SuperMicron XH | XB – HANDWRAP

XR – MACHINE FILM

Save money, weight and the environment without sacrificing performance.

AEP’s new technology is changing how we view gauge in stretch film. Never before has such a light weight film been so strong and versatile.

XH cast handwrap and XB blown handwrap are crystal clear with excellent cling and puncture resistance.

XR cast machine film performs exactly like heavier gauge films. All properties are maximized to give you the best load holding force, puncture, tear, cling and highest slip in the industry.

Unisource endeavours to offer environmentally preferred alternatives in every one of the thousands of products we sell. SuperMicron allows you to use less film, thereby ensuring that less film ends up in landfills.

We strive to reduce the intensity of our own carbon footprint while promoting products using environmentally friendly technologies.

Please contact your local Unisource distribution office for more information.

See our website www.unisource.ca

Stretch Film Division

www.aepinc.com FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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Why would a company producing 100% recycled cartons bother to go through the process of obtaining certification from the world’s leading forestry stewardship organization?

Because we can!!!

As the leaders in recycling and sustainable packaging for over 60 years, it only made sense that we be accredited by the world’s leading model for environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable forestry stewardship.

After all, we save a forest of over 14,000,000 trees per year from being cut down to produce paper products.

Sustainable Packaging for a Sustainable Future

By utilizing the latest technology and world class processes in our 100% recycled paper mills, we save the equivalent energy to power 100,000 homes for a full year, divert 3 million cubic yards of waste going to landfill, use 4.2 billion less gallons water and help to remove 1.2 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere.

Why purchase your Forest

Stewardship Council Certified paper and packaging products from us? Because it demonstrates your Personal commitment to our environment, it shows your customers that you care, and.

Because you can!

Service Driven!TM “Responsive to your needs” Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. Corrugated Division Scarborough-Progress Ave., Scarborough-Midwest Ave., Brampton, Mississauga and Ingersoll 416-298-8101 • 1-800-268-5620 • www.atlantic.ca Add Ink (Atlantic Decorated & Display) Toronto 416-421-3636 • www.addink.ca Mitchel-Lincoln Packaging Ltd. Montreal and Drummondville 514-332-3480 • 1-800-361-5727 • www.mlgroup.com FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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UPFRONT

NEW GLOBAL THINKING MARCH 2010 VOL U ME 6 3 , NO. 3

EDITOR

George Guidoni • (416) 764-1505 george.guidoni@packaging.rogers.com F E AT U R E S E D I T O R

Andrew Joseph • (416) 764-1529 andrew.joseph@packaging.rogers.com ART DIRECTOR

Nicole Carter • (416) 764-4160 n.cartersiblock@packaging.rogers.com SENIOR PUBLISHER

Stephen Dean • (416) 764-1497 stephen.dean@packaging.rogers.com ADVERTISING SALES

Stephen Dean • (416) 764-1497 stephen.dean@packaging.rogers.com PRODUCTION MANAGER

Natalie Chyrsky • (416) 764-1686 natalie.chyrsky@rci.rogers.com C I R C U L AT I O N M A N A G E R

Celia Ramnarine • (416) 764-1451 deokie.ramnarine@rci.rogers.com

Canadian Packaging, established 1947, is published monthly by Rogers Publishing Limited, a division of Rogers Media Inc. One Mount Pleasant Road, Toronto, ON M4Y 2Y5,Tel: (416) 764-2000 Rogers Media Inc., President and CEO: Anthony P. Viner Rogers Publishing Limited, President and CEO: Brian Segal Senior Vice-President, Business & Professional Publishing: John Milne Senior Vice-President: Michael Fox Vice Presidents: Immee Chee Wah, Patrick Renard Executive Publisher:Tim Dimopoulos EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICES: One Mount Pleasant Road,Toronto, ON M4Y 2Y5, Tel: (416) 764-2000; Fax (416) 764-1755.

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PUBLICATIONS MAIL AGREEMENT NO. 40070230 PAP REGISTRATION NO. 10812 RETURN UNDELIVERABLE ITEMS TO: CANADIAN PACKAGING CIRCULATION MANAGER ROGERS PUBLISHING LTD. ONE MOUNT PLEASANT ROAD, 7TH FLOOR, TORONTO ON M4Y 2Y5 Circulation Inquiries: Cornerstone Publishing Services (416) 932-5071 We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), towards our mailing costs. Canadian Packaging is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia Limited. Back copies are available in microform from Macromedia Ltd., 158 Pearl St.,Toronto, ON M5H 1L3 Printed in Canada Mail Preferences: Occasionally we make our subscriber list available to reputable companies whose products or services may be of interest to you. If you do not want your name to be made available, please contact us at rogers@cstonecanada.com or update your profile at www.rogersb2bmedia.com/cpac.

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It’s hard to overstate the importance of speaking a common language when trying to address one of the world’s most pressing issues, so there is plenty of encouragement to be found in the recent launch of the Global Packaging Project (GPP) of the Paris, France-headquartered cross-industry organization The Consumer Goods Forum, a multistakeholder alliance of the world’s leading food manufacturers, retailers, packaging producers and academic institutions working together to improve the environmental sustainability of modern consumer packaging.

As a pure private-sector joint venture with virtually no governmental regulatory interference to stifle its efforts and aims, and least not yet, the GPP got off to a promising start at its recent meeting in Toronto this past January—approving a working draft of a suggested set of common definitions and principles for packaging in the framework of environmental sustainability to initiate what it hopes to be a thoughtful global discourse on packaging in the context of its environmental, economic and social impacts.

“Sustainability is a shared responsibility,” says Roger Zellner, Kraft Foods director of sustainability, research, development and quality, and a GPP co-chair. “By creating a common language and identifying shared global industry metrics, this initiative will enable manufacturers and retailers to work together to develop packaging solutions to help achieve agreed sustainability goals.”

According to the GPP administrators, the adopted definitions and principles reflect the main guidelines on packaging and sustainability formulated by ECR Europe and EUROPEN (European Organization for Packaging and the Environment), with

C O V E R S T O RY

COVER STORY

the specific metrics adapted from evaluation criteria developed by the U.S.-based SPC (Sustainable Packaging Coalition).

This global rapprochement between competing international environmental standard bodies, lobby groups and other vested interests is undoubtedly a positive development insofar as reducing the numbers of chefs in the kitchen to a more manageable, streamlined and cohesive international authority less susceptible to unnecessary complexity, cost overruns and streams of red tape that so often derail the best laid-out plans and the noblest of causes.

Says GPP co-chair and the head of packaging at Britain’s leading grocery chain Tesco: “The Global Packaging Project started because retailers and manufacturers wanted a consistent approach to packaging of consumer goods. We need to find a common way of measuring environmental and sustainability improvements on packaging that can be used across the world.”

But for all the early accomplishments that the Toronto GPP meeting has yielded so far, the really hard work is just about to get started with a six-month testing stage aimed at validating the output of the project, its underlying principles for packaging and sustainability, and a set of mutually-agreed indicators and metrics within the so-called “real business situations.”

With a tentative deadline for the fi nal report and approval scheduled for November 2010, The Consumer Goods Forum certainly has no lack of ambition or goodwill to drive its agenda forward, and we can only wish it the best of success in providing the global packaging industry with a new, improved blueprint for making true packaging sustainability a key feature of a global economy in search of a cleaner and greener conscience.

CASE STUDY

17 Cutting It Fine By Andrew Joseph Montreal producer of ready-made meat products upgrades its packaging capabilities with high-performance, Canadian-made bagging machinery to stake its growing claim in a growing HMR (home meals replacement) market.

COVER STORY

FEATURES P RO D U C T I D N OW

COVER STORY

CASE STUDY

14 Animal Pharm By Andrew Joseph Ontario producer of veterinary and animal-care products raises its product identification and traceability capabilities to worldclass levels following installation of robust, thermal-transfer product marking technology.

COVER STORY

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY BY PIERRE LONGTIN.

C A N A D I A N C O N V E RT I N G

21 The Boarding Call By George Guidoni Leading Canadian manufacturer of corrugated packaging products steps up its capacity expansion efforts via an extensive, $10-million plant modernization aimed at reinforcing its industry-leading credentials and hard-earned marketshare gains.

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10

STRETCHWRAPPING

24 Full Shelf-Service By Andrew Joseph Montreal manufacturer of steel commercial racking and shelving systems for the grocery and retail sectors uses reliable, heavy-duty stretchwrapping machinery to ensure optimal product protection in the transport of its high-quality products to customers.

S U S TA I N A B I L I T Y

26 Greener Than Thou! By George Guidoni Inaugural competition gives Canadian innovators a forum and an eager key audience to strut their packaging sustainablity credentials.

D E P A R T M E N T S

ISSN 0008-4654

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U P F R O N T By George Guidoni

8-9

21 A N D

24 C O L U M N S

FIRST GLANCE

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N E W S PA C K

Momentum builds for PACsecure certification; McCormick heats things up with slow-cook soup mixes; PepsiCo making waves with new sleek bottles.

10

ECO-PACK NOW

29

i m PA C t

A monthly insight from the PAC.

PEOPLE

Career moves in the packaging world.

All the latest on packaging sustainability.

12

EVENTS

Upcoming industry shows and functions.

New technologies for packaging applications.

30

CHECKOUT By Elena Langlois

Joe Public speaks out on packaging hits and misses.

NEXT ISSUE: Product ID NOW, Case-Ready Meat Packaging, Canadian Converting.

CA NA DI A N PAC K AG IN G • M A R C H 2 010

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Pack PAC food safety certification program gaining momentum in packaging industry circles A recently-introduced series of rigorous standards designed to ensure optimal safety for packaging products used by food-and-beverage manufacturers is starting to gain growing acceptance among leading Canadian packaging producers and converters,with theToronto-based Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. last month becoming the first Canadian corrugated company to receive PACsecure certification for the company’s boxmaking operation in Mississauga, Ont. Developed by the Toronto-based industry group PACThe Packaging Association with federal funding from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the PACsecure certification program comprises five new food standards covering 24 different packaging manufacturing processes for flexible and rigid plastics, paper, metal and glass packaging within the overall framework of the internationally-recognized HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) protocol, widely embraced by the leading global food-and-beverage producers.

According to PAC president Jim Downham, the PACsecure standards were devised as a logical extension of HACCP scrutiny into the food-and-beverage manufacturers’ supplier base—training packaging companies to identify and eliminate any potential biological, chemical and physical hazards through preventative corrective actions, rather than by finished product inspection.

“Based on our knowledge, the new PACsecure standards are the most comprehensive food safety standards for packaging materials in the world,” Downham says, citing their recognition and informal validation by the

Atlantic Packaging vice-president of manufacturing for the packaging group Mark Ragotte holds up the PACsecure certification plaque at the company’s Toronto headquarters at a special presentation also attended by (from left): Bob Hagan, Atlantic Packaging senior vice-president of sales for the packaging groups; PAC president Jim Downham; Atlantic Packaging’s Mississauga plant manager Dan Elliot; and Atlantic Packaging quality control coordinator Ankur Parikh.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) agencies of the United Nations.

“They have already been approved by the Food Safety Alliance for Packaging,representing most of the major food producers in North America,” Downham notes, “and we are now starting to get many additional requests for them from companies, trade organizations and government agencies from around the world.

“This program is really starting to get some traction now, even more so in the U.S. than Canada, so for any packaging company doing business with a big food company like Kraft, for example, having a PACsecure certification in place can provide great credentials and an important competitive advantage in the marketplace.”

Since the launch of PACsecure in 2008, pharmaceutical folding-carton producer Jones Packaging of London, Ont., and flexible packaging manufacturer Farnell Packaging of Dartsmouth, N.S., have earned PACsecure certification, with Richmond, B.C.-based specialty flexible packaging converter Layfielfd Packaging also receiving its PACsecure validation last month.

Atlantic Packaging vice-president of manufacturing for the packaging group Bob Hagan says the 14-month effort to obtain PACsecure certification for the company’s Mississauga plant—manufacturer of corrugated, preprinted and kraft boxes for the food industry—was a worthwhile investment, adding that several of the company’s other Canadian-based plants are scheduled to obtain their respective certifications later this year.

“It’s important to look at this beyond just the food safety perspective,” says Hagan. “This is really a business process that provides a comprehensive checks-and-balances approach not only to food safety, but also the cleanliness of the facilities, operator training, productivity, eliminating waste, and other key elements of operating our business.”

Layfield Packaging president Tom Rose agrees: “Our customers look to us to provide them with higherperformance packaging that will help them reduce their risks.

“As a leading vertically-integrated provider of specialized flexible packaging offering sophisticated films that are printed, laminated and converted into a wide range of industrial and consumer applications, we felt it was our moral responsibility to ensure that our packaging is safe from bugs, glass, rodents, and other contaminations by implementing a rigorous program such as PACsecure.”

Spice producer’s slow journey to the Canadian kitchens tables With slow cooking said to be quickly growing back in vogue, leading spice producer McCormick Canada is giving Canadian consumers more tasty options to keep warm this winter with the release of three new Club House Slow Cooker Soup seasoning mixes.

Available in Minestrone, Chicken Noodle and Beef Vegetable flavors, the transfat-free mixes— containing no artificial flavors or colors—are packaged in 45-gram foil pouches featuring e n g a g i n g g r a ph ic s designed by the Toronto-

based Forthought Design Inc. and printed by Lithotype Company Inc. of San Francisco, Ca., with Toronto-based Novellus Graphics supplying all the related prepress work.

Made and packaged at McCormick Canada’s production facility in London, Ont., the three new mixes are marketed as an extension of the company’s recently-launched Club House Slow Cooker seasoning mixes—including Pot Roast, Beef Stew, BBQ Pork, Chili, Italian Chicken and BBQ Ribs flavors—with each of the products now including a full list of ingredients, a Nutrition Facts table, and cooking instructions on the back of the package.

“The new Club House Slow Cooker Soups are really easy to make,” says McCormick Canada’s group marketing manager Jennifer Dionne.

“You simply add the desired fresh ingredients and

PepsCo aims to make a big splash with a new wavy bottle Having already made big waves in the Canadian beverage market in the last couple of years with stellar sales of its Aquafina Plus+ Vitamins and the diet-version Aquafina Plus+ Vitamins 10 Cal brands of flavored water, PepsiCo Beverages Canada is hitting the iron while it’s hot with a stylish redesign of the brands’ 591-ml plastic containers— adopting a sleek ‘wavy’ look that clearly evokes the element of water for a more refreshing product presentation.

Designed by the Toronto-based branding specialists Shikatani Lacroix Design Inc. and produced by Graham Packaging in York, Pa., the new PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles also pack considerably more visual panache and shelf impact with their colorful, full-bodied shrinksleeve labels—compared to the original wraparound labels covering only the bottom half of bottle—while enhancing consumer convenience with better grippability of the wavy curves and a more narrow mouth of the bottle.

Launched across Canada this month, the sleek new bottles are making their debut only a few months after PepsiCo’s launch of the brand’s diet version of the drink— the first beverage in Canada to feature a pure Stevia extract, all-natural sweetener called PureVia. “Our Aquafina Plus+Vitamins vitamin enhanced water 6

has seen explosive growth in Canada,” says PepsiCo Beverages Canada’s vicepresident of consumer marketing Cheryl Radisa.“We believe that the introduction of brand renovations, and in-demand line extensions like the Aquafina Plus+ Vitamins 10 Cal brand with a pure stevia extract natural sweetener, are going to further that leadership position.

“In the highly competitive beverage industry, products and brands need to continue to evolve and add to the consumer experience,” Radisa adds.

“This is a very noticeable upgrade for our recent Aquafina Plus+ Vitamins brand, and we are excited to see the changes begin to take shape after the new bottles have arrived onto the store-shelves.”

The company says it is following up on the launch of the new bottles with an extensive marketing campaign utilizing transit-shelter advertising and sampling events, while also anticipating a boost of additional exposure through the brand’s close relationship with the CTV network’s highly popular So You Think You Can Dance Canada program—now entering its third year.

seasoning mix to the slow cooker appliance, set it on low for eight hours or an high for four hours, and come home to a delicious soup, as well as a home filled with tantalizing aromas,” says Dionne, adding that McCormick has introduced the new soup mixes in response to an ongoing revival of the slow-cooking food preparation across many Canadian households.

“Slow cooking has made a big comeback in Canada in recent years,” says Dionne. “According to the PMB Slow Cooker Appliance Usage Report, 65 per cent of Canadian women aged 25 to 50 owned slow-cookers in 2006— up from 55 per cent the year before.”

Don’t Get Greenwashed!

The ongoing debate on what constitutes true packaging sustainability often tends to raise more questions than it answers, but industry group Paper Packaging Canada (PPC) is planning to get at least some of the myths and misconceptions cleared up next month with a half-day, information-packed conference addressing hotbutton issues such as third-party certification of sustainable forest management, chain-of-custody, eco-labeling standards, scorecards and rating systems, metrics and life-cycle analysis.

To be held on April 13, 2010, at the Mississauga Convention Centre in Mississauga,Ont.,the Cutting through the Greenwash II conference will feature keynote speakers from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), Forest Stewardship Council Canada (FSC), and Canada’s Environmental Choice Program (EcoLogo) as part of a candid and lively discussion that will also include panelists representing some of Canada’s leading retailers and foodservice operators, including Sobeys, Tim Hortons and McDonald’s.

With last year’s inaugural Cutting through the Greenwash a complete sellout, the PPC is urging all interested attendees to register early by contacting Shirley Price at (905) 458-0087;via email at sprice@ ppec-pare.com; or by visiting the association’s website at: www.paperpackaging.ca march 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

Not Just All About Strapping Samuel Strapping Systems manufactures a complete range of stretch wrap equipment and systems for all your unitizing requirements. Capable of producing up to 90 pallets per hour, our manual, semi-automatic and fully-automatic systems (platform or conveyorized) are available to suit a variety of needs. A powered pre-stretched film delivery system is also available for our line.

Our systems are complimented by our line of stretch film that feature consistent high quality and superior performance. Available in a variety of gauges and widths, our stretch films have an excellent stretch memory and unsurpassed puncture resistance which can lower your palletizing costs without affecting unitizing strength and load integrity.

New Westminster, BC • Edmonton, AB • Vaughan, ON • Mississsauga, ON • Burlington, ON • Lachine, QC Samuel Strapping Systems Packaging and Unitizing Solutions Toll Free - 1-800-607-8727

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GLANCE MAKING THE GRADE

A BETTER ANGLE

The new Impulse/P size grader from Symetix— designed for high-speed size-grading of solid-dose pharmaceuticals—features a sanitary stainlesssteel bed and removable decks with holes that are perfectly sized for each product. Available with two or three grading decks to achieve two- or three-way size separation, the system’s quickchangeover design has very few moving parts—providing for easy maintenance—and no rotating parts such as rollers, bearings, sprockets, chains, etc. to wear out, while the system’s large infeed hopper and electronically-controlled gate make Impulse/P easy integrate with a broad range of upstream and downstream equipment.

The new generation of Triangle V/F/F/S (vertical form/fill/seal) baggers from Triangle Package Machinery Co. features clean, open design to allow operators unrestricted 360-degree machine access, with the machine’s constant film motion delivering consistent web-tracking and reliable registration for superior backseals and minimal rejects—ensured with servo-controlled horizontal jaws engineered to produce reliable end-seals with consistent cross-seal pressure. Driven by Rockwell Automation’s ControlLogix control technology, the bagging machines—available in various finishes and configurations for harsh and/or washdown environments—are outfitted with a generous range of convenient, operatorfriendly features such as the ‘easy start/stop’ button on

Symetix 401

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

the back of the machine and quick, toolless back-seal and horizontal jaw changeovers.

Triangle Package Machinery Co. F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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C O M B I N E D E F F O RT S

Jointly developed by Schneider Packaging Equipment and Lantech, the Stack and Wrap Palletizing/ Stretchwrapping Cell is a high-throughput, high-perfor mance, fully-automated, end-of-line packaging combination system comprising a Schneider palletizer, a Fanuc robotic arm, and two Lantech Q-600 stretchwrappers in a unique configuration that actually builds the unit load right on the stretchwrapper to achieve more efficient handling and stabilizing of lightweight, unstable loads in a reduced floorspace. In operation, an automatic pallet dispenser and conveyor system deliver an empty pallet to each stretchwrapper at the same time as the product is delivered from two production lines to the palletizing cell, with the robotic arm continuously building layers of product on each of the stretchwrappers. Once a predetermined number of cases are loaded onto the first pallet, the first wrapper stabilizes the load layers by applying stretch film, with the robotic arm beginning to build a load on the second stretch wrapper—with the process repeating itself as the wrapper and robotic arm alternate building and wrapping the load in pre-determined increments until completing the load and discharging the product onto the conveyor transfer system.

Schneider Packaging Equipment F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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Lantech F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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DY N A M I C D E S I G N S

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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Improve machine and business performance.

Get connected to our worldwide service and complete machine lifecycle management.

Ask Schneider Electric’s North America Packaging Technology and Solution Center experts to help your machines become faster, more flexible, more reliable and more energy efficient.

www.schneider-electric.ca/dc 8

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© 2010 Schneider Canada Inc. All Rights Reserved

Protect your investment. More than 40,000 packaging machines are in use around the globe with Schneider Electric and Elau solutions.

The new DynaCon Vertical Lift Conveyor from Dynamic Conveyor is designed as an efficient, space-saving product transfer system for crowded and growing production facilities with floorspace constraints, with its modular construction enabling its use a part of a multistacked DynaCon conveyor system or as a free-standing unit to be added to an existing conveyor system. Available in standard conveyor widths ranging from four to 60 inches, and with a lifting capacity of up to 100 pounds, the Vertical Lift Conveyor—made from corrosion-resistant anodized aluminum—is outfitted with steel bearings and guides to ensure low friction, long service life and heavy-load capabilities, according to Dynamic, while the use of and electric motor to operate the lifting actuator enables energy-efficient,

CANADIAN PACKAGING • MARC H 2010

GLANCE maintenance-free operation in providing safe and smooth product transfer.

that allows the user to adjust the height of each shelf to the most comfortable position for the operator, with the wide range of optional assessors including slide-out shelves, a laptop holder, an adjustable keyboard tray, a binder holder, an adjustable LCD support, a lockable drawer, a CPU holder, and a barcode scanner holder.

ter than those typically found with non-foil Dynamic Conveyor structures— F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 405 and about 10 time better CAUGHT ON FILM barrier propThe Klöckner PenNewcastle Systems erties with taplast Group has exF O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E the ClearFoil panded its Pentapharm 408 X film—by incorporating innovative aluminum oxidefilm product line with coated polyester which can be either laminated or exthe new Pentapharm kpCLEAR CHOICES trusion-coated with any of Rollprint’s proprietary sealant Vantage polyester films Rollprint Packaging Products, Inc. has expanded its technologies for added functionality, making them espefor a broad range of ClearFoil line of high-barrier packaging films with the cially well-suited for pharmaceutical applications with high-performance pharmaceutical blister packaging apClearFoil X and ClearFoil Z clear, ultra-high barrier pack- tight tolerances on oxygen and moisture ingress, as well as plications—including solid oral-dose packaging, OTC aging films designed as an efficient alternative to alumi- for most moisture- and oxygen-sensitive food packaging drugs, generics, physician samples, veterinary medicines, num foil structures in demanding packaging applications. applications. nutraceuticals, etc.—which are designed to be Canadian processed Packaging (March), 273 mm, LCS, CC-en37-AZ037 02/10 According to the company, the Format ClearFoil Z200 film isxcaon most existing equipment without any alterations to pable of providing barrier properties of up 100 times bet- Rollprint Packaging Products, Inc. tooling, lidding or package design. According to KlöckF O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E 409 ner, the Pentapharm kpVantage films can be either used as mono films for pharmaceuticals requiring low moisture barrier or be integrated into barrier structures for products that require more protection from moisture and gas.

Klöckner Pentaplast Group F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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Life is liquid. (6)

FRONT LINES

The new PA1200fa Front Apply label printer-applicator from Tharo Systems, Inc.—designed for printing and applying labels onto the leading side of a product moving down a conveyor— utilizes the Tharo H-Series direct thermal or thermal-transfer printers with print resolutions of 203- or 300-dpi (dots per inch), with the system’s applicator tamp, mounted on a heavy-duty swing arm that extends over a conveyor, using suction to strip printed labels from the liner and securely attach them onto the product.

Tharo Systems, Inc. F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N C I R C L E

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Shape up your line.

It’s time.

M O B I L E P OW E R

The new NB Series mobile powered workstations from Newcastle Systems— designed to save labor and improve productivity by eliminating unnecessary foot travel and paperwork in a broad range of warehousing, inventory management, process control, on-demand label printing, product testing, orderpicking, crossdocking, weighing, scanning and other applications—are patented, ergonomically-deigned carts that can carry critical components such as desktop and laptop computers, printers, scales, barcode scanners, and most other small electronic equipment to exactly where they are needed, with their on-board batteries capable of powering up to four devices simultaneously for eight to 10 hours of normal use.

Featuring adjustable shelves that can hold up to 75 pounds each, according to the company, each of the five different NB Series models is equipped with a slotted mast

Is your line starting to show its age? New handling parts and upgrades from Krones Life Cycle Services will shape up your production operation and pump up performance. The result: higher efficiency, reduced rejections, more flexibility and happier operators. And for those younger line models, Krones offers a turbocharged tuning packaging!

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Find out more at: www.krones.com/en/solutions

ECO-PACK

NOW

COMPOSTABLE BAGS TO CHIP AWAY AT FRITO-LAY’S ECO-FOOTPRINT Leading Canadian snack-food producer Frito Lay Canada has already done many things in recent years to reduce the environmental impact of its operations, but the Cambridge, Ont.-based division of PepsiCo is really raising its concerted sustainability drive to a whole new level with the launch of the world’s first 100-percent compostable chip bag—made largely from the PLA (polylactic acid) polymers derived from corn and other renewable plant starches.

Claimed to able to fully biodegrade in about 14 weeks in a hot and active compost pile, the PLA chip bags—produced by the Memphis,Tenn.-based Bryce Corporation from PLA polymers manufactured by leading bioplastics producer NatureWorks LLC—were launched across Canada this month as new packaging for the company’s popular multigrain SunChips brand in 225- and 425-gram sizes, with the rest of the brand’s packaging slated for full conversion to PLA by the end of August.

“In order to continue to reduce our environmental impact as a company, finding sustainable packaging solutions was a must,” says Frito Lay Canada president Marc Guay.

“We know that environmentally-friendly packaging is a priority for Canadians, and using plant-based renewable materials to make packaging that will interact differently with the environment represents the next small step in Frito Lay Canada’s environmental sustainability journey.”

The company says it took four years to research and test various sustainable packaging alternative before selecting PLA as the material that best met its performance expectations—

especially in respect to maintaining product freshness and quality.

Boasting certification labels from the globally-recognized Biodegradable Products Institute (BPI), the SunChips compostable bags—designed by Toronto-based branding specialists Shikatani Lacroix—will also sound distinctly different from conventional chip bags when being opened, according to the company, because they are not as soft at room temperature.

Such packaging differentiation from competing products will help Canadian consumers gain a better awareness of the importance of composting as a key sustainability strategy, Frito Lay asserts, offering new opportunities for municipal waste management programs.

The company says it will be working on various local composting initiatives to enable the new PLA packaging to be included in the municipal Green Bin waste collection programs as much as possible.

“Having designed packaging with the environment in mind, SunChips’ certified compostable packaging will help raise awareness of the environmental importance of composting,” says Susan Antler, executive director of the Compost Council of Canada.

“We hope the introduction of initiatives such as the compostable SunChips bag will encourage and make it easier for Canadians to participate in composting such that over time, we will see an increase in the number of Canadian households that compost,”Antler states.“This will hopefully also spur the

industry to continue to develop and enhance the technology needed to create packaging from renewable resources such that it can be easily incorporated into waste management systems.”

Produced at Frito Lay Canada’s central manufacturing facility in Cambridge, Ont., the multigrain SunChips—offered in Original, Harvest Cheddar, and Salsa and French Onion flavors— is the bestselling brand of multigrain snacks in Canada, according to Frito Lay, as well as one of PepsiCo Inc.’s biggest flagship brands.

Having embarked on a comprehensive plan to reduce its environmental impact more than a decade ago, Frito Lay Canada has carried out a number of key environmental improvement initiatives, according to the company, including: • Reducing its manufacturing fuel consumption per kilogram of snacks produced by more than 20 per cent; • Reducing its water consumption by 30 per cent since 1999—saving 5.4 billion liters of water through various upgrades at its manufacturing plants; • Diverting more than 92 per cent of its manufacturing waste from landfills into re-use streams in 2009; • Reusing more than 200 million shipping cartons since 1999—saving more than two million trees.

PAPERBOARD PRODUCER BUILDS UP ITS GREEN CREDENTIALS For a company that rightfully prides itself on being one of North America’s leading producers of eco-friendly paperboard packaging products, MeadWestvaco Corporation’s latest achievement in environmental sustainability—earning the highest possible Green Globes ratings for the company’s new headquarters in Richmond,Va.—is a resounding confirmation of the depth of its commitment to the ‘green’ cause.

Not only does the new MeadWestvaco HQ building join a very select group of just over 100 other commercial buildings in the U.S. to boast a Green Globes certification from the Green Building Initiative (GBI) nonprofit organization—including the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock,

Ark., the Pfizer Clinical Research Unit in New Haven, Conn., and the Chandler Airport Commerce Center in Chandler, Az.—its rating of four Globes ranks it as one of “national or world leaders in energy and environmental performance,” according to GBI. “The environmental achievements and sustainability measures taken in this building are extremely impressive, and MeadWestvaco should be commended for setting a positive example not only for the state of Virginia, but also for the entire country,” says GBI vice-president of operations Mark Rossolo.“Only two other buildings in the U.S. have attained the four Globes rating, which is a real testament to the company’s commitment to sustainability and to improving our new construction methods.”

Some of the key environmental attributes contributing to such a high rating include: • The recycling of 95 per cent of the construction waste;

• A 21-percent improvement in overall energy efficiency over traditional building methods; • Utilization of the most energy-efficient HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) system and glass available in the market; • Harvesting and making maximum use of natural lighting to reduce energy consumption; • Reducing water use through native landscaping, plumbing and control systems.

“We are very pleased to have achieved the Green Globes Four Globe certification, and we appreciate the efforts of GBI to make an impact on the sustainability of our buildings nationwide,” says MeadWestvaco’s chief executive John Luke.

“MeadWestvaco has long been a leader in sustainability, and we made deliberate choices about how and what we would build as our headquarters as a direct reflection of this long-standing commitment.”

BIOMASS CONVERSION PROCESS EARNS KEY CERTIFICATION Packaging films manufacturer Innovia Films has earned the coveted CarbonNeutral certification for its full range of cellulose-based NatureFlex coated biodegradable and compostable packaging films following an independent assessment of the CO2 emissions produced in the manufacture of coated NatureFlex and their subsequent reduction to net zero through the development of the company’s a carbon offsetting anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities in The Netherlands, where the methane generated through the AD process will be used to heat local buildings instead of fossil fuels.

“The fit between this type of project and NatureFlex is perfect, as NatureFlex is suitable for disposal using emerging ‘waste to energy’ techniques such as AD to aid the diversion of organic wastes from landfill,” says the company’s business development and sustainability manager Andy Sweetman.

“Film-based food packaging is notoriously difficult to segregate and recycle economically,” says John Williams, polymers and materials manager at the National Centre for Renewable Fuels, Materials and Technologies (NNFCC) in York, England.

“But if you make that packaging from a biopolymer, it can go into a digester along with the food waste—simplifying waste disposal for consumers, diverting biodegradable waste 10

from landfill and providing renewable, low-carbon energy,” Williams explains.

“The advent of enhanced sorting and identification systems for conventional polymers also means that biopolymers can be easily distinguished from their petrochemical counterparts during waste segregation., says Williams, adding that the AD process has already displayed promising potential for future waste management strategies and applications.

“The U.K. produces over 100 million tonnes of organic

material suitable for treatment by AD, and if this material managed to find its way into digesters we could produce 10-20 TWh (terawatt hours) of heat and power per year by 2020,”Williams points out.

“The U.K. now has a renewable energy strategy aiming for the delivery of 15-percent renewable energy by 2020, and with government backing the technology, AD promises to contribute significantly to our renewable energy demands.”

Already widely used for packaging a growing variety of food products worldwide—from high-moisture-content fresh produce to the more hygroscopic baked goods—the NatureFlex range of films comprises a transparent cellulose base manufactured from sustainable wood pulp, with specially-formulated biodegradable and compostable surface layers added as required by application to control moisture permeability.

The CarbonNeutral certification from The CarbonNeutral Company—the world’s leading provider and administrator of carbon offset credit programs and services in accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol— makes Innovia Films the world’s first film to carry a full product range that offsets the residual carbon-balance, according to the company.

MARCH 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

MECHANICAL DRIVES

SEVERE DUTY CORROSION PROTECTION

the

F-SERIES SNUGGLER ®

Parallel Helecal Gearmotors SEW-Eurodrive’s F-Series parallel helical gearmotor lives up to its name as the ideal drive for tight space conditions. This compact drive, with its multiple mounting configurations, is a rugged alternative to right angled gearmotors.

SEW-Eurodrive has introduced a new line of aseptic gearmotors to meet the high levels of hygiene crucial to the production of food and beverages, as well as the stringent demands of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. SEW has solved this challenge with the aseptic design of helical, parallel shaft helical, helical-bevel and helical-worm gearmotors made entirely of smooth stainless steel, cooled by pure convection cooling — eliminating conventional fan and cooling ribs, which prevents the build-up of germs and bacteria on the surface and allows for easy regular cleaning.

CORROSION PROTECTION PRODUCT RANGE Power ratings from 0.34 to 2.0 HP Can be mounted directly onto R, F, K, S-Series gear units in all standard positions FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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F-SERIES PRODUCT RANGE

Get off Easy for a Change.

Power ratings from 0.05 to 336 HP Output speeds from 0.06 to 464 rpm (based on 4 pole motor) Output torques to 159,300 lb-in.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

129

K-SERIES Helical-Bevel Gearmotors SEW-Eurodrive’s K-Series right angle helicalbevel gearmotors deliver maximum performance and reliability with 95%+ efficiency and high torque density. Durable gearing designed for long service life makes this drive an ideal choice for demanding around-the-clock applications.

K-SERIES PRODUCT RANGE Power ratings from 0.05 to 615 HP Output speeds from 0.05 to 326 rpm (based on 4 pole motor) Output torques to 442,500 lb-in.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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S-SERIES

With TorqLOC ®. The keyless hollow shaft mounting system.

Helical-Worm Gearmotors SEW-Eurodrive’s S-Series right angle gearmotors offer helical-before-worm gearing combining durability with power-packed performance in a compact design that requires no motor belts or couplings.

S-SERIES PRODUCT RANGE Power ratings from 0.05 to 46 HP Output speeds from 0.05 to 257 rpm Output torques to 35,400 lb-in.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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AC MOTORS

TorqLOC’s corrosion-resistant, stainless steel design makes it the perfect choice for production line wash-down environments.

and Breakemotors SEW-Eurodrive’s squirrel-cage motors and brakemotors deliver exceptional performance and reliability combined with low maintenance.

Designed for continuous duty under tough service conditions, these low-noise brakemotors are used wherever fast, safe braking is a major application requirement.

While hollow shaft mounting systems offer advantages over traditional securing methods, they’re extremely susceptible to corrosion. As a result, getting a gearbox off the shaft is difficult, often impossible. The revolutionary TorqLOC makes things easy for a change.

TorqLOC is a compact, keyless hollow shaft mounting system that offers manufacturers operating in wash-down environments an unrivalled solution for coupling drive systems to their machinery.

With a keyless design that fits a variety of standard shaft sizes without additional machining, TorqLOC reduces operating costs and allows simple, fast assembly by eliminating the need to cut keyways or turn solid shafts to exacting tolerances.

Made from bronze and nickel-plated steel, TorqLOC’s tapered bushings are inherently corrosion-resistant, making the system ideal for wash-down environments. And with no corrosion problems, TorqLOC ensures fast and easy removal, even after years of use.

With a flexible mounting system and corrosion-free components, you now get off and on easy with TorqLOC. Driving the World FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

AC MOTORS PRODUCT RANGE

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Power ratings from 0.25 to 100 HP 2-, 4-, 6-, 8-, 4/8-, 2/6-, 2/8-pole plus others Integral brakes to fit all frames FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

Toronto (905) 791-1553 132

Montreal (514) 367-1124

Vancouver (604) 946-5535

www.sew-eurodrive.ca

Access the GlobAl PAckAGinG network

the PAckAGinG AssociAtion

Packaging for Sustainability A Long Way 2 Go

Packaging Digest, one of the largest trade publications in the US, published the results of their fall 2009 annual survey on sustainability Awareness. 41% of packagers are very familiar with the issues of sustainability whereas in 2007 the number was 21%. this is a vast improvement. And in the January 2010 issue they published trends for 2010 impacting packaging from seven key packaging industry observers. even in these times of economic uncertainty sustainability was ranked either first or second from all seven individuals. on the canadian scene we like to think that we are further ahead on the movement but even if it is true there still is a long way to go for the majority of the industry. once again one of the industry leaders on sustainability wants to enable those companies that need some assistance. walmart canada will be hosting the sustainable Packaging conference iV, symbolically on earth Day, April 22, 2010. entitled “How to Embed Sustainability into your Organization” this conference is specifically designed to educate and provide the framework for an entire organization on how to actively engage in the movement. the event will include a pre-conference survey that will help companies to benchmark their organizations to a peer group… meaning everyone in attendance at the conference. This confidential survey is targeted to all functional areas of business including the company leadership and culture. it will be shared only with the individual that completes the survey but the aggregate total of all surveys will compare one another. Following the feedback session, participants will interact with the best in class business leaders. this will be followed by a session that will provide a take-away framework to implement.

Other key features include: addresses by Duncan Macnaughton, walmart’s cMo and the President of sc Johnson, beth simermeyer. table top sustainable packaging exhibits from the latest products, process and technology will be on display throughout the day. walmart will present their sustainable Packaging leadership awards to their top vendors, walmart and sc Johnson will be presenting their awards to the winners of the PAc student sustainable Packaging competition. this sponsored competition by walmart and sc Johnson has attracted student entries from eight canadian colleges and universities. there will be an update on the walmart sustainable Packaging scorecard and a presentation from iGD on retail ready Packaging see you on earth Day! James D Downham President & ceo,, PAc PAc - the Packaging Association Sustainability Leadership a PAC Value Driver

Walmart Sustainable Packaging Conference IV Earth Day, April 22, 2010 the conference will include: • Table Top Displays – Packaging for sustainable solutions – sustainable consulting services • Benchmark Survey and feedback session

• Walmart Sustainable Packaging leadership Awards • Walmart Scorecard Update • Retail Ready Packaging Update • Student Packaging Competition Awards

Attendees & Exhibitors Register Online Now at www.pac.ca

Join PAC today!

12

For more info on PAC membership and events contact Lisa Abraham: 416-460-7860 x213, labraham@pac.ca OR visit www.pac.ca

Sustainability Survey & Go Forward action plans Executive Leadership & Corporate Culture the leadership of an organization must endorse and sponsor sustainability for it to permeate an business. How well has sustainability been embraced by your executives?

Facilities & Operations sustainability is readily transparent within the facilities of an organization; sometimes called the low hanging fruit. How well has sustainability reached across your manufacturing plant, physical offices and corporate edifice?

Procurement & Supply Chain initiatives at the point that raw materials and consumables enter an organization is crucial for a sustainability program. How well has sustainability reached across your sourcing and supplier relationships?

Sales & Marketing Marketing is the fulcrum for leveraging sustainability to increase revenue. How well has sustainability reached across the marketing of goods & services in your business, including the refinement and development of new offerings to support growth?

Human Resources engaging with people promotes sustainability within an organization and community through education, rewards programs and joint projects.

How well has sustainability reached across your employees and community; at work and at home?

For more inFormation on:

PAC

410 MARCH 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

new productsequipment Vivo! Photo-Quality Digital Label Printer

Blank Labels & Inks

7,500 Labels? By this Afternoon? No Problem!

QuickLabel® manufactures labels, inks, and thermal transfer ribbons for every label printer brand. We have labels in 1000s of shapes and sizes, and dozens of materials and price ranges. We’ll drop-ship to your customer or deliver to meet your own needs.

The Vivo! digital color label printer is designed for manufacturers who need fast-turnaround on “short-runs” of labels for printing just-in-time, private label packaging, and export labels. The Vivo! digitally prints photo-quality labels at high speeds, up to 3 ips in 600 dpi CMYK color and is cost-effective for moderatehigh volumes of labels, from 100s to 10,000s per batch. The Vivo! is a tonerbased printer, similar to a laser printer, and printed labels are extremely resistant to fading, abrasion, and moisture. Prints onto paper and synthetic die-cut labels and tags.

QuickLabel Systems 877-757-7978 (Toronto & western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec & eastern Canada) www.QuickLabel.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 117

Barcode Printers with Lifetime Warranty

QuickLabel’s Pronto! Barcode Printer Family offers more features than most other barcode printers on the market. Our 203 dpi, 300 dpi, 600 dpi printers come with Lifetime Warranty, QuickSwap™ Loan & Replacement Service, and 24-Hour Support from our factory.

QuickLabel Systems 877-757-7978 (Toronto & western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec & eastern Canada) www.QuickLabel.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 118

Custom Label Printing

QuickLabel prints your custom labels using our own digital label printers or our flexographic presses. Fast turnaround, artwork assistance, and low minimum order quantities.

QuickLabel Systems 877-757-7978 (Toronto & western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec & eastern Canada) www.QuickLabel.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 119

Cut Costs by Making Labels On-Demand and save time!

QuickLabel Systems 877-757-7978 (Toronto & western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec & eastern Canada) www.QuickLabel.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 115

Integrate Digital Color Label Printing In-line

QuickLabel’s Xe series of digital color label printers can be addressed by an ERP system and integrated “in-line” with automatic label applicator systems.

They produce color labels faster than any other in-house label printers, with highest speed processing and printing of variable label content. Ideal for industrial applications, with “peel off” option for faster label application. Speeds of up to 7 ips (in spot color print mode) or 4 ips (in process color print mode). Prints on flexible rollstock up to 8.3” wide.

QuickLabel Systems 877-757-7978 (Toronto & western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec & eastern Canada) www.QuickLabel.ca FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 116

Do you ever need “short runs” of labels?

Would you benefit from getting labels faster or being able to make quick changes to your labels? FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 114 With a QuickLabel printer, you can print your own custom labels for any product. It’s affordable, fast, and easy to print your own labels on-demand for each product variation, for private label customers, and for labeling short-runs of seasonal products and prototype products.

Call us to start printing labels on-demand:

877-757-7978 (Ontario and western Canada) 800-565-2216 (Québec and eastern Canada) Visit us: www.QuickLabel.ca

With QuickLabel’s powerful Vivo! electrophotographic label printer, you can print about 2300 photographic labels an hour. With QuickLabel’s desktop Zeo! inkjet label printer, you can start printing labels in minutes, at about 150 labels an hour.

QuickLabel printers dramatically cut turnaround times for labels and make it profitable for you to label products on-demand and fulfill small-quantity custom orders with high-quality, custom-labeled packaging.

PRODUCT ID NOW CASE COVER STORY

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY COLE CARSIDE

STUDY

Oral paste injectables Bimectin, Exodus and Ivermectin are some of the many world-renowned vetinary pharmaceuticals produced by Bimeda-MTC.

COVER STORY

ANIMAL PHARM

Designed for high-quality print resolution, the Markem-Imaje SmartDate 5 thermal-transfer coder quickly applies important lot and date information to every product packaged at Bimeda’s Cambridge facility.

A

horse is a horse, of course, which is why taking care of this majestic animal requires vastly different veterinary treatments and meds than those for man’s other farm-raised best friends—namely sheep, goats, pigs and poultry—not to mention our much-beloved domestic dogs and cats.

So when you’re in the business of supplying a vast range of highly specialized injectable liquids and formulations for treating these animals from a staggering array of possible ailments and sicknesses—impeccable quality control and full product traceability must be a given.

And it has been for many years at the Bimeda-MTC Animal Health Inc. veterinary pharmaceuticals plant in Cambridge, Ont., where 107 dedicated employees develop, manufacture and market a broad variety of pharmaceuticals and animal health-care products tailored for optimal Mario Oliveira, animal well-being.

Supervisor, Filling & Packaging, Part of the Irish-based BiBimeda-MTC Animal Health Inc. meda Group of companies since it was acquired from K-Vet in 1998, the Cambridge operation is an important strategic part of a growing global veterinary products powerhouse—a division of privatelyowned, multinational vet products conglomerate Cross Vetpharm Group—with customers in over 75 countries and worldwide revenues of US$115 million in 2007.

To help keep that market-share momentum going the right way, the 58,000-square-foot plant must always operate under the strictest rules and regulations set out by the regulatory heavyweights Health Canada and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as having all the European Union approvals in place, relates Mario Oliveira, supervisor in charge of filling and packaging operations at the Cambridge facility.

“It’s not an easy field to become involved with, thanks to the incredible increase in government regulations, not to mention the startup costs of building a sterile facility,” says Oliveira, “but the level of regulatory standards upheld at this one Canadian location allows Bimeda to ship products all around the world from here.”

In fact, Oliveira relates, the Cambridge operation has 14

Canadian manufacturer of animal pharmaceuticals rides technological superiority to greater market share played a key role in laying the foundation for Bimeda’s further successful expansion into the U.S. markets—now operating sister plants in Le Sueur, Minn., and Irwindale, Ca., along with Bimeda’s North American headquarters in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.— and a subsequent push into Mexico, where the company has recently opened up a sales and distribution center in Querétaro.

With the U.S. market today accounting for half of the Cambridge plant’s sales—Canada and EU markets generating most of the other half—the Cambridge unit has been a beneficiary of three major capital upgrades under the new ownership, Oliveira points out, crediting Bimeda for “having the financial wherewithal and the industry knowledge to construct two sterile suites here—with a third one currently being set up—enabling us to find a lucrative niche market.

BIG EDGE

“To me, that’s what gives us a big competitive advantage over the other companies,” says Bimeda, citing the plant’s growing output of industry-leading product lines offering petowners, institutions, livestock producers and veterinarians an incredibly diverse selection of high-quality products.

“We’re well-known in the industry for our innovative, performance-proven professional veterinary and over-thecounter products that we ship from here across Canada, the U.S., Japan ... the whole world, actually,” Oliveira states, citing the apple-flavored Bimectin and Exodus dewormers as two of the bestselling non-sterile paste products made in Cambridge.

“We used to be more involved in providing third-party manufacturing of pharmaceutical recipes,” notes Oliveira, “and although we have gotten away from that in recent years, we still make some branded labels for clients using our manufactured product, which is exactly the same product with the same high quality.”

Because Bimeda-MTC annually reinvests a significant part of its revenue into new cutting-edge technologies, Oliveira finds himself spending a fair bit of time overseeing procurement of the best equipment on the market to keep the operation humming and staying fully-compliant with the constantly evolving regulations.

“Because being compliant in our manufacturing procedures is an ever-growing expense, I am always looking for ways to reduce our costs internally, and maintaing a more

efficiently-run production line is a key part of that,” notes Oliveira.

“We have done that to a large extent by increasing the batch sizes of our production runs and utilizing more technically efficient machinery.”

Of all the innovative technologies installed at the stateof-the-art plant, Oliveira reserves special praise for the new Markem-Imaje SmartDate 5 thermal-transfer coder at his disposal—acquired in late 2008 to ensure faultless verification that all the products made there are not only distributed and used in a timely manner, but can also be fully traced to the original production source for full product integrity assurance purposes.

“It is absolutely imperative that each and every packaged product leaving our facility meets the required quality standards,” notes Oliveira, “which necessitate clear and legible display of all the vital lot and expiration date information.”

Prior to purchasing the SmartDate 5 coder from the Mississauga-based auto ID experts Markem-Imaje Canada, the plant relied on a hot-stamp coding machine affixed to a separate labeler in a sub-par arrangement that sometimes resulted in product codes rubbing off the packaging during transit or handling, Oliveira recalls.

Plastic syringes are filled by an OMAS filler before being transferred on a conveying system powered by a LEESON Speedmaster motor control.

MARCH 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

PRODUCT ID NOW “We needed a printing technology that would always be easy to set up and that would also provide us with good and reliable print quality,” he states.

“We went to three different vendors looking for a reliable and reasonably-priced printing solution, but after we investigated the Markem-Imaje products, we were quickly sold.”

Designed for continuous high-speed applications, with its dual stepper motor drive able to print at speeds of up to 1,800-mm per second at a resolution of 300-dpi (dots per inch), the plant’s SmartDate 5 coder was customized by Markem-Imaje by integrating it with the Carrera 500 PC horizontal flowwrapping packaging system, manufactured by ILAPAK Inc., with the help of a specially-designed bracket for a seamless fit to the existing packaging machinery.

“I believe our company was one of the first to purchase and use the new SmartDate 5 coder after it was launched,” says Oliveira,“and almost a year-and-a-half later, this robust coder is still running flawlessly for us.”

RAPID CHANGE

Each of the sterile rooms—controlled by the highefficiency Design-Aire Pharma fan filtration systems from Design Filtration Inc. of Ottawa, Ont.—is equipped with the made-in-Italy Mar–19 filling-and-capping machine supplied by NJM-CLI Packaging Systems International, which also supplied three model 360S automatic labeling machines for the lines, which are operated via an operator-friendly Siemens UN1-300V Simatic control panel.

After being labeled and then coded on an Allen Coding Systems hot-stamping machine, all the bottled products are transferred downstream on a conveyor—incorporating a Baldor AC motor to maintain safe separation of the transferred bottles with no contact—until they are hand-packed into corrugated cartons and readied for shipment.

“For us,” sums up Oliveira, “everything we do, everything we use, and how we do it are all equally important parts of who Bimeda is.

“With our production and packaging capabilities, all companies and individuals purchasing Bimeda products can rest assured that everything they use is a well-made and

safe product for treating their animals,” he concludes.

“It’s what we do best.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

Markem-Imaje Canada ILAPAK Inc. OMAS Tecnosistemi SRL Rockwell Automation, Inc. Festo Inc. Becker Pumps Corp.

OMAS Tecnosistemi SRL Linx Printing Technologies Ltd. LEESON Canada Design Filtration Inc. MAR SRL NJM-CLI Packaging Systems Int’l Siemens Canada COVER Allen Coding Systems STORY Baldor Electric Company

Designed for rapid product changeovers, the highly versatile printer—compatible with a broad range of packaging substrates and formats, from flowwrap and vacuum packs to all sorts of foil-based pouches and sachets—Oliveira says the SmartDate 5 printer is a worthy addition to the impressive range of other high-tech packaging and production equipment assembled at the Cambridge facility.

A plant worker prepares the flexible film on an ILAPAK Carrera 500 PC horizontal flowwrapper, used in conjunction with a SmartDate 5 coder to pack Bimeda’s injectable paste products.

This includes an OMAS filler on the plant’s foil-packaging line—used to fill empty plastic syringes in the paste filling room via piston-fillers utilizing a Festo pneumatics system, whereby a vacuum pump applies suction to syringes to hold them securely in place during filling.

Operated via an Allen-Bradley PanelView 550 monochrome LCD control screen from Rockwell Automation, the filler is outfitted with high-precision vision sensors to ensure perfect capping of all the filled syringes, prior to them being marked with the lot and best-before dates by a model LINX 6900 coder from Linx Printing Technologies Ltd., and then whisked away via a conveyor system powered by a LEESON Speedmaster motor control.

The plant also houses two sterile packaging lines used for filling-and-capping glass and plastic bottled products—including Bimeda’s flagship Flunazine and DexiumSP brands.

“One line is for bottles ranging in size from 50-ml to 500-ml, while the other one fills bottles from 250-ml up to one liter,” Oliveira explains, adding that the recentlyinstalled third sterile room is all ready to start processing bottles smaller than 100-ml pending completion of all the regulatory approvals.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

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COVER STORY

CASE COVER STUDY STORY

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY PIERRE LONGTIN

Left: The Xpdius Elite 1200 vertical form/fill/seal bagger from WeighPack Systems is the latest high-tech equipment purchased by Expresco that the frozen-meats producer has successfully utilized to enter a new segment of the retail market.

Below: George Tiritidis, vice-president operations for the Montreal-based Expresco Foods, shows off some the tasty and healthy meat products that the company processes and packages for foodservice and retail markets across North America.

ON CUTTING EDGE Montreal meat processor hits the packaging sweet spot with high-performance, fully-automated, made-in-Canada bagging machinery

I

t’s no secret that the North American meat processing industry is as fiercely competitive today as any other major industry out there—requiring companies in the meat business to keep developing innovative new marketing and manufacturing strategies and ideas to defend their market turf and stay ahead of the competition.

Just like Expresco Foods Inc. is doing—having successfully carved out itself a promising market niche by producing high-quality, easy-to-prepare, healthy meal solutions that has consumers from coast to coast licking their lips in anticipation of every meal featuring appetizing, flavorful cuts of chicken, beef and pork processed and packaged at the company’s state-of-the-art, 50,000-squarefoot production facility in Montreal.

“Competition is always going to be there, so what we need to do continuously is to be innovative and strive to always offer the best-tasting product at a great value,” says Expresco’s vice-president of operations George Tiritidis.

“It’s all a part of the evolution of a business: You must continue to improve via innovation, while surrounding yourself with a dedicated team of people who are truly focused on the company’s goals.”

It’s a recipe that has done wonders for a company with fairly modest and inauspicious beginnings, as Tiritidis told Canadian Packaging in a recent interview.

“When we first opened our doors for business in 1986, CA NA D I A N PACK AG IN G • M AR C H 2 0 10

Expresco was solely a contract packager processing and packaging raw product for some nearby foodservice customers,” Tiritidis recalls. “Nowadays, the company ships 20 per cent of its product to the U.S., with the rest of our production shipped right across Canada.”

Boasting just about every pertinent industry accreditation—including HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) certification and validations from both the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) and the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture)—the Montreal plant today runs a two-shift, five-days-per-week schedule to process over 50,000 kilograms of meat products per week.

BON APPÉTIT

Tiridis says Expresco receives deboned cuts and slabs of raw meat shipped in from across North America to turn out a tantalizing selection of pre-cut, marinated, skewered and other prep frozen meats.

“We produce marinated skewers, appetizer-sized satays using both raw and cooked pork beef, chicken and beef, as well as fully-cooked beef and chicken strips and cooked, portion-controlled chicken breasts for both foodservice and retail markets all across North America,” Tiritidis explains.

Continues on page 18

After the primary packaging stage, all the meat products are weighed by a Loma AS checkweigher with an infeed conveyor.

17

COVER STORY

CASE STUDY

ON CUTTING EDGE Continued from page 17

According to Tiritidis, Expresco got a major boost back in 2007 when it teamed up with cold-storage specialists Entrepôt Frigorifique International Inc. (International Cold Storage Inc.)—constructing its new factory right next door to Entrepôt’s sprawling, 100,000-square-foot freezer facility to optimize its distribution and operational efficiencies, while also taking advantage of additional value-added services such as orderpicking.

The move also prompted Expresco to expand its capabilities beyond the private-label sector by launching its own flagship retail brands—Expresco and WestEnd Cuisine—which are distributed nationally through the Costco Wholesale Canada Ltd. chain.

Despite offering only three retail product lines for now— fully-cooked beef and chicken strips in eastern Canada, and fully-cooked satays in the western provinces— Tiritidis estimates that the branded products now account for about 25 per cent of the company’s annual sales of over $30 million.

HIGH VOLUME

The other revenues are mostly generated by the highervolume, private-label co-packing work Expresco does for Costco and Loblaw Companies in Canada, Tiritidis relates, as well as for Trader Joe’s in the U.S.—keeping the plant’s three principal production lines, one for raw meat and two for cooked products, busy throughout the year.

Tiritidis says Expresco enjoys a very collaborative working relationship with its high-profile customers —crediting its close rapport with Loblaws for playing a key role behind the recent launch of an innovative pre-packaged food product retailing under the grocer’s President’s Choice store-brand banner.

The new meal-in-a-bag product—a 680-gram flexible stand-up pouch containing a 100-gram clear bag of fully-

cooked chicken strips inserted into a flavored pasta or rice mixture— can be turned into a hot, ready-to-eat meal by combining and cooking the meat with the starch, either on stovetop or in a microwave, in about 10 minutes.

“We work with another company that manufactures readymade pasta and risotto,” explains Tiritidis.

“They ship the stuff to us, and we assemble and package it by placing a small inner pouch of our An operator places thermoformed packs of meat into a paperboard fully-cooked chicken strips inside a beautifully-printed, box erected by the HC 120 cartoner from Consolidated Technologies.

680-gram flexible package right here at our plant.

“It is mainly through our custom work, serving of the retail market, we began looking for a bagging customers like Loblaws with innovative products such as machine that could help us produce smaller portion sizes this flexible package, where Expresco is able to define itself of our fully-cooked strip line.”

After extensive consultations, in September of 2009 as a truly unique company,”Tiritidis asserts.

But while cooking the product—offered in Grilled Expresco proceeded to purchase and install WeighPack’s Chicken Alfredo pasta and Grilled Chicken Asparagus Risotto Xpdius Elite 1200 vertical form/fill/seal (V/F/F/S) recipes—may seem like simplicity itself, the actual bagging machine—engineered specifically for high-speed packaging of this popular store brand is a much more packaging applications that can handle bag sizes up to 12-inches-wide and 16 inches in length at a maximum involved endeavor.

To get the packaging just right, Expresco approached speed of 90 cpm (cycles per minute).

Tiritidis says he was very impressed with the wide array WeighPack Systems Inc.—Montreal-based, globallyoperating manufacturer of packaging equipment for of productivity-enhancing features offered by the Xpdius food-and-beverage, hardware goods, pharmaceutical and Elite series of baggers, including: an articulated control consumer electronics industries—to propose an optimal panel for operator ease-of-use; a color touchscreen HMI (human-machine interface) terminal; auto-retracting film packaging solution for the new product line.

Recounts Tiritidis:“In an effort to enter a new segment assembly; encoder unwind length control; mechanical

Machine operators monitoring one of two Repack RE20/5 thermoforming systems used by Expresco to package satays, strips and marinated meat skewers for both its raw and cooked product lines.

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MARC H 2010 • C ANAD I AN PAC KAGI NG

COVER STORY

COVER STORY

“We’re a company that is truly focused on continuous improvement—not only in terms of our product offerings, but also in how we manufacture and package them.”

Maintenance technician Khalid Fazroun uses the operator-friendly color touchscreen HMI to program the WeighPack Xpdius Elite 1200.

film brake mechanism; motorized film unwind rollers; pneumatic horizontal sealing bars and a vertical sealing bar; servo-driven pull belt and sealing jaws; variable temperature control; and a splicing table for facilitating fast product changeover.

Combined with WeighPack’s newly-redesigned 14head Primo Combination Multi-HeadWeigher—featuring 2.5-liter buckets that achieve dispensing accuracy within a gram even at speeds of up to 120 cpm—the Xpdius Elite has more than met the challenge of enabling Expresco to pack the 100-gram bags of cooked meat strips at speeds of over 80 cpm, according to Tiritidis, who also credits WeighPack’s proximity and the quality of its strong technical staff for helping seal the deal.

CLOSE CALL

“I certainly do appreciate the fact that the Xpdius Elite 1200 has made us more labor-efficient on the packaging side of our cooked meats department,” he says, “but it was also important for us to have good Canadian service representation located just minutes from our facility.

“Not that we have had to actually call on them with any problems yet.”

After the filled flexible pouches come off the Xpdius Elite 1200 machine, they run past a Domino A200+ high performance inkjet coder to have all the pertinent lot and date information applied, followed by a final quality assurance check administered by a Loma IQ2 metal detection system, and a conveyor transfer to an adjoining room to be packed into corrugated cartons for shipment to customers.

As for other primary packaging performed at the Montreal plant, Expresco makes extensive use of a pair of model Repak RE20/5 horizontal thermoform packaging

machines that the company bought from renowned food processing and packaging machinery specialists Reiser (Canada) Limited of Burlington, Ont. “We purchased our first Repak in 2005 and the second one in 2008, for our raw and cooked-meat lines respectively, as our requirements for production capacity increased both in the retail and foodservice sectors,” Tiritidis recounts.

“They both run anywhere between eight to 12 cycles per minute, depending on the pack format.”

Manufactured in The Netherlands, the low-noise, energy-efficient Repak RE20 thermoforming system is a highly versatile machine that can meet a broad range of packaging applications—from straightforward rigid-film packaging to producing unique packages for differentshaped products.

Each of the Repaks at the Expresco plant is integrated with a model GB-100B inkjet coder—manufactured by Greydon, Inc.—for inline application of all the required lot, best-before and any other variable product data.

“Both machines have been working very well for us,” states Tiritidis.

“When our increase in production necessitated an installation of a second thermoformer, we saw no reason for us to switch brands because the first one was working out so well,” adds Tiritidis, while also singling out several other key packaging systems and suppliers for special praise, including: • Winpack Ltd., supplier of packaging films used for both Repak machines and the Xpdius system; • Norampac, a division of Cascades Canada Inc. supplying the plant with corrugated shipping cartons; • Domino Printing Solutions, which supplied two model C6000+ inkjet printers for outer case-coding of the corrugated carriers; • Consolidated Technologies, which supplied a model

COVER STORY WeighPack’s redesigned 14-head Primo Combination Multi-Head Weigher accurately dispenses chicken strips into the Xpdius Elite 1200 vertical bagger postitioned underneath.

HC 120 cartoner back in 2001 for erecting, closing and gluing master cartons—at speeds of 15-cpm to 25-cpm—after Expresco’s expansion into the retail markets; • Mettler-Toledo Safeline, manufacturer of the POWERPHASE metal detection system used for inspecting all the raw meat products; • CHEP Equipment Pooling Systems, supplier of shipping pallets to the plant.

Expresco worker moves a large skid of prepared meat products, packed in Norampac corrugated cartons, into a refrigerated area.

“Expresco has become an industry leader in providing high-quality, portion-controlled, fully-cooked, conveniently packaged products that offer great overall value—all made by a great team of dedicated professionals,” sums up Tiritidis.

“We’re a company that is truly focused on continuous improvement—not only in terms of our product offerings, but also in how we manufacture and package them.

“With the equipment and people we have in place,” he concludes, “I think that we are very well-positioned to take things up yet another notch or two.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

WeighPack Systems Inc. Reiser (Canada) Limited Greydon, Inc. Domino Printing Solutions Loma Systems (Canada) Inc. Winpack Ltd. Norampac Consolidated Technologies Mettler-Toledo, Canada CHEP Equipment Pooling Systems

440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449

A master carton containing boxes of frozen seasoned chicken kebobs has lot code data applied to it by a Domino C6000+ inkjet printer.

CA NA DI A N PAC K AG IN G • M AR C H 2 0 10

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Tou

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ry ®

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY PIERRE LONGTIN

A side view of Norampac-Drummondville’s new Bobst Martin Rapidset FFG 1228 NT RS flexographic folder-gluer, equipped with special access doors to the pits below to allow operators to set up the next job while the current one is still running.

THE BOARDING CALL Leading corrugated producer leverages best-in-breed technologies and continuous training to optimize production and product quality

M

aking a living in the highly competitive corrugated packaging industry is no picnic by any stretch, but it helps a great deal when you have your act together like the NorampacDrummondville plant in Drummondville, Que., a key production asset of Canada’s leading paper products producer Cascades Inc. Generating $65 million in sales last year along with two other Quebec-based Norampac sister plants—a linerboard operation in Kingsley Falls and a medium linerboard plant in Cabano—the Drummondville plant employs over 200 people over a three-shift, fivedays-per-week schedule to turn out a large portion of the 28,000 metric tonnes of corrugated products manufactured by Norampac last year, including high-

quality board in up five colors, die-cut and glued cartons with sizes ranging from seveninch mini-boxes to cartons 50-inches-wide, double-walled boxes, and a full range of B- and C- and specialty E-flutes.

With annual production capacity of over 800 million square feet, according to the plant’s general manager Richard Beaudoin, the busy facility has been a key beneficiary of some extensive capital spending by its owner in recent years—transforming the 25-year-old plant into one of Canada’s largest and most productive manufacturers of corrugated packaging.

BIG BOOST

“When I joined Norampac-Drummondville back in 1996, we were producing about onethird of what we currently produce, so the increase in sales and production since then has been quite impressive,” Beaudoin told Canadian Packaging in a recent interview.

“In fact, it’s why in 2009 we underwent a $10-million modernization program to ensure that our viability remains high well into the future,” says Beaudoin, crediting the company’s highly motivated and knowledgeable sales force for driving the plant’s impressive sales growth.

“All of Norampac-Drummondville’s sales force are located right here in our facility,” he relates. “We are not decentralized like our competition—meaning that our sales force is more in tune with exactly what it is they are selling.

CA NA DI A N PAC K AG IN G • M A R C H 2 0 1 0

General Manager Richard Beaudoin (left) and production manager Jean-Francois Cartier are pleased with the results obtained from their newly-purchased Bobst Martin Rapidset flexo folder-gluer.

“I know it sounds quite simple, but knowing how the plant runs on a day-to-day basis is very helpful when speaking to a customer—particularly when talking about rush orders.”

With a client base of well over 600 mid-sized customers located across eastern Canada—including companies serving food-and-beverage producers, paper tissue, textile and retail sectors—the plant is looking forward Continues on page 22

21

the boarding call Continued from page 21

to maximizing new performance capabilities enabled by recent installation of a brand new, four-color, 50-inch Rapidset FFG 1228 NT RS flexographic folder-gluer manufactured by Bobst Group Inc.’s Martin division, which was started up this past December.

“So far, it has worked absolutely perfectly—we are very happy with how it has performed for us,” says Beaudoin, praising the high quality of board processed on the Rapidset machine, as well as the system’s rapid changeover capabilities.

“One of the important features we really liked about the Bobst Martin Rapidset was just how fast and easy it is to set up during the run, as it allows our workers direct access

to the flexographic units via special pits placed into the facility’s floor,” explains Beaudoin.

“While one job is running, the operators can enter the pits and do a complet set-up for the next job—there’s no time wasted.”

Designed for operating speeds of up to 15,000 sheets per hour, the high-performance Rapidset FFG can produce boxes ranging in size from 3,500x700-mm up to 1,160x2,890mm, with its inherent flexibility enabling it to produce a broad variety of regular slotted cases, die-cut boxes, and printed unfolded sheets.

According to production manager JeanFrançois Cartier, the Rapidset machine has already had a major positive impact on product quality and consistency at the Drummondville facility.

A SEW-Eurodrive motor controls the automatic pre-feeder drive on the Martin Rapidset flexo folder-gluer.

Just Perfect

A Nordson ProBlue glue system control panel monitoring the rate of adhesive being applied to the product on the Rapidset FFG.

“We need to have consistently perfect gluing, perfect scoring, and optimal ease-of-opening, so that the first box we produce on a run is every bit as good as the last box,” states Cartier.

“It’s why we decided to buy the Bobst Martin machine—it’s the best equipment of its kind out in the market,” Cartiers adds, while also crediting Bobst for the extensive training services it provided to the plant staff before, during and after installation.

“Bobst provided us with excellent training on this machine, and training is something we continually invest in to ensure that all three crews involved in operating the new Rapidset FFG do so in the exactly the same way,” he explains.

“While we appreciate that not every company uses

their equipment the same way, we wanted to ensure that Norampac-Drummondville only used its equipment in the most efficient manner possible.

“It was imperative, after such a major capital expenditure, that we would start out with good work habits, and that we would continue with them,” he adds.

Every Friday, Beaudoin relates, all three shift teams working with the Rapidset FFG get together for a training session and to review the week’s work, along with a highly-qualified equipment specialist from Jean-Claude Savard Consultants of Montreal.

“The training on the Martin Rapidset FFG has really been an eye-opening experience for us,” Beaudoin states.

“The crews have all benefited from it so much, that providing ongoing training for the rest of our crews, on

operators to achieve optimal machine performance and optimal product quality after only two months, a full month ahead of schedule.

“Every box we produce must be perfect for our customers—they demand it of us, and we also demand it of ourselves,” says Beaudoin, while listing the Drummondville plant’s other high-performance boxmaking equipment that includes: • A made-in-Sweden, three-color Emba mini FFG unit; • A Langston 35-inch, three-color FFG; The new Bobst Martin FFG utilizes a DNCB-80-80-PPV-A high• A two-color, 66-inch United/Koppers rotary performance standard cylinder piston system from Festo to adjust die-cutter; the rate of ejector blow-down on the folder-gluer.

• A three-color, 66-inch hybrid Langston/Alliance all of our other equipment, is definitely something we will rotary die-cutter; • A five-color, 66-inch Bobst Martin DRO rotary incorporate in the future.” die-cutter; Beaudoin says the intensive training weekly session— lasting a full workday—have enabled the plant’s six • A BP Agnati GO-14 corrugator, which Beaudoin says is being periodically upgraded and modernized with new technologies; •A GlueChek camera inspection system from Clearvision Technologies Inc., one of 33 such systems installed at Norampac facilities across Canada.

Says Beaudoin: “The corrugated industry is a very competitive business, and our 26 Norampac corrugated plants are performing well, but it is vitally important for us not to become complacent.

“We must not only always be on the lookout for newer and better technologies to take us to the next level,” he asserts, “but we must also perform all the The Rapidset FFG can fold and glue corrugated products at up to 15,000 sheets per hour.

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Standing in the pits below the Rapidset FFG, an operator inspects the printing plate support drum in preparation of the next run.

required due diligence to make sure we are using all the technologies at our disposal to the best of very best of their abilities.

“It’s not very difficult to purchase equipment,” he concludes, “but knowing how to use it successfully to obtain maximum benefit from its capabilities is something that definitely takes a fair bit of work.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

Norampac (div. of Cascades Inc.) Bobst Group North America Jean-Claude Savard Consultants Clearvision Technologies Inc. Festo Inc.

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STRETCHWRAPPING

BY ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR • PHOTOS BY PIERRE LONGTIN

Montreal-based Etalex uses three Defender RT stretchwrappers, built by Samuel Strapping Systems, to protect its high-quality store shelving products during transportation.

From Left: Etalex plant manager Jean Piuze; Éric Baudry, directer of sales, equipment and service with Samuel Strapping; Guy Panneton, Etalex purchaser.

FULL SHELF-SERVICE Canadian manufacturer of steel commercial shelving stretches technological boundaries to achieve high product quality and safe distribution and delivery

C

ornering the market for any manufactured goods rarely happens by chance or happy accident, and there is nothing remotely accidental about the way that Montreal-based Etalex Inc.—manufacturer of metal fixtures, modular shelving, wood furnishings and heavy-duty racking systems for grocery and convenience stores—has come to earn an estimated 80-percent share of the Quebec market, along with making solid inroads in western Canada, Maritimes and the eastern U.S. Having been in this fairly niche business for nearly 44 years, the wholly-owned subsidiary of commercial steel products and equipment consortium SJM Industry Group owes its success largely to all the time-honored virtues of hard work, formidable engineering expertise, keen customer service, leading-edge product innovation and all the other traditional bread-and-butter attributes that have enabled it to build up a loyal and growing customer base, along with a widespread industry reputation for high product quality,

All the stretchwrapping and strapping supplies used at Etalex to secure the product for transportation are provided by Samuel Strapping Systems.

24

according to Etalex plant manager Jean Piuze.

“I believe our customers really trust us, and their ongoing ‘word-of-mouth’ endorsement of our products in the market has made it easier for us to gather new customers,” Piuze told Canadian Packaging in a recent interview.

“Not only do we manufacture and install a great product, but we also respect the customer’s delivery dates—always proffering professional, on-time solutions for all of our customers’ shelving requirements.”

Manufactured at the company’s sprawling manufacturing, shipping and administrative headquarters facility measuring over 300,000 square feet, the company’s products and assemblies can be found at most of the major Canadian supermarket outlets operated by the likes of Metro, Sobeys and Loblaw, according to Piuze, as well as at countless drugstores and convenience outlets.

FULL LINE-UP

Along with a popular standard product line assembled there, the plant’s 150 employees also design and fabricate a range of industrial warehousing and material handling solutions such as the Drive-In racks for high-density storage applications; Pallet Flow material handling systems for automatic FIFO (first-in, first-out) stock and inventory management; and the self-supporting Cantilever Systems for storing and handling exceptionally heavy or odd-sized big items needing extra shelf-space, without frames getting in the way.

Despite the company’s well-earned customer respect and loyalty, Piuze stresses that this is not a market that tolerates complacency for long—meaning that Etalex must always be on the lookout for new ways to improve its operations and keep developing innovative new products to retain the company’s competitive edge.

“Markets across North America are dominated by a few major manufacturers who have well-established national sales and distribution systems, complemented by smaller

regional manufactures,” Piuze explains. “So while we are proud of that fact that we supply shelving solutions to all the major grocery stores in Canada, our market and margin positions are constantly under threat from shelving manufacturing giants in other parts of North America, with much larger manufacturing and distribution capabilities.

“To help ourselves combat that gap, we are always revising our production methods,” says Piuze, citing the plant’s continual investment into industrial robotics in order to automate as many manual operations as possible.

Since purchasing its first model R-2000/165F robot from Fanuc Robotics America Inc. in 2004 to operate a punch-press and to do some spot-welding when needed, Etalex has gone on to purchase four more Fanuc robots to handle various arc-welding and assembly tasks—including a fully-automated workcell equipped with an ARC Mate M-710iC/20L arc-welding robot that works in conjunction with an R-2000iB/210F parts manipulation robot.

Already this year, Piuze relates, a brand new Fanuc model M-710iC/50 was added to the plant’s robotics arsenal to operate a press-brake, along with a model M-10iA robot hooked up to the original R-2000 robot to manufacture critical shelf parts by bending the metal to create base footing for shelving, and then welding all the beams and uprights to hold the racking together.

“For each of the robotic cells, we purchased all of the ancillary equipment and did our own integration to optimize the machine’s performance,” Piuze points out. “We also integrated them to run through a single programmable logic controller.”

With each piece and component of Etalex-made products constructed from high-quality steel and then surfacetreated with an electrostatic coating system to ensure a durable and picturesque finish in a vast range of different colors, maintaining that premium look throughout all the subsequent distribution and transport stages is naturally of MARCH 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

STRETCHWRAPPING

A Samuel SBA 800 stretchbander uses a Schneider Electric Telemecanique NCX-A703 safety interlock switch (inset) to stop the machine whenever an operator needs to gain access inside to make any required adjustments.

paramount importance, which is why the plant invested in some robust, high-quality stretchwrapping machinery in recent years—namely three Defender RT stretchwrappers manufactured by Samuel Strapping Systems—to complement the plant’s JK-5 strapping machine from StraPack, Inc. Headquartered in Toronto, Samuel Strapping manufactures and supplies a full line of plastic and steel strapping, edge protection, stretch film equipment and consumables, as well as standard and custom-engineered unitizing equipment.

Piuze recalls: “We purchased a pair of Defender RT stretchwrappers back in 2008, and we were so satisfied with the quality and the performance of the first two machines, that when we decided to speed up our end-of-line production again, we bought a third one at the beginning of 2010.

“Our workers like to work with the Samuel Strapping machines because they are easy to operate,” relates Piuze, recounting that he talked to other companies already using Defender RT systems to assure himself of the machines’ productivity attributes.

we were immediately impressed by the on-time delivery as promised by Samuel,” he expands. “Not only that, but the installation was done very quickly, it was done very well, and Samuel Strapping also provided in-depth training to our employees on the machines’ use.

“I can assure you that Etalex has been very satisfied with the service it received from Samuel Strapping,” says Piuze, complimenting the machines for ensuring full product

protection for its palletized product loads right through to their delivery to customers, as well as helping maintain the busy pace in the plant’s end-of-line operations.

“We produce a high-quality product here—better racking than our competitors make,” Piuze sums up.“Our standard Etalex shelving system requires less space in transportation and time to assemble than other major competitor systems—and this is always very important for customers who constantly alter their shop-floor.

“I look at it as something much more than ‘just’ shelving—it’s a décor and a system. And I’m sure that frame of mind is appreciated by our customers too.”

F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N O N :

Fanuc Robotics America Inc. StraPack, Inc. Samuel Strapping Systems Schneider Electric

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PRICE IS RIGHT

Along with the competitive pricing, Piuze says he was also very impressed by the customer service provided by Samuel Strapping, which operates its four Canadian locations in Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton andVancouver, as well as regional U.S. offices in Woodridge, Ill., Heath, Ohio, and Longview,Tex. “Samuel Strapping went beyond the simple act of selling us a machine,” Piuze states. “They also provided valuable suggestions to us on how we could maximize our pallet wrapping jobs with their technology.

“After purchasing the stretchwrappers,

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An Etalex plant employee placing assorted shelving components onto a JK-5 plastic strapping machine.

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SUSTAINABILITY

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR

GREENER THAN THOU! Canadian innovators share the limelight in a new competition for sustainable packaging alternatives

T

here’s nothing like a bit of spirited, goodnatured competition to bring out the best of the Canadians’ collective penchant for product and packaging innovation.

Especially so when done in a fun-filled, entertaining format—borrowing in equal measure from the wildly popular American Idol and the Dragons’ Den reality TV shows—in front of an eager audience stacked with key decision-makers from some of Canada’s leading retailers, food manufacturers, foodservice operators and other bigtime end-users of consumer packaging looking for the next big eureka! moment to help them reduce their environmental footprints.

Drawing well over 200 packaging industry professionals Conwed’s strategic business manager Brad Budde shows off the company’s to the Toronto reusable plastic-mesh grocery bag, which International got the second-most votes in the Green Centre last month, Den competition.

the inaugural PAC Green Den competition of the Toronto-based industry group PAC-The Packaging Association delivered a lively and highly interactive display of environmental awareness and inventiveness by some of the country’s more progressive packaging designers and manufacturers, large and small, who were rewarded with a priceless opportunity to pitch their ideas to corporate heavyweights like Walmart, Kraft, Sobeys, Molson-Coors et al in concurrently-held oneon-one matchmaking sessions, while also displaying their sustainable solutions over a day-long tabletop exhibit.

EQUAL RIGHTS

While the event may not have been exactly a true showdown among equals—with industry powerhouses such as Norampac and Amcor pitted against fledgling upstarts like Archetype Bag Makers and PowerForward—the event’s format of 15-minute presentations and follow-up Q&A sessions with a three-person judging panel provided equitable footing for the 18 companies to demonstrate a broad scope of eco-friendly technologies, processes and methods for enabling CPG (consumer product goods) companies and their suppliers to clean up their acts.

“This is truly remarkable,” extolled PAC president Jim Downham. “If you were to ask me how long the

sustainability movement would last when it first emerged as the hot new topic in packaging, I would have said two years at the most.

“But I have never been so happy to be so wrong—the ideas presented today clearly indicate that Taylor Labels president Lloyd Taylor shows off his company’s FSC-certified GoGreen range of p a c k a g i n g pressure-sensitive paper labels. sustainability is really here to stay, and that Canadian companies have a large role to play in its continual progress and evolution.”

With all the presenters queried about their sustainability credentials and understanding of the subject in front of the live audience by an expert panels comprised of Tom Szaky, founder and chief executive of a recycled

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MARC H 2010 • CANAD I AN PAC KAGI NG

SUSTAINABILITY X45 ™

Hood Packaging product development specialist Jeff Hutton shows off samples of the EB1 monolyaer bags the company has introduced for pet-food packaging applications, which placed third in the competition voting.

products manufacturer Terracycle, Waste Diversion Ontario executive director Glenda Giles and LCA Institute’s executive director Daniel Normandin, the necessity of conducting a comprehensive LCA (Life-Cycle Analysis) process as a key part of product development emerged as a key theme, and often as the Achilles’ Heel, that many companies marketing their packaging solutions as sustainable alternatives must still come to grips with.

For example, the presentation by Century Inks Solutions plugging the virtues of using vegetable-based inks for package-printing applications was met with a lessthan-enthusiastic embrace by the judging panel.

AGFA’s Kristof Dekeenkelaere (left) and Mark Caines show off the highly decorative product labels produced via the company’s patented digital printing process.

“Frankly, I see no meaningful net environmental benefit in using vegetable inks, such as the one made from soya beans, when you look at them in the broad LCA context,” stated Normandin. “When you consider all the energy and land-use that goes into creating a reliable supply of soya beans to make these inks, and the fact that this may be done at the expense of growing edible crops, I have problems with accepting this as a truly sustainable packaging alternative.

“All you’re really doing is shifting the environmental burden one step back further in the process.”

For all that, the positives vastly outnumbered any negative doubts and hesitations over the course of the Green Den session, which was capped off at the end with conference attendees voting for their favorite showcased sustainable packaging product to determine the three ‘people’s choice’ winners, including, in descending order: • Norampac’s waxless NorShield corrugated medium and liner boxes for transportation of fresh-produce and other food products.

“Treating corrugated boxes with wax makes The waxless NorShield box them nonrecyclable, and from Norampac was voted by that was the thinking the audience as the Green Den behind the launch of the competition winner.

NorShield box alternative, which is a wax replacement technology for corrugated liners and medium,” explained Norampac’s vice-president of sustainability and innovation Jean Parent, citing the product’s third-party certification to a voluntary standard for repulpability and recyclability from the Corrugated Packaging Alliance (CPA), as well as its eligibility for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.

“The fact of wax not being water-soluble makes it ideal for resisting moisture,” Parent reasoned,“but unfortunately, this same characteristic makes even small amounts of waxed paper impossible to reuse in the papermaking process.

“Our NorShield paper is an effective replacement for all types of corrugated boxes, which is both recyclable and repulpable,” he added.

“And while wax treatments are generally applied to

From Left: Green Den judges Tom Szaky, Glenda Gies and Daniel Normandin hold up the PAC tree-shaped awards, made from 100-percent recycled aluminum, given out to the competition’s top three sustainable packaging products, as selected by the audience.

virgin papers, NorShield liners and medium are manufactured with 72-percent post-consumer and 28-perccent pre-consumer, recycled fibers.

“The metrics for the NorShield product are very simple: We’ve taken a product (wax) that was not reusable in the creation of new corrugated packaging and have introduced a new material that is.”

• Reusable plastic-mesh produce bags from the Minneapolis, Minn.-based Conwed Global Netting Solutions.

Manufactured from the Vexar brand of plastic sheet netting developed by DuPont, the reusable mesh bags are intended to eliminate the use of single-use plastic bags in the produce sections of supermarkets and grocery stores, explained the company’s strategic business manager Brad Budde, while also providing additional consumer benefits of product breathability and storage capabilities, as well as allowing consumers to wash their produce without having to remove it from the netting.

“These bags encourage consumer engagement by giving them a choice to be a ‘greener’ consumer,” Budde stated, “while also enhancing their ‘freshness’ experience by providing them with 95-percent open area, so that they can really judge the freshness of the product for themselves by using all of their senses, including touch and smell.”

X45 and X45e Compact and intelligent conveyors

CARRY ON

With carrying capacity of up to 10 pounds of produce, the Conweb bags can be safely reused up to 50 times, Budde claimed, with their net weight of less than five grams each enabling significant landfill diversion through the elimination of conventional, single-use plastic bags on a roll.

“The effort to eliminate single-use plastic bags in grocery stores has so far been focused mostly on the checkout lane,” he said,“but what about the produce department?

“And from a consumer experience perspective,” he expanded, “the breathable netting bag provides a fresher produce experience.

“At home, the netting bags can act as effective storage containers for products such as onions, potatoes and citrus, whereas the single-use bags would have been disposed because they trap moisture and do not allow the produce to breathe.”

• The EB1 brand of flexible packaging from Hood Packaging Corporation.

Developed primarily as an eco-friendlier alternative to nonrecyclable laminated polybags and multiwall paperbags used in pet-food packaging applications, the single-layer EB1 bags require far less energy to produce, according to Hood Packaging sales manager Richard Pilesky, than the traditional products.

“It is truly a 100-percent recyclable product,” he claimed,“allowing it to be used in the production of a broad range of downstream products, while its monofilm construction affords up to 30-precent energy savings, translating into a significant reduction in carbon-dioxide emissions compared to laminated constructions.”

• • • • • •

Easy to integrate Plug and play modules Gentle product handling RFID prepared High uptime Low power consumption

F I R S T C H O I C E F O R PR O D U C T I O N LO G I S T I C S

www.flexlink.com FlexLink Systems Canada, Inc. · Canada +1 - 8 8 8 - 74 8 - 8 6 7 7 · i n f o . c a @ f l e x l i n k . c o m

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27 10-01-25 15.27.23

events EVENTS

March 30-31 Shanghai, China: Luxe Pack Shanghai, international luxury packaging exhibition by IDICE MC. At Shanghai International Convention Center.

To register, go to: www.luxepackshanghai.com

the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI).To register, go to: www.tappi.org

April 13-15 Dallas,Tex.: Innovation takes Root, global forum on bioplastics and manufactured fibers by NatureWorks LLC. At Four Seasons Resort & Club.To register, go to: www.InnovationTakesRoot.com April 14-16 Orlando, Fla.: RFID Journal Live, radio frequency identification technologies conference and exhibition by RFID Journal. At Orange County Convention Center.

Contact RFID Journal at (631) 249-4960; or go to: www.rfidjournalevents.com April 18-21 Albuquerque, N.M.: TAPPI 2010 PLACE, conference by

April 18-22 Tuscon, Az.: A New Age of Everything, annual executive leadership conference of the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). At the JW Starr Pass Resort & Spa. Contact Kate Achelpohl of the PMMI at (703) 243-8555, ext. 671; or go to: www.pmmi.org

May 11-12 Mexico City, Mexico: Label Summit South America 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc. At Hilton Mexico City Reforma.

To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com May 16-20 Orlando, Fla: ANTEC 2010, plastics industry exhibition and conference by the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE). At Marriott Resort & Convention Center Orlando. Contact Lesley Kyle at (203)740-5452; or go to: www.4spe.org

April 20-21 Amsterdam, Holland: World Flexible Intermediate Bulk Container Congress 2010, by Millennium Conferences International. At Movenpick Hotel.To register, go to: www.millenniumconferences.com April 21-23 Montreal: SIAL Canada, international food show by Comexposium. At Palaids des Congrès de Montréal.

Contact Thierry Quagliata at (514) 289-9669, ext. 2232; or go to: www.sialcanada.com

May 18-20 Montreal: MMTS (Montreal Manufacturing Technology Show), by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). At Place Bonaventure.To register, go to: www.mmts.ca May 19-20 NewYork City: Luxe Pack NewYork, luxury packaging exhibition by Luxe Pack Monaco. At Metropolitan Pavilion.To register, go to: www.luxepacknewyork.com May 29 - June 2 Istanbul,Turkey: IPT Istanbul 2010, annual paper/carton/corrugated production and processing machinery and paperbased packaging technologies exhibition,

by TUYAP Fairs Inc. At TUYAP Fair, Convention and Congress Center. To register, go to: www.iptistanbulfair.com June 16-19 Bangkok,Thailand: ProPak Asia 2010, international processing, filling and packaging technology fair for Asia by Allworld Exhibitions. At Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center.

In Canada, contact Canada Unlimited Inc. at (416) 237-9939; or go to: www.propakasia.com

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE

June 22-25 Mexico City: EXPO PACK Mexico, international packaging technologies exhibition and conference by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). Contact PMMI at (703) 243-8555; or go to: www.packexpo.com

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June 29-30 Barcelona, Spain: Digital Label Summit, digital labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc.

At Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I. To register, go to: www.packexpo.com

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“We spec Eriez’ feeders on all our systems”

July 14-15 Miami, Fla.: MATTECH 2010, material handling, manufacturing, packaging and supply chain technologies exhibition by B&B Expositions. At the Miami Beach Convention Center. Contact B&B at (941) 320-3216; or go to: www.mattech.us

Feeders

“At Frazier & Son, we rely on Eriez’ wide variety of drive units, custom trays, screens and feeder configurations to help us handle difficult applications.”

Conveyors

Mark Frazier Frazier & Son Eriez Offers: • High Speed • Variable Speed • More Power • Less Energy • High Deflection • Greater Precision • Accurate Metering • Long Reach • Short Stoke

Screeners

FREE! Brochures

Visit eriez.com or call 888-300-3743 28

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July 14-16 Shanghai, China: ProPak China 2010, international processing, packaging and end-line printing exhibition by Allworld Exhibitions. At Shanghai New International Expo Center. In Canada, contact Canada Unlimited Inc. at (416) 237-9939; or go to: www.propakchina.com July 22-23 Tokyo, Japan: Label Forum Japan 2010, labeling technologies conference and exhibition by Tarsus Group plc and Label Shimbun. At Bellesalle Shiodome.

To register, go to: www.labelexpo.com march 2010 • CANADIAN PACKAGING

people People

l Paper Packaging Canada (PPC), a national industry organization representing Canada’s major paper mill operators and paper-based packaging converters, has announced its new board of directors, which will be headed by the newly-elected chairman Chris Bartlett, president of the Toronto-based Tencorr Packaging, with the assistance of vice-chairman Bob Hagan of the Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd., second vicechairman chairman Francois Guite and secretary/treasurer Charles Malo, both of Norampac. The newlyelected PPC officers include: • Jim Levia of Emballages Mitchel-Lincoln; • Gary Johnson of Maritime Paper Products Ltd.; • James Devries of Crown Packaging; • Larry Cooper of Independent Corrugator;

l Key Technology, Walla Walla, Wash.-based manufacturer of process automation systems and integrated electrooptical inspection and sorting systems, has appointed Teri Johnson as intercontinental Johnson sales manager, with responsibilities for a territory comprising the Latin American, Asia Pacific, and the Australia/New Zealand regions. has elected Mary Slaga—packaging consultant with the Chicago office of packaging containers manufacturer TricorBraun of St. Louis, Mo.—to serve a two-year term as the organization’s vice-president of chapter relations.

• Rob Latter of Kruger; • David Lint of Master Packaging; • Peter Moore of Moore Packaging.

l Cincinnati, Ohio-based material han-

l Hartsville, S.C.-head-

dling systems and equipment manufacturer Intelligrated has appointed Edward Puisis as chief financial officer and Jim Sharp as executive vice-president.

Puisis

l Machine vision systems manufacturer Cognex Corporation of Natick, Mass., has appointed Robert Willett as president and chief operating officer, in addition to his current duties as president of the comWillet pany’s Modular Vision Systems Division (MVSD) operating division.

l Keystone Folding Box Company,

Smith

l Fairfield, N.J.-based pharmaceutical packaging product manufacturer Cortegra as appointed John Moyer as quality systems manager.

l Pittsburgh, Pa.-headquartered alumi-

quartered consumer packaging products manufacturer Sonoco has appointed Robert Puechl, head of the Puechl Harris company’s Global Plastics business unit, and James Harrell, vice-president and general manager of the North America Industrial Carriers division, as the company’s corporate officers—in addition to their current duties and responsibilities.

l Lenze-AC Tech, Uxbridge, Mass.based manufacturer of a broad range of motion control technologies—including servo drives and motors, clutches and brakes, gears and gearmotors, and variableKlein frequency AC motor drives—has appointed Eric Klein as director of sales for the North, Central and South American regions.

l MACtac, Stow, Ohio-headquartered supplier of pressure-sensitive adhesive products, has appointed Michael Marasch as senior marketing director for the company’s MACtac Printing Products division, Stock with responsibilities for the company’s roll label business activities.

num product group Alcoa Inc. has appointed Marcos Ramos as president of the company’s Alcoa Europe division, in addition to his current duties as president of Ramos the company’s Global Primary Products - Europe unit.

l MLP USA, Inc., Lincolnshire, Ill.-based supplier of

l U.K.-headquartered consumer packag-

l Bemis Company, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn.-

ing products conglomerate Rexam PLC has appointed Malcolm Harrison as group director for the company’s Plastic Packaging business unit.

l KBA North America, Dallas, Tex.-

Larsen

based supplier of sheetfed, webfed, and digital offset printing presses for package printing and converting applications, has appointed Soren Larsen as senior vice-president of sheetfed sales.

l The PAC Machinery Group (PMG) of companies of San Rafael, Ca., has appointed Dennis McGrath as vice-president of marketing and sales.

l OYSTAR Jones, Covington, Ky.-headquartered manufacturer and integrator of automated packaging equipment, has appointed Jeff Williams as vice-president of sales and marketing.

l The Institute of Packaging Professionals (IoPP)

• Alain Robillard of MontCorr Packaging;

Newark, N.J.-based manufacturer of paperboard packaging products such as blister-cards, folding boxes, specialty envelopes and counter displays, has appointed Ward Smith as director of marketing.

D’Angelo

president and business director of the company’s newly-formed Web Fed North America business unit, in addition to his current duties as vice-president and business director of the Sheet Fed North America division.

Harrison

printing press and related technologies manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, has been appointed as director of sales for sheetfed and web offset products. headquartered manufacturer of flexible packaging and pressure-sensitive products for food-and-beverage, pharmaceutical and other consumer product packaging applications, has appointed Timothy Fliss as vice-president of human resources.

l Industrial automation controls and devices manufacturer Red Lion Controls, Inc. of York, Pa., has appointed Amber Ungrady as director of quality.

l Pasadena, Ca.-headquartered Avery Dennison Corporation, manufacturer of product identification and marking/coding systems, has appointed current president and chief executive officer Dean Scarobough as the company’s new chairman of the board, and David Pyott as the board’s lead independent director.

l Package converting equipment and machinery conglomerate Bobst Group North America of Roseland, N.J., has appointed Michael D’Angelo as viceCANADIAN PACKAGING • march 2010

l Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation, Chicago-headquartered manufacturer of containerboard and corrugated packaging products, has appointed Matt Denton as senior vice-president of business planning and analysis.

l Harper Corporation of America, Charlotte, N.C.-based supplier of anilox rolls for package printing and converting applications, has appointed Josh Kiser as technical lab supervisor at the company’s Harper GraphicSolutions division.

Kiser

l Bunting Magnetics Co., Newton, Ks.-based manufacturer of magnetic assemblies for packaging, material handling and other industrial applications, has appointed Bob Crossken as national sales manager, Crossken with responsibilities for sales efforts in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

l InnoWare, LLC, Menomenee Falls, Wis.-headquartered manufacturer of carry-out, take-home and display packaging for the foodservice and retailing sectors, has appointed Nick Clementi as president and chief executive officer.

Gardner

l The Robotic Industries Association (RIA) of Ann Arbor, Mich., has appointed Dean Elkins, senior general manager of West Carrollton, Ohio-based robotics manufacturer Motoman Inc., as the group’s chairman for the 2010 term.

l Multivac, Inc., Kansas City, Mo.-based supplier of thermoform packaging machinery and related supplies for food, pharmaceutical and other consumer goods packaging applications, has appointed Bill Gardner as regional sales manager for southeastern and mid-Atlantic U.S. regions.

l The Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI) of Arlington, Va., has appointed Katie Bergmann as vice-president of administration and Maria Ferrante as vice-president of education and workforce development.

l St. Louis, Mo.-headquartered packaging machinery and equipment conglomerate Barry-Wehmiller Companies, Inc. has appointed Simon Lagoe as director of the company’s U.K. operations.

l Mettler-Toledo Hi-Speed, Ithaca, N.Y.-based manufacturer of inline checkweighers, metal detectors, and X-ray inspection systems for food-and-beverage, pharmaceutical and personal-care product Zeniga packaging applications, has appointed Juan Zeniga as regional sales manager for the western U.S.

l Automated Packaging Systems, Streetsboro, Ohio-based manufacturer of automated bagging, printing, counting, sorting, conveying weighing and other types of polyethylene-based protective packaging Brehm systems and equipment—as well as related anti-static, multilayer, nylon, rust-inhibiting and ultraviolet protective films—has appointed Cliff Brehm as the company’s new president and chief executive officer.

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C H E C KO U T

BY ELENA LANGLOIS

When my grandfather-in-law worked for Rockwell International of Canada, Limited in Windsor, Ont., generations ago, one year the company gave all its employees a Holiday Safety Kit right on the eve of the summer plant shutdown, containing a selection of small trinkets that could come in handy around home over the summer holidays. Dutifully, no doubt, Grandpa took the kit home to Grandma, who immediately tucked it away in the basement “for a rainy day.” After Grandpa passed away decades later, his three kids cleaning out the basement were more than a tad surprised to come across the kit—a lidded box decorated with a collage of illustrations depicting susmmer holiday activities like boating, hiking and even house-painting, while housing a veritable treasure trove of products in near-pristine condition. Packing a selection of strong product brands that are still around today, this chance discovery provided a rare opportunity to juxtapose some vintage product packaging with the new packaging utilized by those same brands some 37 years on.

••• One package design that seems to have resisted the passage of time is that for the Anacin headache remedy, once produced by the Toronto-based Whitehall Laboratories.The triple-sachet pack—containing two tablets per sachet—was manufactured from water-resistant, plastic-like, bright-yellow paper with an arcing text logo painted in dark forest-green colors.While Anacin has gone through a fair bit of ownership changes since those days—with Wyeth Consumer Healthcare Inc. of Mississauga, Ont., being its current Canadian brand-owner—the core graphic design elements seem to have remained fundamentally unchanged, suggesting that continuity can sometimes be a powerful tool in maintaining strong brand loyalty through generations of Canadian consumers.

•••

•••

Continuity is also an inescapable theme when comparing packaging for the Elastoplast brand of traditional-style fabric adhesive bandages then manufactured by Smith & Nephew Ltd. of Lachine, Que., to the product’s modern-day incarnation produced

by Beiersdorf Canada Inc., with the eye-catching, red-and-white logo dominating the simple color scheme of the paperbox. Even the brand’s more recent product family extensions, such as the sleekly-packaged Aqua Protect SilverHealing bandages—boasting a striking navy-blue folding carton with decidedly new-agish colors and tones—still carry on with the old-school brand logo that has undoubtedly played a key role in building up the brand’s enviably loyal consumer base over all those years.

As an active kid who would often need treatment for knee scrapes and minor cuts and burns, the Polysporin brand of antibiotic ointment—then made by the Montreal-based Burroughs Wellcome & Co. (Canada) Ltd.—is certainly a product that brings back many memories, especially when it was used to heal my skin wounds instead of the dreaded, stinging Iodine solution. However, I also still remember how much wasted product there was applying the stuff with the original metal tubing that always required an extra-hard squeeze to get it out—inevitably squeezing out far more ointment than necessary. So many compliments to the new brandowner Johnson & Johnson Inc. for doing such a splendid repackaging job—not only upgrading the paperboard box with updated colors, font and layout, but also by switching from metal tubing to a much more sensible plastic tube with a tight-fitting, twist-off plastic cap to ensure that one uses only as much product as needed, without all the extra fussing around.

•••

•••

The Tums brand of calcium carbonate antacid and indigestion tablets once made by Lewis/Howe Co. of Windsor, Ont., deserves a special mention here for being something of a sustainable packaging pioneer well before the term ‘eco-friendly packaging’ existed. With the pack’s 12 tablets rolled up into a silver foil and slipped into a simple, pre-printed, thin paper sleeve to protect the roll, this was about as low carbon-footprint packaging as such a product can get by on. Which perhaps helps explain whey the current Tums brand-owner GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare Inc. has left the original packaging format and concept largely in place—albeit eliminating the inner foil layer by using a single foil-lined reinforced paper layer to hold the roll together and, thankfully, updating from a dated shade of green to a more soothing blue, along with some stylish rework of the brand logo itself.

Given the lack of labeling on the fourpiece blister pack of Listerine Lozenges made back in the day by Warner-Lambert Canada Ltd. of Toronto, it is hard to tell if this product actually contained any medicinal ingredients to help soothe a sore throat, but at the very least it must have been a fairly effective breath mint—considering its fairly substantial unit dose size. But leave it to the current brand-owner Johnson & Johnson to have lifted the notion of fresh breath to a whole new level with its ultra-slim Listerine Strips brand and the sleek packaging to go along with it. Stored in small, translucent, flat Pocketpaks containers, the potent breath strips provide a compelling example of a happy convergence of product and packaging innovation, even if only 37 years in the making.

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX R.S. NO. For more information on Classified Advertising please contact:

416-764-1497

• Tisma Vertical Cartoner TC-50E BL • Cremer 12 Lane Tablet/Capsule Counter TO-1230 • Qty 2. 48 Thomas Accela Coaters 48-M-111 • Austin-Gordon Desiccant Dispensers PD-202 • Kalish LabelIt Wraparound Labeler Model 7200 • Patterson Kelley 10 Cu Ft “V” Blender • Uhlmann Thermoforming Blister Machine UPS 1.1 • IWKA Cartoners, Model CP60 and CPK-1 • Uhlmann Vertical Strip Packaging Machine, HS4 • Brunner Horizontal Cartoner Mdl CMI-11 • Hayssen Ultima Vertical Form Fill Sealer CMD-12-16 • Omega Bottle Unscrambler 20-RP1-6

X-RAY INSPECTION SERVICE What would you do if you have or suspect Foreign Object Contamination?

RISK IT? SCRAP IT? INSPECT IT? Reclaim good product so you can ship with confidence & protect your brand reputation. CFIA approved x-ray system detects metals down to 0.8 mm. Stainless (even foil packaging) as well as glass, stone, bone, etc. Case-size also available.

Onguard Product Inspection Inc. Tel: 905-631-8456 Fax 905-631-9307 info@onguardinspection.com www.onguardinspection.com

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101 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114-119

PAgE

Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. 15 Eriez Magnetics 28 Farm Credit Canada 25 Flexlink Systems Canada 27 Fortress Technololy Inc. 8 Harlund Industries Ltd. 26 J.W. Winco Inc. 28 Krones Machinery Co. Ltd. 9 Markem-Imaje Ltd. 20 Norampac 22 Nordson Canada 16 Premier Tech Systems 26 QuickLabel Systems, 13 An Astro-Med Product Group 120 SEW Eurodrive Co. of Canada 11 121 Samuel Strapping Systems 7 122 Schneider Electric Canada Inc. 8 123 Storcan 31 124 Trans-Quip Inc. 28 125 Unisource Canada Inc. 2 126 Videojet Technologies Canada Ltd. 3 127, 128 WeighPack Systems Inc. 15, 32

Elena Langlois is a Toronto-based media industry professional.

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MARCH 2010

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MARC H 2010 • C ANAD I AN PAC KAGI NG

PHOTOS BY ELENA LANGLOIS

Tracing decades of Canadian brand packaging evolution

Fabricators

Integrators

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STORCAN From production to the automation of our conveyor systems, our high quality products and after-sales service are highly regarded by our clients.

Our mission is to improve the technical and financial performance of manufacturing operations for our clients by designing, developing and installing innovative solutions.

• Conveyors • Packaging Equipment • Integration & Installation

Tried & Tested. Hear what our customers say about us: The Storcan team has been the most professional and reliable of all teams we have worked with.

- Maurice Bryan, President - Gluek Brewing Company, Cold Springs (Minnesota)

The engineering and materials used for our conveyor system was of the highest quality.

I was also impressed with the efficiency and professionalism of the customer service team.

The Storcan conveyor systems are without a doubt the BEST I have seen in my thirty years experience in this industry.

- Paul McMackin, Eng., President - McMackin Corporation, Norwood (Maine)

- John Webster, President - CPF Inc. (Pepsi cola), Ayer (Massachusetts)

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