Canadian Packaging December 2015

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LENDING HELPING HANDS

Canadian food co-packer scaling new heights of global success in contract manufacturing through relentless flexible packaging innovation Story on page 12

GREASE IS THE WORD

Page 22

IN THIS ISSUE: CONTRACT PACKAGING • BOXMAKING • FOOD SAFETY • PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

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DECEMBER 2015 VOLUME 68, NO. 12

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nticipating seismic market shifts is always preferable to merely reacting to them, and on this score, resealable closures supplier Presto Products Company is off to the races in the f ledgling, but potentially enormous, commercial cannabis market.

With recreational cannabis already selling legally south of the border in Washington and Colorado—with many more states well on their way to following suit—this is a whole new ball game for packaging suppliers looking to benefit from an industry that is ready to unleash explosive growth as soon as it gets its long-awaited regulatory legitimacy to enter the mainstream CPG marketplace.

And with Canada’s newly-elected Prime Minister Justin Trudeau having famously made cannabis legalization one of his key pre-election pledges, North American demand for all sorts of packaging products headed for cannabis shops, dispensaries and other distributors could be out-of-sight before the packaging industry at large knows what hit it.

Not so for the Appleton, Wis.-based Presto Specialty Business, which already manufactures about 90 per cent of all the slider-type resealable closures for f lexible packaging products out in the global marketplace today.

Owning a multitude of patents for child-resistant reclosable sliders, Presto recently hooked up with U.S.-based converters FunkSac—suitably based in Denver, Co.—and Columbus, Ohio-based At-

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12 HIRED HELP By George Guidoni

Ontario food co-packer specializing in spouted-pouch packaging firing on all cylinders in the third-party packaging business with relentless product innovation and formidable manufacturing capabilities.

Primary cover photography by Cole Garside

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lapac to produce sleek, high-barrier, odor-resistant pouches for brownies, cookies, biscuits and other cannabis edibles, painstakingly engineered to keep young children from accidentally consuming the product at home.

Originally conceived back in 2012, the new FunkGuard pouch (see pictures) has been in full commercial production since last March, Presto Specialty Business president Brad Hansen told Canadian Packaging at the PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2015 trade show earlier this fall.

“Adults can take their edibles home and not worry about their kids accidentally digesting them,” said Hansen, demonstrating the surprisingly sophisticated lock-in-place closure consisting of a lever, a track and a slider that is virtually impossible to unlock without a certain level of adult dexterity and logic.

“There’s a big difference in child deterrence and true child resistance that our Child-Guard closure ensures,” Hansen states, citing “tremendous demand” for this technology from cannabis distributors, while stressing that Presto is simply filling an existing void in the market without taking any sides in the cannabis legalization debate.

“We just provide the closures; what other people do with them is their business,” Hansen shrugs.

And with legal cannabis business in the U.S. alone estimated at US$2.9 billion in 2014—soaring by 74 per cent from 2013—it’s a tremendously timely business opportunity that the consumer packaging industry, right or wrong, is simply in no position ignore.

Nothing personal, you know, it’s just business.

DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS 3

UPFRONT By George Guidoni

4-5 NEWSPACK

Packaging news round-up.

6

NOTES & QUOTES Noteworthy industry briefs.

7-8 SHOW PREVIEWS

Early heads-up on SIAL Canada 2016 and IPPE 2016 exhibition.

10 IMPACT A monthly insight from PAC, Packaging Consortium.

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Upcoming industry functions.

Wesley Skjodt, Chief Information Officer, Skjodt-Barrett

LENDING HELPING HANDS

Canadian food co-packe r scaling new heights of global success through relentless in contract manufacturing flexible packagin g innovation Story on page 12

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IN THIS ISSUE: CONTRACT

PACKAGING • BOXMAKING

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PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

FEATURES 18 FAMILY VALUES

By George Guidoni Leading Ontario folding-carton converter a poster child for proactive capital equipment investment.

22 THE BRIGHT CIDE OF LIFE

By Andrew Joseph Industrial lubricants co-packer happy to grease the industry’s wheels.

26 CULTURED INNOVATION

By Andrew Joseph The Big Cheese of Manitoba using high-impact packaging to grow market share.

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Career moves in the packaging world.

30 THRIVING ON SKID ROW

By Andrew Joseph Pallet manufacturer embraces robotics to grow its core business.

36 CHECKOUT By Jeff May Joe Public speaks out on packaging hits and misses.

32 EYE OF THE NEEDLE Robust X-Ray technology a remedy for crop sabotage.

DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 3

NEWSPACK

CANADIAN BEVERAGE PRODUCERS AIM TO HELP CONSUMERS CUT DOWN ON CALORIES Canada’s leading producers of soft-drinks and other nonalcoholic beverages have pledged to help Canadians reduce the amount of calories they consume from their nonalcoholic drinks by 20 per cent over the next 10 years through a voluntary program based on product and packaging innovation.

According to the Toronto-based Canadian Beverage Association (CBA), the newly launched Balance Calories initiative is “a substantial and unique voluntary effort by an industry to help fight obesity and will transform the beverage landscape in Canada.”

Representing more than 60 brands of juices, juice drinks, bottled waters, sports drinks, ready‐to‐serve iced teas and coffees, carbonated soft-drinks, energy drinks and other nonalcoholic beverages—excluding milk, dairy and hot coffees and teas—CBA is partnering up with The Conference Board of

Canada to benchmark and verify the program’s progress as it rolls out in stages in upcoming months.

“We are committed to providing consumers with more low‐ and no‐calorie choices, smaller portions and fewer calories,” says CBA president Jim Goetz, adding the program is primarily based on increasing consumer awareness of the need for caloric balance in their diets, while also increasing public interest in reduced-calorie beverages and making them more available across more sales channels.

“The Balance Calories initiative highlights the commitment of Canada’s non‐alcoholic beverage industry to support balanced, healthy lifestyles for all Canadians,” says Goetz.

“We will leverage our strengths in marketing and innovation, and our vast distribution networks, to work towards our goal.”

Since 2004, the industry has already helped reduce the calories Canadians consume from nonalcoholic drinks by 20 per cent, according to the CBA, by restricting the marketing of soft-drinks to children;

eliminating full‐calorie soft-drinks from schools; and implementing front‐of‐pack calorie labeling.

However, further progress will be hard to achieve without a concerted effort to educate Canadian consumers on the benefits of reduced-calorie beverages, says the CBA, whose members include Canada Dry Mott’s, Coca-Cola Refreshments Canada, Cott Beverages Canada, Nestlé Waters Canada and PepsiCo Beverages Canada.

“Healthy food is one of the five elements outlined in The Conference Board of Canada’s Food Strategy, where we addressed the powerful impact of dietary patterns on the health and well‐being of Canadians,” says The Conference Board of Canada’s vice-president of industry and business strategy Michael Bloom.

“We are pleased to join this initiative as a long‐ term partner to collectively determine success metrics, as we share the same belief that sound food and diet will help Canadian consumers live longer, healthier lives.”

SAVORY COCONUT CHIPS PROVIDE A TASTEFUL HEALTHY SNACKING ALTERNATIVE As nutty as it may sound to some, there is and never has been an unwritten golden rule decreeing that coconut must be eaten sweet—despite its long use as a sweetening enhancer for a broad range of traditional dessert foods from cream pies and chocolate bars to cookies and ice-cream.

In fact, there is surprisingly very little sugar to be found in the new PRANA Organic Dry Roasted Coconut Chips launched across Canada last month

by Prana Biovegan Inc., an innovative importer and processor of organic nuts, seeds and dry fruitsnacks operating on the outskirts of Montreal in Saint-Laurent, Que. Conceived as a healthy and nutritious alternatives to potato chips and other like-minded massproduced snacks with highly debatable nutritional value and content, the PRANA brand coconut chips come in four distinctively savory f lavors offering a truly unique new taste experience that can only add to the coconut’s emerging status as a hot new trend among the growing health-and-wellness crowd.

Packaged in high-barrier, 100-gram stand-up pouches outfitted with high-quality PTC (pressto-close) resealable closures for resealability and enhanced consumer convenience, the 100-percent

organic, gluten- and cholesterol-free chips are dryroasted to perfection and seasoned with quality ingredients from around the world to create an exciting taste profile, according to the company.

“At Prana, we are always thinking of creative and unique ways to make snacking more wholesome, practical and exciting,” says company co-founder Marie-Josée Richer, explaining that the four homemade brand f lavors are each named after a popular dance from around the world.

This includes Jive, seasoned with chili and exotic spices; Hula, f lavored with sea-salt sand cracked black pepper; Charleston, infused with a proprietary rich blend of select barbeque seasonings; and Classic, just pure authentic wholesome coconut f lesh cut down to finger-sized strips. (Picture Above) “Our appetite to fuel life has enabled us to offer a surprising new way to enjoy coconut with a vegan, organic, gluten-free and GMO-free snack that will surely delight the senses,” says Richer, adding the raw coconut is sourced from organically-certified suppliers in Sri Lanka and Philippines.

Says Richer: “As coconut continues to get more and more popular in Canada, we are seeing more coconut chips, but most of the time they are sweet.

“We wanted to launch a line of salty coconut chips that can be a direct alternative to traditional potato chips,” she says, “and so far the consumers seem to love it!

“They are thick and crunchy, with the appearance and taste profile quite different from what exists on the market—being a bit thicker and actually containing the ‘skin’ of the coconut,” Richer relates.

“We have also received very good response from retailers, with this product getting listed in all the major chains very quickly,” says Richer, relating that each bag of coconut chips is gas-flushed with nitrogen right after filling at the company’s Montreal plant to maintain extended shelf-life.

“We really think it’s a great low-carb alternative to potato chips,” says Richer, pointing out that each resealable 100-gram bag of the product provides roughly six quarter-cup servings of only 80 calories apiece.

PAPER PRODUCTS POWERHOUSE UPGRADING ITS PLASTIC PACKAGING PLANTS Although it is arguably far better-known for its paper-based corrugated packaging and tissue products, leading Canadian paper products group Cascades Inc. is making significant capital investments at its specialty plants focusing on manufacturing food packaging for fresh food from recycled plastic.

Early last month, the Kingsey Falls, Que.-headquartered Cascades announced that it will spend a total of $4.5 million to upgrade its Plastiques Cascades plant in Kingsey Falls and its Cascades Inopak facility in Drummondville, Que., to accommodate growing demand for its food packaging products.

“These investments are directly in line with our strategic plan to focus our investments on two major sectors: packaging and tissue products,” says Cascades

4 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

president and chief executive officer Mario Plourde.

“The goal is to increase the company’s market share in the food packaging sector by continuing to propose innovative products that ensure optimal shelf-life for food and also reduce our environmental footprint,” Plourde asserts.

According to Cascades, the $3.5-million upgrade at the Kingsey Falls facility—supplier of polystyrene food trays with 25-percent recycled content used by processing plants and grocers to package fresh meat, poultry and seafood—will replace an existing outdated thermoforming line, add new pre-padding equipment to the production line, and install several fully-automated packaging lines.

For its part, the $1-million investment at the

Drummondville facility, specializing in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic food packaging made from at least 60-percent recycled content—will also be used to install a new thermoforming line to boost productivity and product quality.

“These investments fully support the development strategy we set out for the growing food packaging industry,” says Cascades Specialty Products Group president and chief operating officer Luc Langevin.

“They will also reduce the physical strain associated with certain packaging activities—enabling us to offer a safer work environment to our employees.”

Says Langevin: “These investments are part of a process of asset modernization that will boost our productivity, while also allowing us to better meet our customers’ requirements and improve our positioning in certain competitive market segments.”

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

NEWSPACK

ICONIC SOUP BRAND CELEBRATES CANADIAN MILESTONE WITH FRESH NEW FLAVORS Some things just naturally keep getting better with age, such as Campbell Company of Canada’s knack for remaining a core part of the Canadian consumers’ meal-time experience.

Currently celebrating its 85th anniversary, Canada’s leading soupmaker is in fact riding a wave of ongoing soup renaissance and the much-touted ‘local food’ movement to reaffirm its market leader credentials with a freshly revamped line of locally-sourced Healthy Request soup recipes containing no preservatives and made primarily with freshly-picked ingredients harvested within short travel from the company’s landmark manufac- Campbell Company of Canada president Ana Dominguez (left) and turing facility on Toronto’s west-end lakeshore. Arthur Potts, parliamentary assistant to the Ontario “We’re proud to have been making great-tast- minister for agriculture, food and rural affairs, at the ing, quality soups on Birmingham Street since company’s 85th anniversary celebration at the Andy 1930,” says Campbell Canada’s president Ana Warhol installation in Toronto.

Dominguez. ers in late October, the Healthy “A huge part of our success lies in the Request soups are prepared with long-standing relationships we have built high-quality vegetables, grains, with the people who grow our ingrediand legumes like sweet potaents, and that includes generations of toes, rutabaga, quinoa, orzo and farmers in the farming communities surblack-eyed peas, according to rounding Toronto.” the company, with no preservaAccording to Dominguez, tives whatsoever. a Colombian native who Currently available in six difjoined Campbell Canada ferent f lavor varieties—includabout a year ago, the coming Lemon Chicken Orzo with pany sources 70 per cent of Chickpeas and Zucchini, Fiesta Vegethe vegetable ingredients table with Black Beans and Quinoa, Tomato (by weight) used in its soups Garden Vegetable with Pea Beans and Spinach, from local farms located Curried Cauliflower Lentil and Spicy Vegefrom within 300 kilomtable Turkey with Rutabaga—the brand was eters of the Toronto plant, “reinvented in response to today’s healthincluding almost seven milconscious consumer who wants to know lion kilograms of potatoes, what’s in their food as well as what’s not in three million kilograms of cartheir food,” according to Campbell Canada’s rots, and almost two million kilograms of fresh vice-president of marketing Moya Brown. mushrooms per year.

“As we embark upon our 85th anniversary, Notwithstanding its close ties to local communwe want to celebrate soup and Canadians’ ities and supplier base, Campbell Canada has also long-standing love for Campbell’s, and this evolved into a highly successful exporter over the product really brings to life our commitment years, with many of more than 225 products made to real food, highest-quality ingredients and in Toronto currently exported to markets in the great taste—all shared with Canadian conU.S, Australia, Hong Kong and the Philippines. sumers in an open and transparent way.”

While the company’s iconic red-and-white cans Brown points out that the company’s of Campbell’s condensed soups and broths—imnewly-launched www.whatsinmyfood. mortalized during the 1960s by the famed artist ca website was developed specifically “to Andy Warhol in a series of acclaimed paintings provide consumers with a wide range of and sketches—the company’s new products, also information about our products—from the including the Campbell’s Soup Kits, are aimed at a ingredients we use to how and where our new generation of consumers demanding all-natfood is made.” ural ingredients and greater f lavor variety.

This transparency is vividly played up in Marketed under the company’s Real Food that the Healthy Request decorative product labelMatters for Life’s Moments mission statement, the ing—designed by the company’s in-house Healthy Request soup brand “represents the single Campbell’s Design Studio—featuring most important cultural change we’ve impleclose-up product photography of each remented globally and at Campbell Canada,” accipe’s main ingredients, along with the No cording to Dominguez.

Preservatives. Ever. tagline incorporated “We have committed to delivering products into the brandmark. with no artificial colors and f lavors, eliminating “The Healthy Request packaging is meant the use of high fructose corn syrup, and making to get consumers to think differently about sure we provide a host of choices for consumers canned soup, that it is what’s the can inside with different dietary needs,” Dominguez stated that counts,” explains brand manager for relast month during the company’s 85th anniversary commemorative event, held at a downtown Totail marketing Ben Gordon. ronto art gallery displaying a selection of Andy “We worked directly with our target conWarhol’s works, including the famed Campbell’s sumers to co-create a bright, modern and Soup Series. (Picture Above) vibrant design that really speaks to what Launched at leading Canadian grocery retailthey are looking for in ready-to-serve soup.

“We really wanted to emphasize the ingredient story so that our consumer knows exactly what they are getting in each can: showcasing the key ingredients to add to the vibrancy and appeal of each f lavor variety,” he explains.

“Today’s health-conscious consumers want to know what’s in their food as much as what’s not in their food,” adds leading registered dietician Sue Mah, president of the Toronto-based weight management clinic Nutrition Solutions.

“I’m happy to see that Campbell’s Healthy Request soups are made with wholesome ingredients and are a good source of fiber,” Mah points out, “with no preservatives or artificial flavors.”

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NOTES & QUOTES team comprising conveyor applications specialist Tony Dell’Unto, national sales manager Ron Heasman, and vice-president of international operations Dan Nasato, the new Dorner Conveyor Ltd. office (see picture) is located at 100-5515 North Service Road, Burlington, Ont., L7L 6G4. Tel. (289) 337-8580.

 Leading industrial conveyor systems manufacturer Dorner Mfg. Corp. has announced the opening of the company’s first Canadian subsidiary in Burlington, Ont. Says Dorner’s senior marketing manager Stacy Johnson, “Canada has always been an important market for us, and the opening of our new office allows us to provide additional sales support and technical assistance to our customers.” Led by a management

Good seal.

age, and repair services for the company’s f lagship VC999, XtraPlast and XtraVac machinery, along with a larger show-room to display its new machine models. Tel. (819) 395-4555.

 Leading global food packaging machinery manufacturer VC999 has commenced the expansion of the company’s VC999 Canada Ltd. operations (see picture) in SaintGermain-de-Grantham, Que., with plans to double the building’s usable space up to 40,000 square feet during first quarter of 2016. According to the company, the larger building will provide much-needed additional space for material processing, production, stor-

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 Industrial automation technologies supplier Omron Automation and Safety Canada has completed the move of its headquarters to a new location (picture above) at 100 Consilium Place, Ste. 802, Toronto, Ont., M1H 3E3. Tel. (416) 286-6465. “Our old building was designed for the way Omron did business in the 1990s, with full warehouse and office space for a large marketing and support staff,” explains general manager Peter Brouwer. “Now that we operate as a Pan-American business, we needed to consolidate certain business functions to provide uniform service and support to meet customer needs,” says Brouwer, adding the company has outsourced its warehousing services to leading third-party logistics Kintetsu World Express (Canada) Inc. According to the Hoffman Estates, Ill.-based parent company Omron Automation and Safety, Omron’s Canadian business activities will be “invigorated” in coming months after recent acquisitions of the Adept Technology, Inc. industrial robotics business and the motion control product portfolio of Delta Tau Data Systems.  Luxembourg-headquartered Flint Group, global supplier of printing inks, coatings, dyes, and other consumables for offset, rotogravure and f lexographic printing and converting applications, has completed the acquisition of Xeikon, manufacturer of digital color printing press technologies headquartered in Eede, The Netherlands. “This acquisition represents an excellent opportunity for propelling our organization further into the digital solutions market to continue to drive our growth through product innovation, focus on developing markets, and portfolio expansion,” says Flint Group’s chief executive Antoine Fady, noting Xeikon will operate as part of the newly-formed Flint Group Digital Printing Solutions unit.

6

DECEMBER 2015

SHOW PREVIEW

FEAST OF FOOD INNOVATION Canada’s leading food industry showcase has something for everyone

F

irst held in 2001, the annual SIAL Canada exhibition has quickly grown into the country’s top “must attend” food industry event bringing together Canada’s leading food retailers and foodservice operators under one roof.

Be it finding new products, identifying new food trends, or discovering new suppliers and market opportunities, SIAL Canada 2016—held in Montréal April 13-15, 2016, at the Palais des congrès de Montréal—will have something for everyone involved in the food and beverage business.

“SIAL Canada is the only national trade show that offers a complete range of food products under one roof to meet your customers’ expectations.

“Whether you work in the retail, catering or food processing industry, or you’re simply looking for new and innovative products or regional specialties from around the world, you’ll find exactly what you need at SIAL Canada,” says the show’s management team at SIAL Canada/Expo Canada France Inc. “Not only is SIAL Canada key to the Canadian agrifood industry, it is also a privileged

entryway to the U.S. and international markets.

“Indeed SIAL is now the only event of its scale in Canada, with more than 850 national and international exhibitors from 45 countries hosting over 15,000 buyers from Canada, the U.S. and 64 other countries.”

Jointly produced by the Association des détaillants du Québec, Agri-Food Export Group Quebec-Canada and Comexpos­ ium Network Canada, next year’s show will provide “the ideal platform to understand and meet the challenges of tomorrow,” according to the show’s executive director Xavier Poncin.

The landscape of our industry has changed considerably,” Poncin notes.

“Whether you’re looking at market concentration, the arrival of new players, changes in consumption habits with increasing focus on digitization and personalization, or even developments in international trade, for manufacturers it’s no mean feat finding the right solutions,” he states.

“With our buyer programs, a comprehensive series of conferences, product lines organized by type, central ‘experts hub’ and various special events, SIAL Canada is the ideal platform to help you understand and meet the challenges of tomorrow.

With its clearly-stated objective to provide a source of “inspiration” for Canada’s growing

agri-food industry, SIAL Canada 2016 is projected to attract over 850 national and international exhibitors from 50 countries, with an estimated audience of over 15,000 buyers from Canada, the U.S. and 60 other countries, according to the organizers.

For more information or to register, please go to: www.sialcanada.com

touch the future Inspiring ideas for success drupa is the must-attend event in 2016: Starting point of highly promising visions. Focus of future technologies. Meeting point of ideas that electrify the markets.

Innovative business models and best-practice examples will show the growth potential of the future: print, packaging production, green printing, functional printing, multichannel and 3D printing.

The program “drupa future visions” is a look far ahead. Be part of it!

daily news, trends, innovations blog.drupa.com

May 31 – June 10, 2016 Düsseldorf/Germany www.drupa.com Share

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DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 7

SHOW PREVIEW

WELCOME TO THE MEAT MARKET! Atlanta ready to host meat industry’s leading lights

T

here’s no business like the meat business to earn one’s bread and butter the hard way, but most meat industry professional would not have it any other way.

Supplying North American consumers with

safe and healthy animal protein in vast quantities on a daily basis is no less than a miracle of modern science and technology, which will be proudly displayed at the upcoming 2015 International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE)

in Atlanta, Ga. Comprising three highly complementary, sector-specific exhibitions with their own acclaimed industry respect and pedigree—including the International Poultry Expo, International Feed Expo and the International Meat Expo—the multishow event is already on pace to set new attendance records, according to 2016 IPPE organizers.

“We are pleased to report that more than 94 per cent of the show f loor has already been booked,” the show’s management says.

“We anticipate more than 28,000 attendees at the 2016 IPPE to learn about the latest products and services offered for the feed, meat and poultry industries.”

Running at the Georgia World Congress Center from January 2628, 2016, the show is expected to bring together more than 1,250 exhibitors and over 30,000 attendees—many of them from Canada.

In fact, Canada was the largest single country outside the U.S. in respect to the number of international attendees at the last IPPE show this past January—registering a total of 1,223 visitors.

With that show attracting some than 7,245 international visitors from 103 countries, the IPPE was ranked as one of the top 50 tradeshows in the U.S. this year for the first time in the event’s history.

You will profit through our world class supplier Jointly produced by the U.S. network, and bring innovative, efficient and cost Poultry & Egg Association, effective packages to market.

North American Meat Institute and the American Feed Industry Association, the IPPE is the world’s largest annual display of technology, equipment, supplies, and services used in the production and processing of eggs, meat and poultry, and those involved in feed manufacturing.

As such, it represents all the key segments of the industry—including feed milling, hatchery, live production, processing, further processing, marketing and all the support activities—while drawing a wide range of Top Tier decisionmakers to network and become informed on the latest technological developments and issues facing the industry.

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COVER STORY

TRIED, TRUSTED AND TRUE Leading Canadian liquid foods co-packer reaping rewards of self-made contract manufacturing expertise and keen market focus on flexible packaging innovation

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE AND NAOMI HILTZ

L

etting someone else take all the glory while you do all the heavy lifting may not sound like a fair shake, but as the famed Scottish novelist and Christian minister George MacDonald once profoundly observed, “To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.”

This gem of wisdom could not ring more true in modern-day commerce and manufacturing than in the crowded and highly competitive business of third-party manufacturing and co-packing of branded consumer packaged goods, where anonymity and confidentiality are core virtues at the center of the larger value proposition that contract manufacturers offer their brand-name clients.

It’s certainly a notion that Dan Skjodt, founder, president and chief executive officer of leading f lexible packaging co-packer Skjodt-Barrett Foods in Brampton, Ont., happily buys into—for many righteous reasons.

“Our company has grown from 50 to 550 employees just in the last five years,” Skjodt told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the company’s state-of-the-art, 215,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that has undergone nearly $23 million worth of capital investments and upgrades in the last year to keep up with surging customer demand for the company’s world-class expertise in product development, manufacturing and packaging of liquid food products in f lexible packaging for some of the world’s largest multinational brand-owners.

DUE SOUTH Buoyed by the successful 2011 startup of its U.S.based sister manufacturing facility just outside of Indianapolis in Lebanon, Ind.—already employing 300 full-time staff—Skjodt-Barrett nowadays ranks as the largest spouted-pouch food co-packer in North America, with impeccable industry reputation for high product quality, leading-edge product innovation, a formidable manufacturing skillset and production arsenal, and superior customer service capabilities.

It’s all a far cry from 30 years ago, when Skjodt, a native of Denmark, started out in the Canadian food co-packing business at a time when the whole notion of major CPG producers outsourcing their manufacturing and packaging functions to a third party was still in its early infancy.

Teaming up with former business partner Paul Barrett, the f ledgling business initially gained its footing by manufacturing relatively small quantities of jams and fillings for the local foodservice industry inside a modest, 10,000-square-foot industrial kitchen in Mississauga, Ont. “We started out with four people manufacturing the product at night and selling it throughout the day,” recalls Skjodt, who originally started out in the food industry making the once-popular Lola brand of frozen, pyramid-shaped flavored lollipop treats that are still popular in many European markets.

“Eventually we went from making pie fillings and jams for restaurant operators to custom-manufactur-

12 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Skjodt-Barrett’s director of marketing Mike Bell showing off some samples of spouted stand-up pouches used by his company to package many varieties of liquid and soft food products for some of the world’s largest brand-owners.

ing fillings for industrial bakers, who were just starting to mass-produce many new varieties of frozen pastries and turnovers for their retail store customers.

“Custom filling started to become a big thing in the late 1980s,” he relates, “and with time we started doing some pouching for industrial retail customers, who needed all their different fillings and icings to be custom-manufactured to their exact specs in order to withstand whatever ‘freeze-thaw’ process they operated on their end.”

Skjodt says the company got actively involved in f lexible packaging fairly early in the game, during the mid-1990s, with quick recognition for the tremendous long-term growth potential this breakthrough packaging format had to offer.

“Around that time we also started making caramel to support the growing NPF category (nutritious portable foods) for a variety of brand-owners

in both Canada and the U.S., he recounts.

By 2010, Dan Skjodt made a strategic decision to focus on the promising, but relatively underdeveloped, spouted-pouch segment of the f lexible packaging industry—ultimately untapping a rich vein of pent-up demand for this consumer-friendly packaging across North America.

“It was already a pretty big thing in Europe for about 20 years,” Skjodt reveals, “but for one reason of another there wasn’t much demand for it in North America, which gave us an opportunity to bring something new and exciting into the marketplace.

“Getting into the spouted-pouch business has really changed the face of our organization,” Skjodt relates, crediting this game-changing shift for the company’s breathtaking pace of growth in capacity, revenues, market share and employment levels since then.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

COVER STORY

A Domino model D 3201 laser coder generates highly Corrugated shipping cartons filled with packaged prodlegible, permanent product codes on primary packaging. uct emerge shut flat from the 3M-Matic case-sealer.

The 3M-Matic case sealing system from 3M Company automatically adjusts for each carton’s height and width.

Manufactured by the Toronto-based Fortress Technologies Inc., the Stealth series metal detector uses advanced digital signal processing technology to detect ferrous, nonferrous and stainless-steel particles and potential contaminants.

The rugged Phantom series metal detector from Fortress Technology used for high-speed metal detection.

A high-speed Domino inkjet case-coder applies multiple lines of text, graphics and barcoded information in a variety of font sizes onto the sides of shipping cartons to ensure optimal product traceability.

“This is all driven by continued consumer demand for the convenience of ‘on-the-go’ foods, which is exactly what this spouted pouch delivers with its portability, functionality, resealability and a whole new range of branding opportunities for our brand-owner customers,” Skjodt states.

The sudden surge in customer demand spurred the company to expand in the U.S. with a $60-million greenfield manufacturing facility

Multiple rows of finished product pass through the high-speed Fortress metal detector as part of the plant’s strict quality control procedures.

in Lebanon—in close proximity to Chicago and other major urban consumer markets—while also consolidating its multiple Canadian operations at the new Brampton location.

“Prior to moving here last year we were operating six different manufacturing plants to run our business, which ultimately became unmanageable and inefficient in terms of the economies of scale and the overall cost structure,” he relates.

“We often found ourselves stretched looking after all the never-ending truck deliveries rather than concentrating on our core business of new product development and manufacturing,” Skjodt expands.

Last used as a distribution center, the seven-yearold facility looks like at was always destined to serve as home to one of Canada’s most successful familyowned manufacturing businesses this decade ­— housing state-of-the-art research and testing labs on

DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 13

COVER STORY

A custom-manufactured plastic food-grade conveyor supplied by SpanTech Canada is used for high-speed transfer of flexible plastic pouches through their various stages along one of the Brampton plant’s multiple packaging lines.

An SEW-Eurodrive helical bevel gearmotor helps ensure precise positioning and energy-efficient operation for the highspeed SpanTech product transfer conveyor in both torque directions and at all input speeds for optimal flexibility.

one side of the building and production and packaging equipment on the other.

“Having all our operations integrated under one roof gives us full control of our production process,” Skjodt points out, “and it gives our customers all the assurance they need that we’ll meet and exceed their expectations.”

According to director of marketing Mike Bell, both the Brampton and Lebanon plants were intentionally designed and laid out to operate by and large like mirror images of one another—thereby ensuring minimal work interruption in case of one the facilities running into trouble.

Which sadly is exactly what the Lebanon plant experienced in 2013, when a devastating tornado ripping through the U.S. midwest tore down one of the Lebanon plant’s walls and left a trail of destruction through the center of the building from one end to another.

“Fortunately we were able to switch that plant’s production to our Canadian operations for the 21 days that it took us to get the Indiana plant back up and running again, which was something of a small miracle in itself,” Bell relates.

“We originally thought it would take us at least three months, but in the end we were able to get it back online much faster, thanks to the tremendous help we received from local contractors, our employees and the community at large.

“Most importantly, it did not cause a catastrophic disruption in our overall business.”

According to Skjodt, both plants combined have the annual capacity to produce in excess of 240 mil-

Scott Shepard Joins Delkor as Eastern Canada Sales Manager St. Paul, MN based Delkor Systems, Inc., has appointed Scott Shepard as their Sales Manager for the Northeast USA and Eastern Canada. Scott comes to Delkor with nearly 8 years’ experience in the packaging industry having worked for Cryotech International (now Chart Industries) and Teledyne TapTone in roles of progressive responsibility.

Regarding his decision to join the team at Delkor, Scott commented “What interested me most about Delkor, was the prospect of working for a company that was not only a leader in secondary packaging equipment, but also secondary packaging designs.

All sales professionals look for ways to deliver value to their customers. With a nearly even spread of patents in machinery and package designs, Delkor makes delivering that value very straightforward.

The fact that Delkor has had double-digit growth over the last 5 years, also made my decision to join their team an easy one.”

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Made by Delkor Systems, the Capstone S Series carton closer uses laser sensors and servo drives to measure and align every individual box at up to 150 cartons per minute.

The large-capacity ProBlue 10 series hot-melt adhesive applicating system from Nordson Corporation is linked up to Capstone carton closer for gluing the carton flaps shut.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

COVER STORY lion pounds of product, with the company’s Contract Manufacturing division responsible for all the f lexible packaging done for leading brand-owners and private-label customers.

For its part, the Contract Manufacturing division looks after f lexible, retail ready packaging done for brand owners and private-label customers with products ranging from baby food, and fruit snacks to simmer-and-serve sauces, while its Custom Ingredients division looks after the production of bulk products ranging from caramel layers for nutraceutical bars to fruit blends for yogurt, donut fillings, jams, spreads and toppings.

“While our contract manufacturing business currently serves many of the world’s largest brand manufacturers by making product under their label for them,” Skjodt points out, “it is importToronto-based corrugated packaging supplier Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. supplies the Skjodt-Barrett manufacturant for us to always leave room for smaller branding facility in Brampton with high-strength corrugated shipping cartons and various retail-ready packaging products. owners and startups, who may well become category leaders 10 years from now.”

With a diverse and expansive product portfolio comprising well over 500 different SKUs (stockkeeping units), both plants operate on a busy 24-hours-a-day, fivedays-a-week schedule to keep up with the demand, according to Skjodt.

“We ship the full range of packaging out there—from one-ounce sample packs to 1,000-kilogram totes of product and just about everything in-between, including 30-pound pails, 500-pound drums and so on,” he relates.

“Any rigid packaging we do is strictly on the custom ingredient side of the business to handle the bulk shipments,” adds Bell. “For brand-owners and retailers it’s strictly f lexible packaging, namely retail-ready, spouted pouches and all the basic form-fill-seal formats.”

To keep its production quality consistently high, the plant purchases all its pouches and associated machinery from Italian-based MachineStruxure sets new standards for f lexible packaging technologies experts Guala Group, which machine performance with proven flexible distributes its products in North and scalable platforms America through the West Bridgewater, Ma.-based supplier Cheer MachineStruxure Pack North America.

The NEXT For their part, Bemis Curwood generation and Fuji Seal supply the bulk of rollstock film used for form-fillThe perfect solution for every application seal applications, which are expertly executed by high-performance Whether you need logic, drive, HMI, or motion-based control, MachineStruxure provides a flexible and scalable solution that’s always vertical/form/fill/seal equipment Platforms to meet any application. perfectly optimized. With performance ratings that are the benchmark in Flexibility and scalability to meet any requirement. manufactured by Mespack and the industry (and immune to communications operations), you know Circle Packaging.

• Logic controllers you can deliver a competitive solution that delivers greater reliability With the U.S. market now gener• HMI controllers and higher throughput. ating about 60 per cent of the com• Motion controllers MachineStruxure, the intuitive choice. pany’s total annual revenues, the • Drive controllers Indiana plant houses five pouching production lines and one bulk-filling line, Skjodt relates, while the Brampton facility operates six proVisit www.SEreply.com Key Code l618u duction lines of each.

“Our Canadian business is split up pretty evenly at 50-50 between f lexible pouching and bulk production,” Skjodt reveals, “whereas in the U.S. f lexible packaging acschneider-electric.com/smartmachines counts for 90 per cent of our out-

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The MOVITRAC LTP-B frequency inverter from SEWEurodrive is used to maintain optimal conveyor speeds.

put volumes.

“We are pretty proud of both of our facilities,” says Skjodt, citing recent company-wide implementation of an advanced ERP (enterprise resource planning) software platform that seamlessly integrates all the administrative, purchasing, production, scheduling and other critical process information across both operations.

Housing several well-equipped product development, R&D, testing, quality control and other laboratories staffed by full-time expert lab technicians, the ultra-clean and well-organized Brampton plant also boasts state-of-the-art bulk product storage facilities to store vast quantities of raw ingredients used to make the final product under perfect, climate-controlled environmental conditions at all times to ensure optimal product quality.

“We can hold up to 40,000 pounds of different types of sugar at any one time, which we go through every couple of days or so,” Skjodt notes.

The plant’s Trayfecta M Series carton former from Delkor is a single-lane unit capable of up to 60 cycles a minute.

“Our filling room stores large quantities of four different types of sugar at all times—automatically pumping glucose, dextrose, fructose or whatever the recipe calls for over to the proper production kettles—and it is constantly refilled from the outside via large containers,” he explains.

“We also have the capability to blow up to 1,000 kilograms of dry sugar over to the production line at a time when necessary,” Skjodt adds.

“Our on-site labs produce eight to 10 brand new products each and every day to be tested and evaluated by ourselves and our clients,” says Skjodt, proudly citing the operation’s one-of-a-kind, onsite pilot plant used to simulate and test any production process on a small scale prior to undertaking actual production runs, if warranted.

“It is equipped with miniature versions of all the equipment that we have out on the production f loor of our facility,” Skjodt explains. “It helps us to really understand all the nuances of making a

Cartons emerging from the Trayfecta M carton former are immediately filled up by hand with product pouches.

particular product—from pod size to the large bulk size packaging such as pails and drums.”

The rest the building’s left side is occupied by utilities and additional raw material supply rooms, along with a newly-installed $2.5-million aseptic yogurt processing equipment room used to prepare fresh-fruit mixtures used in popular fruit-based yogurt products.

“Aseptic bulk fruit growing is definitely a growing part of our business,” says Skjodt, citing a general trend in the fast-growing yogurt industry to migrate to f lexible packaging from the traditional rigid-plastic cups and tubs.

For its part, the production area on the right side of the building boasts some of the most impressive, stateof-the-art production and packaging machinery out there, comprising the aforementioned 12 high-speed packaging lines evenly split between f lexible packaging production and bulk-shipped products.

As chief information officer Wesley Skjodt points

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CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

COVER STORY

Delkor’s Trayfecta M Series carton former is controlled via an operator-friendly Allen-Bradley PanelView Plus 1000 HMI (human-machine interface) terminal.

out, “Part of our value proposition to our industrial customers is shipping their product to them in stainless-steel totes to emphasize our commitment to product quality and safety.

“We have about 400 of these totes to ship the fillings, sauces, marinades, glazes, caramel and other bulk products to our customers and bring them back here, where we put them through the full, rigorous CIP (clean-in-place) sanitation process, including caustic wash if necessary, before reusing them again in the next cycle,” he explains, adding the company applies the same safety-first scrutiny to its f lexible packaging operations.

“Most of our final primary packaging is laser-coded, with inkjet systems only used for case-coding of the shipping cartons,” Skjodt notes. “Generally, we use laser coders as much and wherever we can because nowadays many of our clients actually demand it.

“In the contract packaging business, the customer is always right,” says Skjodt, saying he has no problem with the relative anonymity that is part and parcel of making an honest living as a reputable co-packer entrusted with epic-scale responsibility of protecting and growing the clients’ brands in the consumer marketplace. w“And unlike some of our direct competitors, we don’t do our own retail brands because we refuse to compete with our clients,” Skjodt asserts. “It’s as simple as that.”

However, the company’s Custom Ingredients division actually does do a bit of branding on the bulk packaging shipped to its institutional and industrial clients, where the Skjodt-Barrett brand name— accented with the elegant Architects of Great Food tagline and a regal-looking brand logo depicting a Danish royal crown—is held in very high regard across North America.

Likewise, both Dan and Wesley Skjodt have no issues over most Canadian consumers probably not having heard of their business, despite consuming vast quantities of products originating at the Brampton plant on an everyday basis.

“That’s just the nature of the business,” Dan Skjodt shrugs, saying he takes more pride and satisfaction in knowing that his

Filled boxes of product pass through the high-speed Eagle Pro X-Ray product inspection system, supplied by PLAN Automation, for a final quality assurance check prior to palletizing.

company can offer each of its leading brand-owner clients the same high level of expertise and product quality despite the fact they often fiercely compete with each other for market share.

“We sell ourselves as the silent partner behind our customers’ success,” he states. “That’s just who we are and that’s what we are very, very good at.

“Making modern-day functional foods that meet all the requirements of shelf-life, texture, taste, color and so on is a complex exercise that requires a lot of specialized knowledge to produce it in large quantities on fast-running machinery, while using a multitude of complex ingredients.”

Adds Wesley Skjodt: “We have a lot of exciting new innovations in store that we look forward to launching in the marketplace soon, and a lot of new opportunities to expand our product offerings in spouted f lexible packaging: from organic babyfoods and fruit snacks to yogurts and marinades, as well as some new aseptic packaging products like puddings and high-protein beverages.

“We always took a lot of pride in being pioneers in the f lexible packaging arena,” he concludes, “and we will do whatever it takes to remain at the leading edge well into the future.”

For More Information: Skjodt-Barrett 401 PLAN Automation 402 Delkor Systems, Inc. 403 SEW-Eurodrive Co. of Canada Ltd. 404 Domino Printing Sciences plc 405 Nordson Canada, Limited 406 Fortress Technology, Inc 407 3M Canada Company 408 Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd. 409 SpanTech Canada 410 Cheer Pack North America 411 Bemis Curwood 412 Fuji Seal International, Inc. 413

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BOXMAKING

FAMILY VALUES

Leading independent folding-carton producer leverages proactive capital investment and technological prowess to retain its elite status in the competitive marketplace

BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE

I

n an industry where buyouts, takeovers and acquisitions are an integral part of the so-called new normal—such as the global folding-carton business—being the master of one’s fate and destiny is becoming an increasingly rare and tricky luxury for many of its one-time leading lights.

Happily for the Pickering, Ont.-based Ellis Group, the family-owned company’s steadfast, principled refusal to simply fall in line with the prevailing conventional wisdom du jour just because everyone else is doing it has rewarded it with a well-earned industry reputation as a high-quality, top-tier paperboard converter with plenty of industry-wide acclaim and technological competence to enable it to write its own ticket to success through good old hard work, excellent customer service, and world-class product craftsmanship and quality.

Tracing its roots back to 1946 and incorporated under the Ellis Packaging banner in 1983, the company’s continuous steady rise up the industry ranks offers compelling proof of the virtue of embracing quality over quantity in a relentless quest to establish and maintain meaningful long-term business growth that ultimately ensures the volumes and market demand needed to remain a viable and thriving business enterprise.

Ellis Group president Cathie Ellis holds up a perfectly-printed sheet coming off the brand new, state-of-the-art Komori Lithtrone GLX lithographic press positioned directly behind her at the Ellis Packaging production facility in Pickering.

GROUP EFFORT “As a group, we have by now fed well over 500 million cartons into the market,” says Cathie Ellis, who serves as the company’s president alongside her younger brother Dave Ellis in overseeing the operations of the company’s three operating divisions: • Ellis Packaging, an 85,000-square-foot “mothership” facility producing a diverse range of upscale paperboard packaging for cosmetic and personalcare, liquor and wine, pharmaceutical and healthcare, and food and confectionery markets; • Ellis Paper Box, a 50,000-square-foot pharmaceutical packaging products manufacturer in Mississauga, Ont.; • Ellis Packaging West Inc., a 40,000-squarefoot converting plant in Guelph, Ont., specializing in folding carton production for the food-processing industry.

Employing about 220 people in total, the three operations have recently surpassed the milestone benchmark of $50 million in sales, according to Cathie Ellis, firmly entrenching itself as one of Canada’s largest privately-owned paperboard converters.

“It’s a very significant number of boxes, which has continued to grow year after year,” she told Canadian Packaging on a recent visit to the busy, spanking-clean Pickering plant recently equipped with some of the most advanced package printing capabilities anywhere in North America.

“All our divisions have their own niche areas, but we are all equipped to service all areas of the marketplace,” Ellis explains. “We utilize our sister plants to service various components of our cus-

18 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

Some of the high-end paperboard packaging produced at the Pickering facility.

The Ellis Group enjoys industry-wide acclaim for not only its high-quality graphics, but also for its superior structural design capabilities.

tomers’ demand—such as ‘windowing’ or stamping in our Guelph facility, to use an example.

“The Ellis group as a whole still has a great deal of spare production capacity,” she acknowledges, “but if and when we eat that up, we will just continue to reinvest to keep growing.

“That’s just what we do,” says Ellis, citing the Pickering plant’s recent installation of a madein Japan, state-of-the-art, eight-color Komori Lithrone GLX lithographic press that accounts for roughly a half of the $8 million in capital investments that the company has made in the last few years across its three high-throughput facilities.

“This press is the first of its kind to land in North America, and its purchase was driven largely by the quality and efficiency considerations we had in mind,” Ellis confides.

Typically running at its stunningly fast max-

imum operating speed of 18,000 sheets per hour, the high-performance press is equipped with a state-of-the-art inline inspection system monitoring its operations from PDF file generation right through the sheet reader, Ellis relates, along with fully-automatic product placement and logistics to ensure continuous-feed operation around the clock.

“There are many tremendous features on this press to enable us to really maximize its run speed capability,” says Ellis, adding that being a privatelyowned business enables Ellis to make and execute important capital investment decisions to respond to ever-changing customer demands in timely manner.

“It also enables us to react quickly with any service issues our clients may have and streamline our process to implement corrective action solutions accordingly,” says Ellis, citing an impressive long list

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

BOXMAKING

Eagle Systems president Mike King (left) and Dave Ellis in front of the new cold-foil stamper.

Loaded shipping cartons filled with finished product making their way through Dave Ellis looking over the freshly-printed sheet the fully-automatic 3M case-sealing system to be taped shut before palletcoming off the Eagle inline cold-foil stamper.

The innovative ANF (automatic non-stop feeder) system on the Komori press helps operators ensure minimal press downtime.

Close-up of a test sample of high-quality printing ink formulation manufactured by Sun Chemical.

A Sun Chemical Canada service technician making an on-site visit to ensure all the printing inks are in prime condition.

of blue-chip CPG (consumer packaged goods) and Big Pharma clients that includes the likes of Procter & Gamble, Pfizer, Glaxo, Pinty’s, Mars and Ferrero, among others.

“We take great pride in continuously proving ourselves to them to be a value-added, quality- and service-orientated supplier,” Ellis asserts.

“Whenever our customer requires or demands something, we find a way to make it happen.

“Our long-term success has been built on quality and servicing our customer’s needs,” says Ellis, “and we have been very fortunate over the past years to be able to continue to invest in state-of-the-art equipment that enables us to provide quality workmanship and meet our customers’ needs.”

Some of that best-of-breed equipment at the Pick-

ering location—operating on a 24-hours-a-day, five-days-a-week schedule through most of the year—includes: • a MAN Roland 40-inch lithographic press; • a Komori Lithrone GLX eight-color litho press; • an Arpeco hybrid primographic press with holographic coating, cold-foil and hot-foil stamping capabilities; • Bobst die-cutters and folder-gluers; • Italworks cutter and box-edger; • Cates trayforming equipment; • Iberica die-cutting system.

A Brausse hot-foil stamping machine and a Heiber Schroder windower (Guelph plant).

For its part, the Mississauga facility has recently installed an inline model CFM102-16K cold-foil

Press operator Ryan McKenzie checking final print quality on a sheet printed on the new Komori Lithrone GLX press.

The Pickering plant’s high-speed Bobst Cartonpack II automatic carton packer.

stamping system, manufactured by the Ocean, N.J.-based Eagle Systems, which is positioned just above the plant’s Komori Lithrone GL eight-color press to apply layers of foil to the boxes printed on the press below it.

Installed in October of 2014, the f lexible cold-foil stamper has worked like a charm since startup, according to Dave Ellis, “We were also the first installation that Eagle had done on a Komori GL40 press,” says Ellis, complimenting Eagle on the extensive customization work they did to get the stamper working in perfect tandem with the press within one week of its arrival.

“The entire set-up for the rigging of foil, including the crane, hoist and the frame, the replacement of guards to allow for the film path, and the con-

The automatic ink dispenser from Sun Chemical is integrated to the Komori’s Lithrone GLX eight-color litho press for cost-effective ink dispersal.

DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 19

BOXMAKING

An eye-catching metallic finish applied to the printed Holts boxes by the Eagle Systems’ inline cold-foiler.

Manufactured in Japan by Komori, the eight-color Lithrone GLX lithographic press recently installed at the Ellis Packaging production facility in Pickering boasts stunning maximum throughput speed of 18,000 sheets per hour.

Ellis Paper Box press operator inspects the quality of a finished print run for the Robax brand of pain relief pills.

Close-up of a sheet of freshly-printed paperboard packaging coming off the Pickering plant’s flexographic press.

Freshly-printed folding cartons for a popular heartburn remedy produced by the Pickering plant’s flexo press.

A machine operator prepares the Bobst AccuBraille application system on the plant’s folder-gluer equipment.

necting of all the safety mechanisms and sensors, were completely customized for us,” he recalls.

“The machine is as high-tech as any other competitive machine out there, but it allows a greater degree of f lexibility,” he notes.

“The Eagle system does not require any adjustments, such as tension, as everything in it is sensor-based: meaning all the adjustments are made automatically depending on the condition that the Eagle system detects itself.

“There is very little to adjust: the only time it requires operator involvement is for the loading/unloading and webbing of the foil,” Ellis points out.

“This machine really takes no focus away from any other aspects of printing a sheet, with very minimal effect on the run speed,” says Ellis, praising the machine’s inline, high-precision application of both the adhesive—primarily supplied by Flint and INX—and the foil substrates, sourced mostly from Kurz, ITW and Univacco.

“Inline application means that the overall speed is considerably greater because there is no additional production process of hot-stamping,” he says.

“It is almost indiscernible in terms of difference in quality from hot-foil, and still improving at an incredible pace.

“We are constantly working with Eagle to introduce new ideas and testing new innovations,” Ellis relates.

Not only is cold-foil stamping a more cost-effective process compared to hot-foil or metallic coating, according to Ellis, “the most important factor has been the increased exposure to new markets,

and customers, and the increased in sales to existing clients, to whom we can now offer this service to enhance the packaging’s shelf display effectiveness, covering everything from anti-counterfeiting features to hologram production.”

Ellis adds the Mississauga plant has also installed a 100-percent electronic verification system from Eye-C on its Heidelberg gluer for inline inspection of every carton at full production speeds of 500 meters per minute, “ensuring that only quality product is packed in the shipper cases, with every carton verified for copy, content, barcode, rogue detection codes, etc.

“It’s not in our nature to leave quality to chance.”

20 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

PROUD MOMENTS As Cathie Ellis concurs: “We really pride ourselves on having a comprehensive arsenal of equipment and capabilities that can meet and exceed our customers’ needs,” states Ellis.

“All of these investments clearly demonstrate the commitment we have to service the folding-carton industry as a whole,” she says, “as well as our unwavering commitment to high product quality.”

Ellis explains: “We measure overall quality utilizing various metrics, including defective cartons, customer complaints, re-runs, credits and sales.

“Currently, our OQL (overall quality level) is at 99.07 per cent, but we are continually striving to achieve 100-percent overall quality,” Ellis relates.

“All our corporate goals and objectives are tracked, analyzed and measured through various key performance indicators,” she expands, “and we’re also

very keen of waste reduction, which is tracked and measured through key areas through production reports, overage/shortage reports, and in-process waste.

“Our goal is to continually reduce overall waste in all of our processes to drive out unnecessary production time, overages and defects,” Ellis explains.

“Reducing waste allows us to streamline the process improving productivity, throughput and converting costs.”

This lean manufacturing mindset is key to survival in today’s highly competitive paperboard converting business, according to Ellis, which is being increasingly challenged by rapid growth of f lexible packaging in a growing range of market segments traditionally dominated by paperboxes.

“The folding-carton market has been very competitive over the past few years, which has resulted in plenty of excess capacity in the marketplace,” Ellis ref lects.

“We have seen a great deal of rationalization and amalgamation over the past year, which should help reduce that overcapacity, but we really have to stay focused on continuous improvement, waste reduction and creating value-added for our clients one step ahead of competition to remain viable,” she reasons.

“We are large enough to partner with quality suppliers to achieve competitive market pricing, but I also believe that by operating three facilities the way we do gives us the f lexibility we need to service our individual key accounts better and more efficiently,” says Ellis, citing the company’s glowing

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

BOXMAKING For More Information:

The camera-based inspection and quality assurance system from Advanced Vision Technology provides instant 100-percent inspection and verification for all print runs.

industry reputation for structural design excellence.

“Customer filling lines always need to be taken into account when designing or manufacturing a folding carton,” she explains, “and we also see a lot more demand for Big Box retail packaging, where cartons must protect the integrity of the product through transportation and on the shelf.

“Insofar as high-end packaging for cosmetics or OTC (over-thecounter) pharmaceuticals or nutritional supplements, we find that customers are increasingly looking for a cost-effective way to enhance or decorate their packaging.

“This is where our inline coldfoil units, along with our hotstamping and holographic design capabilities, come in,” she states.

“We have both the equipment and expertise to be able to add enhance packaging as far as our customers’ imagination wants us to go.

“It is very exciting and re-energizing when you can take a customer’s current design and improve on it to make their carton stand out from others on the shelf,” says Ellis, citing the ­2015 Carton of the Year award bestowed on them by the Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC) on the Cadbury Crème Egg package the company produced for confectionery giant Mondelez International, Inc. The colorful, intricately die-cut multipack folding carton, which also picked up the competition’s Environmental Carton of the Year honors, substitutes vacuum-formed plastic trays and plastic shrinksleeves with renewable, recyclable paperboard in a vivid, eye-catching design that allows more of the iconic eggs’ primary foil packaging to show through Moreover, the intricate die-cuts in the bottom and top of the pack allow the eggs to nest in a more stable arrangement that optimizes both pallet and shelf configuration, while providing superior product protection.

“We felt very honored to receive such high recognition for our work,” says Ellis, proudly citing the company’s fully-vetted com-

DECEMBER 2015

mitment to quality management and continuous improvement—as evidenced by its ISO 9001, FSSC (Food Safety System Certification) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) accreditations, with the HACCP Hazardous Analysis Critical Control Points)based IFS PACsecure certification for food contact safety expected to be achieved in early 2016.

Says Ellis: “We are continuously audited by some of North Americas most stringent brand-owners, and we welcome them to do it.

“We are constantly learning, adapting, and improving our systems and workflow as part of our fundamental commitment to continuous improvement throughout the entire production process,” she concludes, “which we reinforce each year with a management review meeting to set new corporate goals and objectives.”

21 FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 114

Ellis Group 420 Komori Corporation 421 Eagle Systems 422 Manroland AG 424 Bobst Group North America 425 Brausse Group 426 Heiber + Schroder USA 427 Italworks 428 Cates Mechanical Corp.

429 Iberica AG 430 Flint Group 431 INX International Ink Co. 432 Kurz 433 ITW Foils 434 Univacco Foils Corporation 435 Sun Chemical Canada 436 Heidelberg Canada 437

CONTRACT PACKAGING

THE BRIGHTER CIDE OF LIFE Industrial lubricant co-packer keeping the wheels of industry in perpetual motion with high-quality product formulations and tube packaging expertise

Biederman Packaging vice-president of operations and sales Elizabeth Wagg is the day-to-day face of the business and related enterprises, seen here with some of the products manufactured and co-packed at the facility, including plastic grease tubes for most of the North American market, as well as a wide range of packaged powder products.

From animal protection, rodenticide and insect control to helping increase plant growth, Biederman Packaging formulates and co-packs a wide range of products.

ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR PHOTOS BY JOHN PACKMAN

I

t can be a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.

Headquartered in Dundas, Ont. about an hours drive west of Toronto, Biederman Packaging Inc. exists as a formulator, packager, co-packer, and even a repackager of a wide range of products that include some items every single household might not want to think about, but is glad to know they exist.

Biedermann Packaging is a seasoned custom packaging and toll manufacturing company with a long history of providing cost effective contract manu-

22 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

With Biederman Packaging producing the plastic tubes, sister company Biederman Enterprises has captured about 50 per cent of the North American lubricating market.

facturing and packaging services. Its specialty is in formulating and packaging all types of powder ed products—but historically, its niche has been offering a large range of powdered and granular insecticides, rodenticides, snail and slug elimination products helping get rid of pests in households, gardens and farmer’s fields across Canada.

Other products manufactured by them, include: seed treatment products, granular fertilizers, plaster products, Epsom salts, ice melters and even ice paints for the local hockey or curling arena.

But there’s more to Biederman than just packaging—the privately owned business headed by

president Fred Sutcliffe and his daughter, vicepresident of operations and sales Elizabeth Wagg, is also a sister-company of Biederman Enterprises Ltd., an entity that specializes in manufacturing plastic grease cartridge tubes.

Those not involved in the maintenance of equipment might not be familiar with the product, but the multiple million-dollar-a-year business has captured about 50 percent of the North American market for lubricating companies such as ExxonMobil, Petro Canada and Chevron as a few of its customers. And it is still growing.

Sutcliffe first acquired the grease cartridge com-

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

CONTRACT PACKAGING

The Linx 5900 continuous inkjet printer applies bestbefore and lot-code data to a wide range of products.

A close-up view of lot code information on the lip of a package applied by the Linx 5900 CIJ printer.

pany in 1992 from Glen Biederman, recognizing that the plastic cartridge tubes for lubricant companies provided a more durable option for the customer and consumer than the then-standard cardboard lubricant tube.

“Along with enhanced brand imaging and eliminating the need to maintain label inventories— Biederman Enterprises prints a company’s branding directly onto the plastic cartridge tubes—our plastic tubes don’t get crushed in the toolbox, so not only does the cartridge hold up, but the brand does, too,” Wagg told Canadian Packaging magazine during a recent visit to the tidy 50,000 square-foot Biederman Packaging facility with 45 employees.

She says that the only thing holding back complete domination of the grease industry and plastic packaging seems to be the price.

“The cartridge has historically cost a few cents more than the cardboard tube,” she says, “but various economic factors are bringing those differences closer together.

She points out that for overall product integrity, the plastic cartridge tube holds up better than the competition, making the few pennies more worth it.

“The plastic lubricant cartridge business has been fantastic for us, as the demand for the better cartridge has resulted in doubling our production and sales over the past five years,” she notes, adding that with that growth, multiple strategic upgrades have had to be

Offering robust line speeds and consistent accuracy, Biederman Packaging utilizes the easy-to-operate Linx 5900 continuous inkjet printer to apply all necessary variable product information data to every finished product produced.

implemented over the years, adding high-speed production lines and quality control measures to ensure high quality is maintained as production increases.

With business sliding along briskly and needing a second facility for extra capacity, Sutcliffe and Wagg were approached by Glen Biederman who wanted to retire. With an opportunity to purchase Biederman Packaging, the deal was finalized in April of 2011, with Wagg noting that the company many one get around to rebranding itself, “but right now we have more important and exciting things to focus on with these businesses.”

Continuing, Wagg says: “Our Packaging business is completely different from our initial business foray.

“Along with manufacturing those home and garden-saving products, we also handle the awkward jobs, but make it easy for the customer.”

Wagg says that for customers that partner with Biederman, they get more than just a package at the end of the day: “We can provide customers with more choices, more ideas and definitely more solutions for dry and specialty chemical toll packaging, as well as outsourcing requirements.

“We are proud of our ability to provide customers with a plethora of contract packaging services to any and all industries,” she says, “complete with product packaging options such as repackaging, private label creation and more.”

As a custom packaging and toll manufacturing

Biederman utilizes a model MPC 1418 L-Bar sealer and shrink tunnel, manufactured by Damark Packaging, to apply a safe and secure seal around products.

business, Wagg says that Biederman Packaging takes complex jobs where lots of handling is required or products or packages that are challenging, and works with the customer from the design phase, to market introduction and through full production.

“While I’ve had several years of experience in chemical and packaging industries, I’d like to think that my brief foray into working hands-on for the WWE Canada years ago—ensuring its global wrestling superstars were taken care of while north of the border—is what makes me confident that Biederman Packaging can handle any packaging challenge,” relates Wagg.

The Biederman Packaging team is experienced, says Wagg, and “can help any client with ideas, enhancements, revisions, packaging design, labeling, formulations and more.”

Not resigned to just long-term jobs, Wagg says the company is equally adept at one-offs, with a wide range of specialty packaging equipment backed with quality assurance personnel.

More than just a contract packager, Wagg mentions that Biederman Packaging’s current customer base is within the chemicals segment, what with the insecticides and rodenticides et al.

She says that some of Biederman Packaging’s largest customers are: the manufacture and packaging of a potato fungicide for Syngenta, as well as horticultural and agricultural aspect of the global firm Premier Tech, King Pesticide and Engage Agro.

For all its bagged products, the Biederman Packaging plant uses an easy-to-operate, fully-automatic bag sealing system manufactured by Emplex, a division of PlexPack.

DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 23

CONTRACT PACKAGING

A critical component of the plant’s end-of-line packaging set-up, a 3M-Matic adhesive tape carton sealer from 3M is used to ensure safe transport of product to a customer’s distribution center, or directly to retail location, as required.

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“We can develop the formulations and blend and package products at the Dundas facility,” explains Wagg, “but customers have the option of providing us with either the materials and/or packages for us to repack, or have us source all or parts of the process on their behalf.

“We’ll do whatever makes the customer’s job that much easier for them so all they have to concern themselves about is the retail aspect.”

While production of the plastic grease cartridges is fairly standard in terms of the package size, Wagg notes her company can satisfy any customer packaging need.

“We offer the ability to fill many sized containers, from small bottles to pouches to pails to drums, from 25 grams to 1000 kilograms,” relates Wagg.

While always happy to do short run productions, Wagg says the company has become known for it ability to handle moderate- to large-scale production runs with fast turnarounds, which she says allows them to service product introductions or specialty type products.

Biederman Enterprises division is currently busier of the two, running three shifts-a-day, five-daysa-week, but Wagg says that she has noticed Biederman Packaging getting busier.

“We work hard and will put on extra shifts to ensure we meet customer deadlines, but we still have plenty of capacity to grow and take on more opportunities,” she says.

“It’s hardly small potatoes,” corrects Wagg. “Biederman Packaging has nine production lines including: various size ribbon mixers; micro pulverizing and grinding equipment; small-size extrusion machinery; valve bag fillers; form and fill machines; container label applicators and more.”

Production-wise, a checkweigher will drop a particular pellet product or bottom fill a powder into a bag former, seal it and then pack into a paperboard container, apply a label and hand pack into a master carton, place on a pallet and shrinkwrap.

Some of the equipment Biederman utilizes in its daily operations includes: • a Hayssen model SF 2-2 form/ fill sealer; •A ll-Fill’s bottom up SHAA600 automatic powder auger filler; • an Arcopak C1010 auger filler; • a Model 4 single packer extruder manufactured by The Bonnot Company; • a model A-400E single head economy automatic filling from AMS Filling Systems; • an RBS Equipment Designs model SASW 30” bundler with shrink tunnel, and; • a Damark Packaging MPC 1418 L-Bar sealer and shrink tunnel.

From bulk filling and repackaging services to labeling and proximity warehousing, Biederman Packaging also performs manual assemblies and other services that include, but are not limited to: custom shrink packaging; container labeling; sleeving; blister packaging; hand packing;

24

DECEMBER 2015

CONTRACT PACKAGING For More Information: Biederman Packaging Biederman Enterprises Hayssen Flexible Systems, a Barry-Wehmiller Company All-Fill Inc. Arcopak Inc. The Bonnot Company AMS Filling Systems, Inc. RBS Equipment Designs Ltd. PLEXPACK Corporation Lenze AC Tech Linde Canada Ltd.

450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460

Wagg, “we maintain our commitment to providing the best customer experience—by successfully tackling those projects other packagers may not want to take on.”

Plastic tubes roll down a ramp towards a large-scale color printer for application of brand identification in lieu of paper labels for a wide range of lubricating grease brands co-packed for companies across North America.

custom product formulation; thermal printer label and product barcode creation; counting and sorting; -product pricing; compounding, and more.

Products created and packaged by Biederman Packaging for its clients can be found in stores such as Walmart, Home Depot, Canadian Tire, Home Hardware and many other retail outlets across the country.

According to Wagg, the facility itself is an important reason why customers would want to use

Biederman as a co-packer.

“There are other companies who do packaging as co-packers, but we understand that many have questionable facilities and practices,” notes Wagg.

“We are audited by CropLife Canada, a trade organization representing plant science, plus we maintain an excellent working relationship with the local fire department thanks to the facilities having an up-to-date sprinkler system and being diked. As well, we have security and heat and pressure alarms, as well as cameras inside and out.”

“We provide a very secure and safe facility for both our workers and for our customers meeting demanding standards and requirements,” Wagg mentions.

Biederman has been a successful enterprise for years, and Wagg is adamant that it will continue long into the future.

“While we have years of experience working with formulating and packaging powdered chemicals, particularly as they relate to pesticides and rodenticides, A metal gas tank filled with a hydrogen gas mixture formulated by Linde, is we’ve taken that experience used for co-packaging of all products with important shelf-life requirements. and applied it to other nonregulated products.

“We work very closely with customers, many of whom are unfamiliar with bringing a product idea to fruition, but we have the skill and the expertise to guide them through the entire process from concept to finished and shipped packaged goods,” she adds.

“We do complex worklike assemblies and sub-assemblies and small custom orders all the way up to truckloads quantities,” sums up Wagg noting that Biederman fills a unique niche with its capabilities and The SMVector drive from Lenze AC Tech is a cutting-edge inverter drive fatechnical experience. cilitating smooth vertical lift for elevated transfer of empty plastic lubrication “And through it all,” says tubes.

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PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

CULTURED INNOVATION

Proactive capital investment in packaging equipment help premium cheese producer to increase retail production and improve process efficiency

From Left: Bothwell Cheese Inc. packaging manager Patrick Hildebrand, operations manager Rob Hiebert, sales and marketing director Mike Raftis, and company president Kevin Thomson showing off some of the cheesemaker’s innovative and award-winning cheeses and curds marketed in highly innovative product packaging.

ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR

O

f the many things that grow better with age, such as wine, furniture, parent-child relationships, many consider cheese to be the most delicious of those related to foods.

As of 2011, annual global cheese production provides some 3.3 kilograms of tasty goodness per person on the planet.

Usually created from milk obtained from cows, goats, sheep and buffalo, cheese has been part of the human diet for over 10,000 years after ovines were first domesticated, though proof of actual Packaging innovation and high-quality cheese is the name of the game at Bothwell Cheese as vividly demonstrated here by the four-piece Gift Box featuring Marble Cheddar, Red Wine Cheddar; Red Hot Chili Pepper Jack, Smoked cheese manufacturing can only be found as far back Gouda; and Red Wine Extra Old Cheddar actually infused with red wine; and the award-winning Marble Cheddar. as 7,500 years in Poland.

The International Dairy Federation officially Cheese production in Canada got its start no later and operated this way until it went into private recognizing some 500 or so varieties, but in truth than 1610, when Samuel de Champlain introduced ownership in 2002,” Bothwell Cheese operations there possibly thousands more, each with its own cattle into Québec, with French settlers creat- manager Rob Hiebert told Canadian Packaging taste profile, generated by length of aging, method ing ripened cheeses from family recipes they had magazine during a recent interview. “The company of manufacture, animal milk utilized, country of brought with them. is nowadays owned by Kevin and Len Thomson.” origin—the f lavor of milk can be affected by what While the French created soft, ripened cheeses, Hiebert says that ‘to the best of his knowledge’, the animal eats)—texture, fat content and is further the United Empire Loyalists f leeing the U.S. and its Bothwell is the largest nationally-distributed, inclassified by the cheese’s country or region of origin American Revolution in 1775-1783, brought with dependently-owned specialty cheese manufacturer and other traits too plentiful to list. them the traditional British cheddar cheeses, with in Canada.

While France is considered the No. 1 devourer of the first Canadian cheese factory—The Pioneer— “There may be companies of our size in Ontario cheese in 2013 eating over 25.9 kilograms per per- opening its doors for business in 1864 in Norwich, or Quebec, but they do not distribute coast-toson, Canada is no slouch either.

Ont., and three years later with Canadian Confed- coast like we do,” explains Hiebert, adding that Producing over 408,520 metric tones of cheese in eration, some 200 other cheese-making factories within the specialty cheese segment Bothwell is a 2011, as of 2013, its populace gobbles up some 12.2 had been created. major player in Western Canada, but not in Eastern kilograms per capita of various cheeses every year Continuing that fine tradition of Canadian Canada. “However, we have grown significantly according to data compiled by the Government of cheesemaking is Bothwell Cheese Inc., a New in Eastern Canada over the past few years, and we Canada’s Canadian Dairy Information Centre, and Bothwell, Manitoba company that opened its doors have aggressive plans to increase our growth rate.” is why Canada is also one of the top cheese-produ- a relatively recent 80 years ago.

At one time Bothwell did produce limited quanticing nations.

“Bothwell Cheese started as a cooperative in 1936, ties of butter, ice cream and sold fresh cream to the

26 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOTHEWELL CHEESE INC.

PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

The high-performance Multivac model R 155 form/shrink packer was installed last spring to provide high-quality retail packaging for Bothwell cheeses.

general public, but in an effort to be absolutely focused, efficient and ensure food safety—stop selling unpasteurized cream—the company felt it was necessary to discontinue production of these items and continue with what the company does best—produce high-quality, natural, premium cheese crafted with 100 percent pure Canadian milk.

The Bothwell facility is situated within a 17,000-square-foot plant, with 75 full and parttime employees working with 37-million liters of milk annually to produce 3.7 million kilograms of cheese, including traditional, f lavored and convenience cheese products.

“We produce over 25 varieties of cheese, such as Black Truff le, Edam, Gouda, Madagascar Green Peppercorn, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Red Hot Chili Pepper Jack, and Cheddar,” notes Bothwell director of sales and marketing Mike Raftis, “as well as small batches of other specialty cheeses, like our Red Wine Extra Old Cheddar, that we handmix and hand-press into hoops (stainless steel block forms).

“In fact, at the 88th annual British Empire Cheese Show in Belleville, Ont. this past November, our Marbled Cheddar and Monterey Jack each took home the top spot in their respective categories, while our medium-colored cheddar grabbed second-place,” says Raftis.

“Bothwell’s Marbled Cheese has now won nine times over the past 10 years,” relates Raftis, mentioning that the company believes its cheeses obtain a distinct f lavor thanks to the use of fresh, local Manitoba milk.

The company is quite proud that it only crafts its cheeses using 100 percent pure milk sourced from local dairy farms within 50-kilometers of its factory.

“As well, 98 percent of all ingredients, including some packaging materials, are sourced locally,” states Hiebert, “but with some of our f lavored cheeses require ingredients that must be imported, such as the black summer truff les and Madagascar green peppercorns.”

Bothwell produces 25 varieties of traditional and f lavored cheese in blocks, curds and shredded formats, packing them according to weight in 385-gram, 540-gram, 600-gram, 2.5-kilogram, five-kilogram, 19-kilogram forms, as well as its most popular consumer packaging size of 170-grams.

Producing only its own brands of cheese, the tasty products are distributed across all Canadian provinces and territories and are available in most major retailers and independent grocers, and, says Hiebert, are also used in a wide range of foodservice establishments.

“We are always looking for the highest-quality milk from our farmers, and perform multiple tests to ensure each batch meets our standards.”

Positioned just before the Multivac R 155 form/shrink packer, the high-accuracy Corprodev model Mach-I Ultra Sonic cheese cutter provides precise package portions.

Bothwell runs a 24-hour-five-day-a-week schedule that includes start-up, production/packaging, and sanitation responsibilities.

“Our production doesn’t f luctuate very much, as we are required to use up our weekly allocated milk,” says Hiebert, but notes that the months just before Christmas and Easter are the busiest production times for the cheesemaker.

Bothwell processes some six to seven vats of milk into cheese daily, with each vat holding approximately 24,000 liters of pasteurized milk.

After the cheese is made, it is sent to the Cheese Towers where it is formed into 19-kilogram blocks, packaged and stored until it reaches a proper age and when the f lavor profile is met. At that time, the cheese is cut into smaller sizes for retail, or sold off in skid lots to specific foodservice customers.

According to Hibert, Bothwell has been in a constant state of expansion since 2006, starting with its production line, adding three OST Cheese vats, finish tables and block-forming cheese towers which helped more than double its annual capacity from 17- to 37-million liters of milk.

“Our next expenditure was the construction of an 8,000-square-foot aging cooler and loading dock,” Hibert explains. “Until that time, we had been renting storage offsite and making daily trips to that facility to deliver and return cheese to the plant.”

Hiebert says that more recently, Bothwell began focusing on its packaging lines in an effort to increase speeds and capacity to not only keep up, but get ahead of the demands of their customers.

“With every expansion plan, we have found the installations to be challenging at first, but once we learned the new equipment, we have been able to increase capacity and throughput with minimal addition of staff,” notes Hiebert.

The company as a whole believes one of its core strengths is its ability to quickly react to the everchanging markets, and bring forth new and in-

novative ideas to the table to satisfy the customer’s tastebuds.

But, Hiebert points out that being quick to change and innovate does not come at a cost to quality and food safety.

“We have been HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points)-certified since 1997—one of the first dairy plants in Western Canada to do so,” extols Hiebert, adding that the company recently received the highest SQF (Safe Quality Food) Level 3 recognition.

He says that Bothwell does not utilize any modified ingredients, saying that many others do. “This filler is used to lower costs—less milk—and increase yields. As well, including any such ingredient could mean loss of quality control.

“It’s why our cheese products are premiumpriced,” notes Raftis, “and why it is challenging to compete against some of the major players in the industry.”

While the price-point can be an issue with the casual consumer, not using modified ingredients and supporting local farmers has helped keep Bothwell at the forefront with customers and consumers.

“With a movement towards more transparency regarding the food we eat, Bothwell’s products fit the bill with those looking for local and natural quality products,” mentions Raftis. “We can also react and adapt quicker than the larger companies, allowing us to launch products quicker and provide a better level of customer service.”

One of the company’s creations, SqueaK’rs, are what Raftis calls “cheese in its most natural form.

“These are curds before they are pressed into blocks,” he continues, “and are a perfect balance of milky f lavor, salt and chewy texture that, when served at room temperature, actually squeak when you chew them.”

Bothwell packaging manager Patrick Hildebrand feels that the recent capital investments in new

A Bothwell Cheese employee packs bricks of cheese into the model R 155 form/shrink packer, manufactured by Multivac, that has helped to double production line efficiencies at the cheesemaker’s production plant.

DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 27

PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

Clean, safe conveying

A Mettler Toledo Safeline metal detection system provides quality assurance for all the premium Bothwell cheeses.

Designed for maximum available production time and operating convenience, the new modular belt conveyor in stainless steel is robust, safe and easy to clean.

The standardized design and modularity make changes of the production line easy. It’s the smart, long-term investment in your bottom line and your operators!

equipment have also played a huge role in helping the company ramp up its production volume in a customer-safe and employee-safe manner.

Bothwell uses a new C700 vacuum pack chamber machine designed and manufactured by Multivac installed 18 months ago to seal all its bulk 19 kg cheese blocks.

More recently, a Multivac R 155 form/shrink packer was installed during the Spring of 2015 to seal all its retail packaging.

“We have been quite happy with the overall performance of the R 155 machine, as it as has allowed us to increase our retail efforts in production and efficiency to almost double on most varieties over the past six months since its installation,” relates Hildebrand.

He calls the R 155 the driving force behind other later separate equipment purchases—a Corprodev Mach-I Ultra Sonic cheese cutter, Shuttleworth conveyor, and a Mettler Toledo metal detection system, all of which were bought as a result of increased sales.

“With demand for our products on the rise, we knew there was no way our older equipment would be able to keep up with the increase in sales,” Hildebrand says.

“The older sealer, though efficient, was running at a rate of 14-24 units per minute, while our new R 155 moves along at 18-63 per minutes, depending on product size,” he continues, “as the 2.5kg is the slowest, and the 170g pack is the fastest.”

He says that the real compliment to the R 155 form/shrink packer is the Corprodev cutter that allows Bothwell to cut fixed weight pieces more accurately than its old wire cuter, allowing the cheesemaker to use more of the 19 kg blocks to be cut down into the smaller formats.

“We can now better control the speed and hand-

ling of the cheese pieces moving to the R 155 than previously,” offers Hildebrand.

Purchased at the same time as the Multivac R 155, a new Sealed Air shrink tunnel is used to shrink the film that runs through the R 155 to provide a deli-wrap look to the products.

“We upgraded to this waterfall shrink system because it allows our product to run through single file to more effectively feed our labeler down the line, while maintaining the high speeds coming out of the Multivac R 155,” explains Hildebrand, adding that Bothwell had been using Sealed Air film for many years and have built up a strong relationship with them.

“The fact that we use their film made perfect sense that their equipment would also work best with their film,” says Hildebrand. “And it does.”

Some of the other equipment utilized by Bothwell include: • a GLMI Belt model labeler from Bizerba that has a piston applicator for product/variety top label and a separate bottom application for the nutritional data label on the back of the products—and it runs at the same speeds as the Corprodev cutter and Multivac packer; • a Mettler Toledo Safeline metal detection unit that Hildebrand says is in the final stage of installation at the time of the magazine interview; • although currently in the process of designing new labels with an external Winnipeg-based marketing agency, its labels are supplied by Labels Unlimited; • and corrugated cartons supplied by West Rock, the recently merged RockTenn and MWV (MeadWestvaco) companies.

“Packaging plays a major role in marketing strategies,” explains Raftis. “In order to adapt to changing consumer and customer needs, we need to have the f lexibility to adapt.

flexlink.com

A Sealed Air heat shrink tunnel ensures a tight seal of the plastic film around the cheese, for a deli wrap appearance.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 117

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28 2015-09-03 09:07:04

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS

Freshly sealed bricks of high-quality cheese move along a conveyor line towards a model GLMI belt labeling system, manufactured by Bizerba, at the 17,000-square-foot Bothwell Cheese production facility in Bothwell, Man.

“As we grow, new opportunities surface and the dialogue between Bothwell sales, marketing and packaging departments is ongoing,” he says. “We are continually evaluating our packaging needs and whether we are in a position to make necessary changes, but we realize that in order to remain competitive and grow as a business, packaging and product innovation is crucial to achieving our goals.”

Raftis says that Bothwell recently introduced a cube-shaped four-piece gift box with a handle and a gift tag, noting that customer reception has been extremely positive.

“The size of this new box is the perfect footprint for the retail shelf.

It allows us to maximize our number of facings and its unique shape is eye catching,” says Raftis.

Continuing, he says that from a packaging standpoint, it is a significant improvement in terms of assembly over past gift box designs noting how it all came about thanks to collaboration between marketing and operations, ensuring marketing has an understanding of how design impacts other areas of the business.

“Each of the partners we work with for ingredients and packaging supplies and equipment is merely a part of the whole,” sums up Hildebrand. “Each brings with them a wealth of experience and understanding.

“We believe our cheese is one of the leaders,” he says, “and in turn we choose to partner with industry leaders when it comes to equipment and packaging as well.”

For More Information: Multivac Canada Inc. Corprodev Plus Shuttleworth, LLC, a div. of Pro Mach Sealed Air Corporation Mettler Toledo Inc. Bizerba Canada Inc. Labels Unlimited Inc. West Rock Company

DECEMBER 2015

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29

A close-up of the Bizerba GLMI belt labeler applying a branding label to a brick of premium Bothwell Cheddar cheese.

“We’ve been with Komori since the beginning” — Cathie Ellis President, Ellis Packaging

Since the founding of the company by Bill Ellis, Ellis Packaging has counted on Komori Lithrone presses to help it make an indelible imprint on Canada’s consumer packaged goods landscape.

Competing against the giants, Ellis Packaging with its three plants has shown that with ingenuity, creativity and the right equipment, they can compete with anyone.

“Komori has been a valuable partner for Ellis Packaging right from the start when we purchased our first Lithrone in 1983,” declares Cathie Ellis, President of Ellis Packaging. “They helped us make our mark with our first customers, many of whom are still with us and who count on Ellis to help them win sales on retail shelves. We use Komori’s latest technology in our Pickering, Mississauga and Guelph plants that enables us to bring market leading solutions to our valued customers.”

Choose the gold standard in package printing that will deliver market leading quality through the generations… just like Ellis Packaging has.

Visit Komori at Hall 15 May 31st to June 10th

Follow us on Twitter & Facebook!

KOMCAN Inc. 55 Sinclair Ave., Unit 9 Georgetown, ON L7G 4X4 Tel. (905) 873-7070 www.komcan.com

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PALLETIZING

THRIVING ON THE SKID ROW Global pallet manufacturer uses heavy-payload robots to do all the heavy lifting

The 265,000-square-foot RM2 facility in Woodbridge utilizes robotic systems on its various production lines to assemble the innovative fiberglass and plastic BLOCKPal pallets.

ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR PHOTOS BY JOHN PACKMAN

F

orgotten about, thrown around, broken—not to worry, it can be easily replaced... such is the life-cycle of the humble pallet.

While some people don’t even think about what goes into manufacturing a load-bearing pallet, some companies have not only invested a lot of time and effort into research and development of pallets, but have put their money where their mouth is and created a new type of product that it hopes will change the way the transportation industry looks at the ‘useless’ but absolutely one of the most important components in packaging safety there is.

“You’ll never go to a company and find their pallet manager, because one simply doesn’t exist, even though pallet usage is built into product costs,” RM2 International chief executive officer John Walsh told Canadian Packaging magazine during a recent visit to the company’s RM2 Canada Inc. headquarters in Woodbridge, Ont. “Pallets are essential to everyone, but core to almost no one.”

Formed in 2007, RM2 is a global, verticallyintegrated innovator in pallet design, manufacture, supply and logistics management.

Walsh says that since its inception, RM2 has poured some US $60-million into research and development on pallet manufacturing technologies, as well as design, pallet pool supply chain economics and more, and now has a product the company is sure will deliver.

Globally-headquartered in Luxembourg, the Canadian aspect of RM2 is a major manufacturer and supplier of BLOCKPal, a pallet constructed of pultruded composite material consisting of fiberglass and plastic polyurethane elements that provides it with a strength-to-weight ratio that is greater than structural steel and able to handle materials that require edge racking up to 3,500-pounds and capable of delivering performance characteristics that Walsh says a customer can not get with wood, plastic or any other pallet type.

“Our company name actually refers to our

30 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

second, and ultimately successful attempt at stabilizing the ingredients to create a more durable and sustainable pallet.”

Started up in 2007 in Mississauga with about 100 people within a 65,000-square-foot facility, RM2 Canada moved to its current digs north of Toronto in 2014—a 265,000-square-foot plant housing some 400 employees running two, 12-hour shifts, six-days-a-week.

The company manufactures the pallets, and depending on customer needs will sell or rent the pallets out on a monthly or per trip basis.

So why does anyone need such a super pallet— and a more expensive one at that—when a standard wood or plastic one might do the trick?

According to RM2 Canada vice-president of business development Niall Carson, “John identified an opportunity for a better mousetrap—a pallet that can make more trips for a customer, which will quickly and easily save money for any industry.”

Walsh says that the BLOCKPal has multiple factors going for it, including the aforementioned durability, cost-effectiveness and high strength, but “it is also fire resistant, resilient to extreme temperatures or weather—at least 80°C (176°F) to -40°C (-40°F) with no material effect on performance, provides superior handling for forklift operators, reduces theft risk of the pallet itself, and sustainable.”

A combination of BLOCKPal’s low weight, long life-cycle and reusable pallet material can assist owners in achieving sustainability goals.

“We’ve also done some tests on bacterial growth,” notes Walsh, “and because BLOCKPal doesn’t absorb water, it doesn’t promote microbe growth.

So it’s anti-fungal and mold-proof.”

Walsh explains the BLOCKPal’s financial benefits: “Most wooden pallets are designed for anywhere between one to five trips before it simply breaks from use and abuse.

“We’ve tested the BLOCKPal and found it can handle over 100 simulated trips before it required a minor repair to replace a small part,” says Walsh. “It then handled an additional 60 trips, made another repair, and then a further 40 trips.”

RM2 International’s chief executive officer John Walsh.

Vice-president of business development Niall Carson.

The RM2 BLOCKPal pallet is strong enough to be used more than 100 times over its life-cycle.

Carson notes that although BLOCKPal comes in the standard 48x40-inch size, RM2 also offers 48x48-inch; 45x45-inch, the European standard of 1,200mm x 1,000mm, and several bespoke pallets.

“As an added bonus, because the structural integrity of our pallets is stronger, we didn’t have to make the pallet components as thick,” states Carson.

“As a result,” he continues, “our pallets are actually shorter overall than the standard pallet meaning a customer can actually place more product onto the pallet loaded in a standard 110-inch-high 53-foot trailer.

“More product over the long haul can mean a lower carbon emission impact, plus the fact that a BLOCKPal pallet weighs less than other pallets, from cradle-to-grave it can significantly affect the overall transportation costs.”

While Walsh was adamant that company growth would continue throughout North America and Europe, he was already looking forward to the company’s push into the emerging global economies of China and India, hoping to supply each inter-country.

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

PALLETIZING

A plant employee manually applies a high-strength adhesive to the RM2 BLOCKPal pallet during assembly at the Canadian production facility.

A Graco HFR (Hydraulic Fixed Metering) system facilitates highly precise adhesive application control during pallet assembly.

“The world moves on a pallet—though China and India don’t—so there is a huge opportunity for growth for us,” offers Walsh.

“We’re not looking to hit those countries for their multitudes of exports that will be shipped out, but rather,” explains Walsh, “we would like to be involved in their inter-country business. They are growing middle-class countries with huge population bases—goods will need to be shipped.”

For Walsh, he says perception is everything in the world of pallets. “We know we have a great product, and we know no one realizes they want it.

“For us to be a successful company, we have to mandate a change from what the world thinks to what the world should be using—our products,” notes Walsh.

He says that were China and India to fully embrace wood pallets, each could potentially destroy the global forests in an effort to keep up. Walsh says that along with saving the global forests, RM2 can also better appeal to their wallet, providing longterm cost-savings.

“When it comes to our customers, we don’t simply ask ‘how many pallets do you need?’, we look at the customer’s full operation, treating them as a partner, exchanging data and provide them with the proper number of pallets to better optimize their systems,” explains Walsh.

“We give them what they need, when they need it to avoid overstock cluttering up their facilities.”

Despite the shiny black slats on each BLOCKPal pallet, there’s nothing slick about it, as Carson demonstrated to Canadian Packaging, that looks can be deceiving.

“Thanks to the pallet’s make-up, it looks slippery, but it isn’t. Product or packages placed directly on the pallet will not slide,” says Carson. “It ensures a very stable base for ensuing levels placed up on it.

Plus, after being wrapped in stretch film—as long as

An ABB assembly robot constructs the framework of the RM2 BLOCKPal pallets at the state-of-the-art 265,000-square-foot facility.

it was done properly—the customer will have a very secure pallet load.”

The Woodbridge facility is the North American center for the manufacture and assembly of RM2’s pallets, and with the recent move into the plant, the company has seen fit to provide more high-tech equipment to help ramp up the production and the production line efficiency.

The RM2 fabrication department utilizes both ABB and Kuka robots, according to Carson. “The ABB robotic systems are used for precise waterjet cutting and milling and assembly, while the Kuka robots are used for the sub-assembly of pallet legs.

ABB is a supplier of industrial robots, modular manufacturing systems with some 250,000 robot installations worldwide. Globally-headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, there are 50 officers throughout Canada, with its head office located in Montreal.

According to ABB, there are three main robot variations at the RM2 plant: IRB 140; IRB 4600; and IRB 6640, the latter with load-bearing variants. The robots are all IP67protected in its function, which means it can be used for a wide range of jobs.

The IRB 140 is a small but powerful six-axis robot capable of handling a payload of six kilograms, with a reach of 810-millimeters.

ABB calls the IRB 4600 a pioneer of the sharp robot generation with enhanced features and new capabilities, including up to 25 percent shorter cycle times than its predecessor models while providing what it calls the sharpest path accuracy and motion control on the market—which means the operator will achieve high and consistent production quality.

Capable of handling loads up to 40-kilograms and possessing a reach of 2.55-meters, it enables more compact manufacturing cells, and RM2 utilizes that to perfection with the robots placed quite close to each other on the various production lines, helping increase production output while maintaining the high quality end product as expected by the pallet producer.

The IRB 4600 has quite a small footprint, which helps reduce the amount of floorspace required— which any manufacturer can appreciate,” relates Carson.

The IRB 6640 robots used by RM2 is part of ABB’s power ‘bots, capable of lifting 130-kilograms and 185-kilograms with two variants—with arm lengths of 3.2 and 2.8-meters, respectively—but still able to apply high production capacity. ABB

An ABB handheld operator automation assembly control dashboard provides for easy remote robotic control.

says it has an even stronger version, capable of hoisting 235-kilograms.

These IRB 6640 robots utilize second-generation TrueMove and QuickMove software that helps provide a more accurate motion in shorter programming times for an improved overall process. ABB notes that these software programs help monitor internal robot loads thereby reducing the possibility of overloads thereby increasing the robot’s overall lifecycle.

“We really like the ABB robots,” says Carson.

“They fit into our motif of strength.

“Our BLOCKPal is an extremely strong pallet, so it only makes sense that we have robust equipment to manufacture it.

“The fact that all of our ABB robots are quite robust means we are able to maintain production to satisfy our continued expansion into the industry,” states Carson.

For those who might try and point to the makeup of the BLOCKPal and suggest it will one day outlive its usefulness in a landfill, Carson says that’s simply not the case.

“All good things will eventually reach the end of the road, and so too will BlockPal,” sums up Carson.

“But even after providing the customer with more uses than other pallets on the market, when one of our pallets needs to be replaced in the system at the end-of-life cycle, RM2 grinds it up and will sell it as filler to asphalt companies.

“We believe RM2 has created a responsible pallet, and overall, many industries can reduce their pallet spending significantly by using our pallets.”

For More Information: RM2 Canada ABB Robotics Kuka Robotics Graco Inc.

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DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 31

FOOD SAFETY

THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE

Advanced X-Ray technology gives East Coast potato grower a sound peace of mind

F

ounded in 1982, Mid-Isle Farms takes a lot of pride in growing, packing and shipping the highest-quality potatoes found anywhere on Prince Edward Island.

Owned by several local farm families, the company supplies vast quantities of yellow, red, round, and russet potato varieties to customers in the grocery retail, foodservice and restaurant business— working closely with its clients and suppliers to achieve common goals of supplying Canadian consumers fresh, great-tasting food.

So it came as a massive shock to both the company and the province’s famed potato industry at large when sewing needles were discovered inside potatoes by workers at a processing plant in New Annan, P.E.I., in October of 2014, followed by reports of consumers finding additional needles in bags purchased throughout the Atlantic provinces.

This unfortunate series of events triggered a massive recall of over 800,000 pounds of potatoes originating on the island.

In response to this brazen case of crop sabotage, Mid-Isle Farms set out to find proper technology to combat this problem going forward, so that it could continue to guarantee the safety of its products to the consumers.

During the course of its extensive search for the solution, Mid-Isle Farms personnel heard representatives from PLAN Automation, Orangeville, Ont.-based distributor of product inspection systems manufactured by the Tampa, Fla.-based an Eagle Product Inspection, speak at a Food Safety Symposium conference—addressing the larger issue of food terrorism and displaying advanced technological solutions to identifying and rejecting contaminated potatoes.

From Left: Mid-Isle Farms sales and operations manager Josh Gill, food trust manager Ivan Noonan, and sales and marketing director Jennifer Harris all played a role is selecting and purchasing the Eagle Pack 1000 PRO system.

EXPERT INPUT “The company’s expertise and depth of knowledge of the food industry gave us the confidence to know that we can provide a safe product to our consumer,” recalls Mid-Isle Farms chief executive officer Rick Burt.

“We especially value PLAN Automation’s unbeatable local service and parts support,” says Burt, recalling his company’s decision to invest in Eagle’s X-Ray inspection technology—namely the Eagle Pack 1000 Pro X-Ray system.

Since installing the system, Mid-Isle Farms’ potatoes are f lumed from on-site storage to the production line, with every single potato now passing through their new Eagle Pack 1000 PRO X-Ray machine.

As Burt explains, the company chose to inspect the potatoes in bulk before they are packaged because the product varies widely in size and shape.

Consequently, inspecting a single layer of bulk provides the best inspection capabilities because it allows for the so-called “hollow heart detection” capabilities.

Designed for X-Ray inspection of large boxes and/ or bags of multiple products or bulk inspection at high throughput levels, the Eagle Pack 1000 PRO provides superior detection and automatic rejection of a wide range of physical contaminants, including glass, stone, metal, golf balls, plastic, rubber and bone. Moreover,

32 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

All the potatoes bagged inside 10-pound paper sacks have been cleared by the new X-Ray inspection system.

the system can also easily detect foreign bodies that have been intentionally inserted into the product for nefarious purposes, such as needles, glass, etc.

The high-performance X-Ray system provides 1,000 mm (39.3 inches) of detection coverage at the belt, according to Eagle, and is capable of high-speed imaging of up to 76 meters (250 feet) per minute.

BULKING UP For bulk potatoes, the Eagle Pack 1000 Pro system is capable of handling a hefty 80,000 pounds of product per hour.

With multiple inspection capabilities, it can help manufacturers of many different product to maximize overall line efficiency by simultaneously performing the critical inline product integrity checks such as mass measurement, contaminant detection and hollow heart detection.

Says Burt: “We tested our potatoes in PLAN

The Mid-Isle Farms plant inspects its Russet and other varieties of potatoes in bulk before they are packaged.

Automation’s demonstration room, and we were simply astounded at the Pack 1000 PRO system’s capabilities.

“We were able to easily see needles and nails being automatically detected and pinpointed right on the screen,” he extols.

Says Burt: “One of the reasons we chose to go with Eagle is because their X-Ray systems provide superior detection capabilities and consistent, reliable detection results.”

To ensure Mid-Isle Farms possessed the most technologically advanced system available, the company opted to enhance its machine with Eagle’s leading-edge, dual-energy MDX (Material Discrimination X-Ray) technology that readily identifies contaminants that have traditionally been almost impossible to detect.

The system’s operator-friendly Easy MATTM software allows for faster installation and simplified

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

FOOD SAFETY

Designed for high-speed bulk product inspection, the Eagle Pack 1000 PRO system is capable of detecting punctured potatoes (inset), as well as those with voids and ‘hollow hearts’ inside, thanks to its proprietary MDX technology.

Distributed in Canada by PLAN Automation, the Eagle Pack series X-Ray inspection systems are available with a wide range of optional features to suit any production environment.

set-up by auto-learning the material composition play a key role in protecting both our product brand For More Information: of the product, so that contaminants with different and the well-being and safety of our loyal Canadian PLAN Automation 490 compositions to that of the product are more easily consumers.”

Eagle Product Inspection 491 15_1051 Shelf w_Brute_DEC Mod: September 18, 2015 2:01 PM Print: 09/30/15 11:11:15 AM page 1 v7 identified than ever before.

For its part, the system’s enhanced HMI (human machine interface) has an intuitive pre-programmed operational interface that effectively removes the need for third-party set-up and maintenance.

π

ON THE HOUR Because the Mid-Isle Farms plant is capable of processing 80,000 pounds of varied-size potatoes every hour, it needed an advanced system to handle rejected product in order to minimize waste and costly rework.

To that end, the company opted for an innovative four paddle reject system that allows the potatoes to travel on a conveyor through the X-Ray beam and—based on the contamination detection result and location—one to four paddles will lower to guide them to the appropriate next stage of production.

Contaminated potatoes will then automatically drop into a reject bin, while good potatoes make their way back into the stream of good product f low.

“By enabling food contaminants to be removed before reaching the customer or supermarket shelves,” Burt sums up, “the unique MDX technology is helping MidIsle Farms to avoid product recalls, as well as

OVER 2,000 JANITORIAL PRODUCTS IN STOCK ORDER BY 6 PM FOR SAME DAY SHIPPING

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1-800-295-5510 uline.ca

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DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 33

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

Up to 0.7” Print Height”

Squid Ink’s new family of CoPilot Printing Systems offers 3 different print heights for your different applications.

Up to 1.4” Print Height”

Squid Ink’s CoPilot 128 is a proven choice for printing small character codes or barcodes on egg cartons, PVC pipe, corrugate cases or more. The CoPilot 382 is ideal for replacing costly print and apply labels or printing GS1 barcodes on the side of a box. The CoPilot 256 fits right in between, making Squid Ink’s CoPilot family the ideal solution for your specific coding and marking applications.

For more information visit www.squidink.com or call 1-800-877-5658 for your local Authorized Squid Ink Distributor today.

www.squidink.com info@squidink.com 1-800-877-5658 FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 120

Up to 2.1” Print Height

PEOPLE  Reston, Va.-headquartered PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, has selected the members of its 2016 executive committee, including chairman Paul Irvine, chief executive officer of the Toronto-based Plexpack Corp.; vice-chairman Mark Anderson, president and chief executive officer of Pro Mach, Inc.; and past chairman Bill Crist, chief executive officer of Kliklok-Woodman. The new executive committee will work on PMMI activities alongside the industry group’s board of directors, which has also added four new members to serve threeyear terms, including Ed Howe, president of Enfield Technologies; David Navin, president of Spee-Dee Packaging Machinery, Inc.; Pat Vincent, president and chief operating officer of Arrowhead Systems, Inc.; and Nancy Wilson, chief executive officer of Morrison Container Handling Solutions.

Burnside

Jenkins

Schenher

 Dayton, Ohio-headquartered industrial robotics manufacturer Yaskawa Motoman, a wholly-owned subsidiary of industrial automation controls group Yaskawa America, Inc., has appointed Scott Jenkins as vice-president of North American sales and marketing; Doug Burnside as vice-president of customer satisfaction; and Doug Schenher as corporate vice-president of Yaskawa America, Inc.  Brother Gearmotors, Bridgewater, N.J.-based supplier of subfractional AC gearmotors and reducers for a broad range of food-and-beverage, packaging and materialhandling industry applications, has appointed five Thomas new U.S. regional sales managers, including: Bill Miicke as regional sales manager for northeastern U.S.; Larry Thomas as regional sales manager for midwestern U.S.; Miicke Brad Brania as regional sales manager for Illinois; Bill Fulton for territory comprising Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota; and Cory Love for Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Nast

 Luxembourg-headquartered printing and packaging inks, dyes, coatings and other consumables manufacturer Flint Group

EVENTS has appointed Martina Nast as key account manager for f lexographic products, to be based in Stuttgart, Germany.  Multivac, Inc., Kansas City, Mo.-based supplier of thermopack and vacuum packaging systems for food and pharmaceutical industry applications, has appointed Ryan Spencer Spencer as product specialist for compact equipment. packaging  Food machinery supplier Rovema North America of Norcross, Ga., has appointed Paul Wilson as vice-president of sales Wilson and marketing.  Bilcare Research Inc., Delaware City, Dr.-based manufacturer of blister packaging products and solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, has appointed Anna Frolova-Levi Frolova-Levi as vice-president of sales and marketing.  Platinum Press, Inc., manufacturer of labels, folding cartons, blister packaging and other packaging products for the pharmaceutical, medical device and animal care sectors, has appointed Ruben Luviano Luviano as production manager at the company’s new packaging facility in Oakland, N.J.

2016

March 6-8

Jan. 26-28 Atlanta, Ga.: International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) 2016, multishow exhibition comprising: International Poultry Expo, by the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association; International Meat Expo, by the North American Meat Institute; and International Feed Expo, by the American Feed Industry Association. All at the Georgia World Congress Center.

Contact U.S. Poultry & Egg Association at (770) 493-9401; or go to: www.ippexpo.org

Jan. 26-29 Moscow, Russia: Upakovka/Upak Italia 2016, international trade fair for processing, packaging and printing technologies by OOO Messe Düsseldorf Moscow. Concurrently with interplastica 2016 international trade fair for plastics and rubber.

Both at Centerexpo. In Canada, contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524.

Feb. 8-10 Henderson (Las Vegas), Nev.: The Packaging Conference 2016, by Plastic Technologies, Inc. (PTI) At The Green Valley Ranch. Contact Ron Puvak of PTI at (419) 7250-5613; or go to: www.thepackagingconference.com

Feb. 25 Brampton, Ont.: Canadian Food Safety Forum 2016, by NSF-GFTC. At Pearson Convention Centre. Contact NSF-GFTC at (519) 821-1246; or go to: www.nsf.org

Boston, Ma.: Seafood Expo 2016, seafood industry exhibition and conference by Diversified Communications.

At Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. Contact Diversified Communications at (207) 842-5500; or go to: www.seafoodexpo.com

April 13-15 Montreal: SIAL Canada 2016, North America’s food innovation show by Comexposium Group. Concurrently with the SET 2016 food industry equipment and services exhibition.

Both at Palais des congrès Montreal. To register, go to: www.sialcanada.com

May 17-20 Mexico City: EXPO PACK México 2016, packaging technologies and materials exhibition by PMMIThe Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. At Centro Banamex. To register, go to: www.packexpo.com

May 31 - June 10 Düsseldorf, Germany: drupa 2016, global trade fair for print and crossmedia technologies and solutions by Messe Düsseldorf GmbH. At Messe Düsseldorf Fairgrounds. Contact Messe Düsseldorf (Canada) at (416) 598-1524.

June 21-24 Munich, Germany: Automatica 2016, international robotics and automation technologies exhibition by Messe München GmbH. At the Messe München Trade Fair Center. To register, go to: www.automatica-muenchen.com

ROBOTIC END EFFECTORS

Robotic Tool Changers increase flexibility and productivity.

Superior Fail-Safe—springless design maintains lock position in event of air pressure loss

Specially Tapered Cam—second taper produces high locking strength Locking Balls—Low-friction locking balls extend the life of the unit Lock Ring—Wide footprint of lock ring creates high moment capacity in locking mechanism

• Increase the flexibility of your robots by adding the ability to use more than one end-effector in an application.

• Production line tooling changed in seconds for maximum flexibility.

• Change tools in seconds for maintenance and repair.

• Increase operator safety by changing tools automatically.

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• Million-cycle tested for reliability.

• Food-handling models available.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 121

DECEMBER 2015 • CANADIAN PACKAGING WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 35

PLASTIC KEGS TO AID BARKEEP SUSTAINABILITY

In the bar business, the keg is always at the heart of all the main action, which is why the growing trend towards the use of recyclable one-use kegs—especially for the imported beer brands—has far-reaching applications for the hospitality industry. The general premise behind the idea is that the carbon footprint of a keg is reduced because it does not have to travel back across the ocean to the brewer empty, with the said brewer benefitting by not having to operate a complex supply chain for getting its empties back. My first experience with a keg of this kind came courtesy of a recent shipment from McGargles’ Brewery in Ireland, whose terrific Granny Mary’s Red Ale arrived in a rather snazzy 30-liter keg manufactured by PolyKeg. Made mostly of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic, this keg is perfectly suited for going into the standard Blue Box bin recycling depository after use.

For the licensee, not having to pay a deposit on a keg is a very attractive feature that also spares us the extra accounting headaches of having to track the inflow and outflow of all the deposits. Moreover, with space always being at a premium, storing empty kegs until hauling them off the premises in bulk is a highly unproductive use of our available space.

Other important factors for one-use kegs is product consistency, shelf-life and safety, with depressurization after the keg’s use especially top of the mind.

After pumping the speciality beer gas mixture inside the kegs to force the beer out to the draft lines, the empty beer kegs can hold as much a 50-psi of pressure inside, which can result in hazardous puncturing in case of mishandling and potential injury to the handler. To this end, big kudos to Heineken USA for rolling out new-generation PET beer kegs that are

specially designed to facilitate reliable carbonation and near-perfect evacuation, whereby the Heineken Brew lock system automatically depressurizes when the coupler is detached. Essentially a bag-in-keg system, it helps the beer maintain good shelf-life of up to six months, while ensuring decent product consistency. By creating pressure between the outer wall of the PET keg and the bag of beer inside, the clever design ensures that no outside air is mixed with the beer—compared to pumping air directly into the keg itself and mixing it with the product.

Produced by Southern Cliff Brands of Caledon, Ont., the Pommies Dry Cider brand of craft cider is retailed in four-packs of clear 355-ml glass bottles that allow for full unobstructed viewing of the contents, with the minimalist labeling used only to display the brand logo and provide the basic required product information. With the bottle lines more reminiscent of fine wine bottles rather than beer, the four bottles are handsomely packed in fully-recyclable cardboard carrying cases with built-in handles—manufactured

by MeadWestvaco Packaging Systems—whose red, yellow and green colors aptly compliment the yellowish hue of the cider, the green bottle labels, and the distinct red caps. The intricately die-cut carton also scored additional style points for the triangular cutouts for the individual bottle compartments, which creates a sense of gentle movement that you just can’t achieve with straight lines—adding extra shelf appeal.

Returning empty beer bottles to The Beer Store has been an increasingly tricky business for Ontario bar operators ever since the industry was allowed

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX R.S. # ADVERTISER

Page

112 ABB

16

116 ATI Automation

35

103 Atlantic Packaging 101 Biederman Packaging 108 Delkor Systems

R.S. # ADVERTISER 106 Messe Dusseldorf

122 Mettler Toledo

Page 7

IBC

2 104 Packaging Technologies

5

105 Reiser

6

IFC 9

109 Domino

11

111 Schneider-Electric

15

114 Eagle Systems

21

116 SIAL

25

117 FlexLink

28

120 Squid Ink

34

107 Fortress Technology

17 119 U-Line

33

115 Harlund Industries

8

118 KOMCAN Inc

29

Speaking of welldesigned boxes, the Spalding Basketball box deserves as special mention both as a good product container and as a highly effective display case, with colorful graphics readily displaying the manufacturer’s logo, product specifications and any other information useful to the consumer, while letting the product’s colors and texture seal the deal at the point of purchase. Nothing but net!

Jeff May is owner and proprietor of Scallywags, a popular midtown Toronto sports pub specializing in live coverage of major international sporting events. For information and broadcast schedule, go to: www.scallywags.ca

FREE

DECEMBER 2015 PRODUCT INFORMATION CIRCLE THE R.S. NO. THAT MATCHES THE NUMBER ON THE ADVERTISEMENT OR ARTICLE OF INTEREST. FAX THIS BACK TO US AT (416) 510-5140 Name Title Company Name Address City

24

121 Heat Sealing

to move away from the standardized brown beer bottles.

With all the different types of canned and bottled products suddenly available in plentiful abundance, variations in package size and dimensions can lead to all sorts of collection and storage dilemmas. Putting small bottles in big boxers creates very unsteady piles of empties, and it’s just as bad when trying to jam big bottles inside undersized cases.

So to give credits where it’s due, thumbs-up to The Beer Store for supplying us with the great new Knock down Box cases that are formed by folding them inside themselves with no tape or glue.

Delivered in flat packs of 20 blanks, these boxes are capable of holding 24 of our biggest-selling products in a nice snug arrangement, with excellent stackability properties—saving us a lot of space, grief and breakage.

123 Veritiv

OBC

Prov. P/Code Telephone Fax

36 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM

102 Videojet

1

Email Address

CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2015

Photos by Jeff May

CHECKOUT JEFF MAY

The X37 Series of X-ray Systems for Tall, Rigid Containers

The Big Difference is in Every Detail The X37 Series offers the most technically advanced x-ray inspection system for tall, rigid containers on the market.

To learn more, visit or call www.mt.com/xray-x37 1-800-METTLER

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