home-grown burger king at the forefront of premium meat

Transcription

December 2013 | $10
www.canadianpackaging.com
Tony Tavares,
Chief Operating Officer
Meat Market
Masterworks
Brent Cator,
Chief Executive Officer,
Cardinal Meat
Specialists Ltd.
Publication mail agreement #40069240.
Home-grown burger king at
the forefront of premium
meat products revolution
In this issue: Automate Now • PACKAGING FOR Freshness • Product ID Now
Story on page 12
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UPFRONT
NO HAPPY ENDINGS THERE
DECEMBER 2013
VOLUME 66, NO. 12
SENIOR PUBLISHER
Stephen Dean • (416) 510-5198
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A
s another year winds
down and fades into
history, Ontario business leaders and consumers may
be forgiven for the undeniable
lack of Christmas cheer and merriment traditionally associated with this time of the year. And the
sad truth is that very few positive economic developments unfolded in the province over the last year, if
any, to fuel much optimism and excitement regarding
their future economic prospects in the near term.
Au contraire. The year could have hardly ended on
a more sour and downbeat note for residents of the
southwestern Ontario community of Leamington,
who learned only a few weeks ago that the town’s
Heinz Canada ketchup manufacturing facility—
its only manufacturing employer of any meaningful size and scale—will shut down for good by next
summer, throwing about 740 people out of work.
For a municipality with a population of just over
28,000, the closure will be a crippling economic
setback, if not an outright mortal blow.
From local retirees grading locally-grown tomatoes to supplement their pensions to nearby providers of raw ingredients and plant machinery and
supplies, everyone in the plant’s vicinity will be
hard-pressed to replace the loss of income and economic spinoffs that the Heinz plant has provided
since starting up its manufacturing operations
there back in 1909.
While one may question the general wisdom of
having a local economy being tied so closely to
the fortunes of a 104-year-old facility, no amount
of hindsight ref lection will alleviate the real-life
pain and economic devastation that may well turn
the once-proud ‘Ketchup capital of Canada’ into a
veritable ghost-town, under a worst-case scenario.
With no likely ‘White Knight’ anywhere on the
horizon, the giant manufacturing complex looks
fated to become a giant eye-sore and a grim reminder
of what can happen to even the most prominent
manufacturing heavyweights who fail to keep up
with the competitive demands unleashed by globalization and other epic structural shifts in the 21st
century’s vastly altered economic balance of power.
According to the letter handed out to Leamington
employees, Heinz said it reached its decision only
after conducting a two-month review of its operations to find ways to maximize the plant’s efficiencies, productivity and profitability—obviously
without success.
“This decision is not a ref lection of the commitment of our employees or the quality of the products you make,” the letter states.
“It is based primarily on excess capacity in our
North American manufacturing system.”
That may be so, but it’s cold comfort to the soonto-be-jobless Heinz employees who gave many of
the most productive years of their lives to help make
Heinz one of the world’s leading brand-owners.
Given the plant’s long history and vital importance
to the local economy, a two-month review hardly
seems like a full-hearted effort to find creative alternatives to a cold-hearted decision that in retrospect
seems to have been pre-ordained from the moment
that the Pittsburgh, Pa.-headquartered H.J. Heinz
Co. was bought out by venture capitalists Berkshire
Hathaway and the Brazilian investment firm 3G
Capital in a US$23-billion deal earlier this year.
No talks with the unions to alter the current
wage structure, no approach to the government for
any financial incentives or tax-breaks to stay: just
shut the doors and be done with it, ouch!
Unfortunately, that is simply the nature of companies whose only raison d’être is to squeeze every
last penny from their newly-acquired toys to boost
their asset portfolio, with no room for sentiment
and respect for history or tradition.
Hardly seems fair, but as Ontario residents have been
finding out the hard way for several years running,
fairness is one commodity for which “excess capacity”
is a cruel joke with a decidedly bitter aftertaste.
COVER STORY
DECEMBER 2013
| $10
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ckaging.com
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publishing activities. Canadian Packaging is indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia Limited. Back copies are available in microform
from Macromedia Ltd., 158 Pearl St., Toronto, ON M5H 1L3
MEAT MARKET
MASTERWORKS
Brent Cator,
Chief Executive
Officer,
Cardinal Meat
Specialists Ltd.
Home-grown burger
king at
the forefront of
premium
meat products revolutio
n
Story on page 12
IN THIS ISSUE: AUTOMATE
DEPARTMENTS & COLUMNS
3
4-6
7
8
10
11
31
31
32
11PAC-UPF-TAB.indd 3
Fast-growing Ontario meat processor leverages formidable manufacturing prowess and
technological know-how to make significant inroads in the fiercely-competitive markets
for premium-quality meat products in both retail and foodservice segments.
Cover photography by Cole Garside.
31
DECEMBER 2013 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
Officer
Meat Market Mastery By George Guidoni
agreement #40069240.
12
Publication mail
DISCLAIMER: This publication is for informational purposes only. The content
and “expert” advice presented are not intended as a substitute for informed
professional engineering advice. You should not act on information contained
in this publication without seeking specific advice from qualified engineering
professionals. Canadian Packaging accepts no responsibility or liability for
claims made for any product or service reported or advertised in this issue.
Canadian Packaging receives unsolicited materials, (including letters to the
editor, press releases, promotional items and images) from time to time. Canadian Packaging, its affiliates and assignees may use, reproduce, publish, republish, distribute, store and archive such unsolicited submissions in whole or
in part in any form or medium whatsoever, without compensation of any sort.
Tony Tavares,
Chief Operating
UPFRONT By George Guidoni
NEWSPACK
Packaging news round-up.
NOTES & QUOTES
Noteworthy industry briefs.
FIRST GLANCE
New packaging technologies.
imPACt
A monthly insight from PAC-The Packaging Association.
ECO-PACK NOW
All about environmental sustainability.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Company news and marketplace updates.
EVENTS
Upcoming industry functions.
PEOPLE
Packaging career moves.
CHECKOUT By Jeff May
Joe Public speaks out on packaging hits and misses.
NOW • PACKAGING
FOR FRESHNESS •
PRODUCT ID NOW
FEATURES
18
ORGANIC AFFINITIES By Andrew Joseph
Organic meat products specialist uses
advanced thermoforming technologies to
create a fresh new branding identity.
21
26
IN PURSUIT OF INVENTION
By Andrew Joseph
Venerable Canadian case-packing equipment manufacturer continuously reinvents
itself to maintain marketplace prominence.
SPACE ODDITIES By Andrew Joseph
West Coast cereal innovator living the
high life with unique product formulations and high-performance product
coding technologies.
29 STANDING OUT IN THE CROWD
A colorful recap of our Top 50 Packaging Ideas
trade show last month.
WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM • 3
13-12-06 9:52 AM
NEWSPACK
CLEVER PACKAGING HELPS MAKE FRESH CORN A HEALTHY YEAR-ROUND TREAT
our plates about four days after it is harvested, and
that corn on the cob is at its peak the first 24 hours
after being harvested,” says Stefano Bertolli, vicepresident of communications for the Rougement,
Que.-headquartered brand-owner and parent company Lassonde Industries Inc., the country’s largest producer of fruit and vegetable juices.
“With this new convenient packaging, families
will be able to add some variety to their menus
in both summer and winter,” Bertolli states.
“Sunbites is a North American premiere that we
believe will revolutionize the consumption of
corn, which is the country’s sixth most-commonly
eaten vegetable.
“It is a truly Canadian product that contains only
one single delicious ingredient—sweet, crunchy
corn—to provide a handy, convenient food for
lunch-boxes and mealtimes, or as a healthy snack,”
adds Bertolli.
According to Lassonde, the easy-to-prepare
Sunbites can be boiled in water with the vacuumsealed primary packaging intact; grilled on the
barbecue with packaging removed; or microwaved
in a minute with the film pierced.
Because the corn is picked, peeled, pre-cooked
and vacuum-sealed the very same day, there are
no preservatives used to maintain its one-year
shelf-life, full nutritional value, and the sweet and
crunchy taste profile, according to Lassonde.
Said to be two years in development prior to last
While enjoying a freshly-plucked corn on the
cob has been largely a summertime indulgence
for most Canadians, some clever vacuum-sealing
innovation from the Saint-Damase, Que.-based
Lassonde Specialties Inc. promises to put this
healthy and delicious meal accompaniment at their
fingertips on year-round basis.
Launched last month in the refrigerated produce
section at major Canadian grocery stores across the
country, the new Sunbites Corn on the Cob packs
contain two equal-sized pieces of Peaches and
Cream corn that are cooked and vacuum-sealed
the same day they are harvested to maintain their
original freshness for up to one year, according to
the company.
“This represents a significant innovation, given
that corn on the cob from places like Florida reaches
month’s launch, the Sunbites Corn on the Cob uses
food-safe, Health Canada-approved food wrap
that effectively resists the heat and vacuum pressure
applied during the proprietary packaging process.
According to Lassonde, each Sunbites pack delivers a healthy, gluten-free nutritional content of 230
calories, eight grams of fiber, 44 grams of carbohydrates, and zero sodium or transfats.
“And because it’s locally-grown, with great pride
by Canadian corn producers with the utmost
respect for the land, buying Sunbites means you’re
buying Canadian,” says Lassonde, which will market the product in Canada throughout the year,
except during the summer harvest months.
47
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FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE
11PAC-NWS-TAB.indd 4
104
FOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE
105
13-12-05 4:14 PM
NEWSPACK
NEW PACKAGING TO DRIVE PROFESSIONAL BRAND INTO THE RETAIL END ZONE
Keeping your car looking clean and healthy in chalchannels and relaunch the auto-care product line
lenging Canadian winter conditions is often easier
into different retail channels as a brand that truly
said than done, but a newly-repackaged line of
represents quality and performance,” Ferreira
automotive maintenance products from Brampton,
explains.
Ont.-based Empack Spraytech Inc. promises
“We greatly improved the look and design of
Canadian car-owners a welcome relief from many
packaging with added imagery, better product
repeat expensive visits to the auto repair shops in
information, and creating a carbon look with the
coming months.
artwork,” she adds.
Unveiled a few weeks ago, the updated emzone
“We also incorporated a new heatshrink sleeve, a
brand of automotive care products combines the
new and improved can style, and a larger product
best of modern aerosol technology with innovaassortment.”
tive product formulation to provide Canadians
with versatile, easy-to-use cleaning, degreasing and
lubricating solutions to help ensure optimal rust
and corrosion control right in the comforts of their
home garage.
Featuring high-quality aluminum aerosol containers manufactured by the Ottavia,
Ill.-based canmaker DS Containers,
“The packaging feature a new, innovative and exciting design that will really
appeal to the retail DIY (do-it-yourself ) audience,” says Empack’s director of sales and marketing Cameron
Brown.
“It is now consistent with our
‘appearance’ products and will help
us to differentiate and set apart the
emzone brand in the marketplace,”
says Brown, citing some of the
brand’s special attributes:
• An advanced formulation for the
emzone Brake & Parts Cleaner that
!
!
quickly dissolves and removes brake
!
"
dust, grease, dirt, oil, and other
!
residue;
#
"
• High-performance formulations for
$ %
#
emzone Penetrating Lubricant, Silicone
Lube, and the solvent-and siliconefree Tech Lube to ensure optimal
lubrication, while helping stop
squeaks and prevent rust build-up;
• Featuring a 360-degree valve to
allow for easy spraying from any
angle, the emzone Penetrating Foam
boasts a unique non-drip formula
for loosening tight and sticky parts
in hard-to-reach and inverted areas.
Developed mostly in-house, the
new packaging look was intended to
provide for better brand recognition
and to enhance its appeal on retail
shelves, according to Empack’s marketing coordinator Nicole Ferreira.
“The emzone maintenance packaging had a very industrial look and
feel before we upgraded it to appeal
more to consumers,” Ferreira told
Canadian Packaging, adding the
company is planning to introduce
the updated emzone into select U.S.
markets in the near future.
This would significantly expand
the geographic reach of the emzone
brand, which is currently carried by
Canadian Tire and other prominent retail chains across Canada, along
with many independent auto-part
stores nationwide.
“Our objective was to take our sucFOR MORE INFORMATION CIRCLE 106
cess with the professional and trade
&
DECEMBER 2013
Says Ferreira: “As an actual manufacturer with
our roots in the automotive industry, we created a
design that hopefully ref lects our years of experience in developing a premium-quality product
that also performs at the professional level.”
Founded in 1999, Empack Spraytech Inc. operates a full-service, 120,000-square-foot facility
in Brampton to manufacture a diverse range of
aerosol and related products for the automotive,
personal and household care, consumer electronics and various industrial markets in Canada and
abroad.
Last year, the ISO 9001:2008-certified company received the annual Advanced Manufacturing
Excellence Award from the City of Brampton for
its innovative work in the automotive and chemical sectors.
'
5
13-12-05 4:14 PM
NEWSPACK
SPICE MAKER TURNS UP
THE OVEN HEAT WITH
PACKAGING INNOVATION
Roasting a whole chicken to tasty, juicy perfection each and every time may be something of an
acquired talent, but an innovative new seasonings
package from London, Ont.-based spice producer
McCormick Canada just may make it a casual
habit for even the most reluctant home chefs.
Available in several unique mix formats that come
with an oven-safe roasting
bag to lock in all the juices
for tender, perfectlyroasted chicken meals,
the new Club House
Bag’n Season mixes—
produced at the parent
company McCormick
& Company, Inc.’s
production facility in
Baltimore, Md., and
packaged in flexible
pouches designed by the Toronto-based Novellus
Graphics Resource Inc.—are sold in the standardlooking dry sauce-mix pouches outfitted with two
built-in partitions inside.
The interior structure uses one opening to hold the
roasting bag and closure, while the second partition
holds the seasoning blend.
“Simply place the chicken
and ingredients in the roasting bag, pour in the seasoning, and roast it in the
oven,” explains McCormick
Canada’s senior product
manager Linda Stiles, adding
the included roasting bag and
closure meet all the pertinent Canadian regulations for
oven use with food products.
Initially offered in Mediterranean Chicken, Paprika
Chicken, and Mixed Herb Chicken f lavors (see pictures)
the packages feature clear preparation instructions
on the back stating to allow eight inches (20 centimeters) of oven space for the bag to expand while
cooking without touching oven walls or racks.
“This new Club House line provides the perfect
method to make juicy,
succulent roasted chicken
dishes that the whole
family will love, while
helping time-pressured
home cooks take the
stress out of meal preparation,” Stiles states.
“The unique seasoning
blend and roasting bag
ensure the meal is always
perfectly seasoned and
perfectly cooked.”
Says Stiles: “Simply take a few minutes to prep all
the ingredients and then enjoy some family time as
your meal is cooking.
“And the clean-up is easy: just remove the bag
and discard!”
According to leading marketing research firm
Nielsen Canada, McCormick’s f lagship Club
House brand of spices, seasonings and f lavorings
currently ranks as the 54th-largest brand among all
consumer products marketed in Canada.
6 • WWW.CANADIANPACKAGING.COM
PACKAGING TEAMWORK SMOOTHENS THE PATH TO A
FAST AND REFRESHING ORAL-CARE PRODUCT LAUNCH
Maintaining sound everyday dental care is serious
business, no doubt, but that doesn’t mean there is no
room to have a little fun with the product packaging
to put a bright smile on the consumer’s face.
Launched in the U.S. this past spring, the new hello
brand of ‘seriously friendly’ oral-care packaging has
been doing just that—using fairly unconventional
and off beat packaging formats for its toothpaste,
mouthwash and breath-sprays formulated almost
entirely (99 per cent) from natural ingredients.
With the product category heavily dominated by
well-established CPG multinationals with hefty
marketplace clout and reach, Montclair, N.J.-based
upstart Hello Products LLC clearly needed
some expert advice and assistance to break into
the crowded marketplace, according to company
founder and chief executive officer Craig Dubitsky,
who rallied some of the world’s leading design and
packaging experts to bring his brand vision of vanity-friendly design to life in record time.
“With hello, we were seeking to bring a new
conversation to oral care by moving away from the
historical talk of killing and fighting [germs] to
focus on greeting,” Dubitsky recalls, “and packaging is vital to the integrity of that conversation.
“While all of the typical oral-care store aisle
is largely an array of harsh lines and aggressive
shapes, hello wanted to focus on being easy on the
eyes and the mouth,” he explains.
To get started, Hello Products partnered with
BMW DesignworksUSA, the global design consultancy of BMW Group, to create the motifs and
individual designs of the packaging.
Once done, the company turned to the St.
Louis, Mo.-based rigid packaging specialists
TricorBraun Design and Innovation to help
commercialize its cutting-edge packaging ideas
within a remarkably fast turnaround—resulting in
20 molds being completed in just six months.
“Meeting the deadline was an outsized challenge requiring a uniquely positioned packaging
partner that was willing to commit a substantial
number of specialists to a single customer,” relates
TricorBraun’s packaging consultant Andrew Olsen.
“Our ‘team hello’ was able to maintain a sole
focus of getting to market on-time and in full.”
Olsen relates that TricorBraun formed a team of
18 company professionals, including engineers and
industrial designers, who selected materials, created models, and evaluated molds to ensure top
performance of all packaging components on the
filling lines and through their assembly, distribution and consumer use.
In addition, TricorBraun evaluated over 40
vendors before settling on 11 strategic suppliers—selected across three packaging platforms
of injection molding, extrusion blowmolding
and injection stretch-blowmolding—to provide
all required tooling, manufacturing, decorating,
components, assembly and transportation.
The team effort involved coordinating the inputs
of more than 100 individuals throughout North
America and Europe working on the project right
up to the March 2013 national launch in the U.S.,
according to Olsen.
“We are very proud to be a part of the hello
brand’s early success,” says Olsen, citing various
breakthrough packaging innovations offered by
the brand, including:
• hello toothpaste,, featuring a unique “tottle” pack
packaging structure of an upside-down squeezable
bottle that maintains its shape and doesn’t crumple
up during use, unlike standard toothpaste tubes.
The packaging features a multilayer polyethylene and EVOH (ethylene vinyl alcohol) composition with a soft-touch exterior resin, along
with a polypropylene butterf ly hinge snap-on
closure to support the container in an inverted
position—using gravity help to dispense the
contents easier.
The novel ‘pastry bag tip’ in the opening dispenses toothpaste in a unique pattern that quickly
captures the consumer’s attention, adds Olsen,
noting that the filled bottle does not require
the secondary [paperboard] packaging in which
most conventional toothpastes are sold.
• hello mouthwash, packaged in clear 473-ml and
985-ml PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles boasting a distinctive curved shape and an
attractive ‘swig-friendly’ f lavor ring at the top for
a distinct shelf presence.
According to Olsen, TricorBraun and its
partners created
custom injectionmolded preforms
which are then
reheated to crecre
ate an injection
stretch-blowstretch-blow
molded final
bottle, with
the container’s
custom closclos
ure featuring a
non-removable
polyethylene
f lavor ring that snaps onto the bottles with a
tamper-evident pull-tab closure.
Said to be the first closure of its type in the
oral-care category, it is topped off with a clearclarified polypropylene cup, fitting into place via
overcap threads on the f lavor ring.
• hello breath spray, packaged in custom sevenmilliliter bottles fitted with a three-piece
sub-assembled actuator and pump engine that
dispenses just the right amount of product. The
collar of the product is designed to twist 30
degrees to lock in place with an audible click to
prevent leaking.
With each of the hello brand products initially
offered in four different f lavors—supermint,
mojito mint, pink grapefruit mint and sweet cinnamint—and each with its own color palette,
namint
TricorBraun also partnered with various colorant shops and decorating houses to ensure topquality screen-printing and color-matching for
each f lavor.
“Decorating provided its own set of challenges,” recounts Olson. “Along with custom
packages, especially ones with these unique
compound curves and shapes, came custom
decorating processes and many rounds of tweaks.
“But all in all, we’re very pleased with what
we see on the shelf,” Olsen sums up, “and we get
excited every time we walk into a store.”
Adds Dubitsky: “Speed is a core competency of
ours, and we were happy that TricorBraun was
able to make it all happen as fast as we wanted.”
CANADIAN PACKAGING • DECEMBER 2013
13-12-05 4:14 PM
NOTES & QUOTES
Leading adhesive
applicating equipment
manufacturer Nordson
Corporation
of
Duluth, Ga., stole the
show at the recentlyheld Japan Pack international
packaging
machinery trade show
in Tokyo, Japan, by picking up the
exhibition’s top Pack Judge’s Award
for the company’s recently-launched
Freedom series adhesive applicating
system. (Pictures Above) Selected from
more that 40 other competing entries
from all over the world, the Freedom
system—first unveiled at the PACK
EXPO International 2012 exhibition
in Chicago—consists of the Freedom
tankless melter, an automatic adhesive filling system, Optix touchscreen
controls, RediFlex hot-melt adhesive
hoses, and MiniBlue II dispensing
applicators configured in a f lexible
and mobile design that facilitates its
use virtually anywhere within or
in reasonable proximity to parent
machinery, while providing a broad
range of operational and environmental performance improvements
over conventional hot-melt applicating technology.
& Associates Ltd., Including Gerry Cellucci,
Paul Duke, Stephane Morin and Christian
Charbonneau. Operating sales and service centers
in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec to provide a comprehensive range of machine installations, startup
support, emergency repair, troubleshooting, regular maintenance, machine upgrade and other services, the company has also announced the hiring of
Nigel Turnpenny as regional manager for western
Canada, and as co-owner. According to the new
ownership team, the company will continue to
focus on delivering “exceptional sales and service to
a client base with an ever-increasing expectation of
product knowledge and professionalism from their
partners and vendors.” Says Shawpak Systems new
president Gerry Cellucci: “This transaction marks
27 years of ownership and effective stewardship
of Shawpak Systems by Pete Skinner Jr. and Peter
Skinner Sr., who have made tremendous positive
The new Shawpak Systems senior executive team includes (from
from left) Christian Charbonneau, Nigel Turnpenny, Larry Swift, Gerry Cellucci, Paul Duke, Stephane
Morin, and Rick Topp.
contributions to the company and, as a result, to
our customers and our employees.” According to
Cellucci, “We are looking forward to continuing
in the same tradition and with same commitment
... [and] we also greatly appreciate all the support
we received on this ownership change from our
employees and so many of our stakeholders.”
Massman
Automation
Designs, LLC, Villard, Minn.-based
manufacturer of automated end-ofline packaging equipment, has completed the acquisition of Packaging
Equipment Division of the Bedford
Technology LLC of Worthington,
Minn., which decided to focus solely
on its primary business of plastic lumber products. “This acquisition complements Massman’s existing product
lines and will broaden our presence
in the consumer packaging market,”
says Massman Automation president
Jeff Bigger. “We will now be able to
offer our customers a wider range of
products and systems for reclosable
packaging solutions, with or without
tie enclosures.”
Shawpak Systems Ltd.,
Oakville, Ont.-based supplier of
product inspection and other packaging automation systems and
technologies, is now under new
ownership, following last month’s
acquisition of the privately-owned
company by two of its former salesmen, Rick Topp and Larry Swift, as
well as four partners of Alex E. Jones
DECEMBER 2013
11PAC-N&Q-TAB.indd 7
7
13-12-06 9:54 AM
FIRST GLANCE
IT’S A BREEZE!
The new Breezy Bagger
machine from WeighPack
Systems
Inc.
is
designed to combine
both vertical and horihori
zontal f lowwrapping
capabilities into a sinsin
gle system. Featuring a
unique pivotal design
to allow users to operoper
ate the Breezy Bagger
like a conventional
horizontal f lowwrapper
or by using inclined or vertical drops, the system
is equipped with a simple hand-wheel to facilitate
quick product changeovers to accommodate the
bagging of many different types and sizes of product, with or without a tray.
WeighPack Systems Inc.
401
CAUGHT ON TAPE
Designed specifically to replace the use of plastic or
metal strapping in case-packing applications, the new
3M-Matic Wrapper FL360 from 3M Company is
designed to ensure uniform application of the company’s high-quality Scotch Box Sealing Tape or Scotch
Filament Tape simultaneously around the corrugated
cartons, and closing
them, at rates of
up to nine boxes
per minute. By
applying the tape
a full 360 degrees
around the box,
similar to metal
straps, the fullyautomatic
tape
machine improves
both packaging
throughput and box security,
according to the company, particularly in the meat
or other food-processing environments where straps
are prone to sliding off—resulting in insecure boxes
of products being sent downstream for end-of-line
packaging and transport.
Sealed Air Corporation
404
POSITIVE IMAGE
The new patent-pending Versalite technology developed by Berry Plastics Group, Inc.
incorporates fully-recyclable polypropylene-based
plastic in the form of both hot and cold on-thego cups engineered for optimal performance and
positive consumer experience with superior thermal management capabilities, according to the
company. Unlike conventional disposable beverage cups made from a myriad of singular and
combined substrates including foam, plastic and
paper, the Versalite cups are made entirely from #5
plastic polypropylene that is fully-compatible with
most municipal recycling streams, while providing
superior durability to help keep beverages hot or
cold for extended periods of time.
Berry Plastics Group, Inc.
Epson America, Inc.
402
HOT AND COLD
8
11PAC-FGL-TAB.indd 8
The new high-speed IDC/Cryovac SpeedFlex
bag-in-box system from Sealed Air Corporation
is designed to offer a superior alternative to most
existing bag-in-box packaging by offering numerous operational efficiency advantages, according to
the company, including bag filling speeds of three
times that of standard aseptic bag-in-box fillers.
Developed through a strategic alliance between
Sealed Air’s Cryovac food packaging brand and
the International Dispensing Corporation
(IDC),, the SSpeedFlex series complete bag-in-box
system comprises bag-in-box packaging materials,
customizable dispensing fitments, including proprietary IDC technology, and around-the-clock
customer support from Sealed Air’s food-care
division. Boasting full FDA approvals for aseptic
packaging of low-acid food and beverage products,
the system offers an optimal high-speed packaging
solution for high-volume processors of liquids such
as dairy, f lavorings, fruit purees, juices, sauces,
smoothies and ice-cream mixes, teas and coffees.
Capable of reaching filling speeds of up to 30 bags
per minute, the system offers handy versatility of
being able to fill a diverse variety of bag sizes or
bags with different tap/spout configurations, with
fast and easy product changeovers for minimal
production downtime.
Featuring superior image quality and production speeds, the new ColorWorks C831 wide label
printer from Epson America, Inc. was designed
to help chemical manufacturers producing a high
number of different SKUs (stock-keeping units)
comply fully with the pending Globally Harmonized
System (GHS) labeling standards for clearly communicating physical, environmental and health
hazard information
during transport
and storage, while
efficiently managmanag
ing their different
label varieties and
reducing
their
labeling costs by
up to 50 per cent
across a wide
range of pack
packaging and manufacturing applications. According
to Epson, the high-performance, on-demand color
label printer provides a very cost-effective way to
print high-quality GHS-compliant color labels,
while reducing overall labeling costs by eliminating pre-printed inventory and minimizing labeling
and shipping errors.
3M Canada Co.
FULL BAGGING RIGHTS
403
405
13-12-06 9:55 AM
SquidInk.indd 1
13-12-05 4:24 PM
The vital partner and catalyst for the packaging value chain
Founded 1950
2014 PAC Calendar
For more information visit pac.ca or contact Lindsey Ogle at [email protected]. For Quebec events, contact Mary Ann Gryn at [email protected].
Jones Contract Packaging Plant Tour – Brampton, ON
Jan. 16
Emballage intensif (Day 3) – Montreal, QC
April 29
Packaging Sales Training Course – Toronto, ON
Jan. 21
Best of Food & Beverage Packaging 2014 – Minneapolis, MN
April 30-May 1
FPInnovations Plant Tour – Pointe Claire, QC
Jan. 21
PACed Course 1 – Mississauga, ON
May 5-7
Davis Design Plant Tour – Mississauga, ON
Feb. 4
May 13
Pulp & Paper Seminar – Mississauga, ON
Feb. 11
Schawk Plant Tour – Chicago, IL
May 14
IFS PACsecure HACCP Training – Chicago, IL
Feb. 20
Quebec Region Golf Tourn. – Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, QC
May 29
Halifax Mooseheads Hockey Night – Halifax, NS
Feb. 21
June 3-5
Product Testing and Distribution Workshop – Montreal, QC
February
Central Region Spring Golf Tournament – Ajax, ON
June 10
O-I Plant Tour – Brampton, ON
Mar. 5
Canadian Water Summit – Toronto, ON
June 18
Pira Sustainability in Packaging – Orlando, FL
Mar. 5-7
PAC Conference – Toronto, ON
September
Mar. 18
Western Ontario Golf Tournament – Brantford, ON
Sept. 11
Norampac Plant Tour – NYC, NY
March
Atlantic Region Golf Tournament – Moncton, NB
September
April 9
Sept. 23-25
Retail Trends Seminar – Mississauga, ON
April 9
Oct. 21-23
MillerCoors Golden Brewery Tour – Golden, Colorado
April 24
PACKEXPO – Chicago, IL
Nov. 2-5
PAC Safety Group returns over $6,157,415 to its members
PAC WSIB Safety Group receives honours safety report card by reducing
claims 15% while clawing back 5.2% of 2012 premiums
These exceptional safety record achievements
have been rewarded a collective real dollar
rebate of $453,140 for 2012. Since the inception
of the program the PAC Safety Group has
returned $6,157,415 to its members. By joining
the Safety Group Program, your business will
gain access to a network of firms dedicated to
improving workplace health and safety by sharing
best practices and pooling resources. As an
added bonus, the group also receives the services
of a former WSIB safety expert. In this time of
escalating WSIB costs and greater scrutiny by
the Ministry of Labour joining this program just
makes good business sense. Throughout the
annual program, PAC Safety Group members
learn to improve accident investigation
procedures, identify and eliminate workplace
hazards, improve return to work protocols, and
carefully monitor accident cost and NEER billing
statements.
PAC Safety Group members enjoy the
opportunity to send employees to attend up to
five lectures offered by experts from many walks
of industry all for the one price of annual
membership fees. In the past year members
heard lectures from a variety of professionals in
such fields of Legal Liability and Due Diligence,
MOL Sector Plans and Priorities, Safe Driving
For more information contact Evan Anthony at 647.918.4123 or [email protected].
Behaviors and managing Vehicle Fleets,
Ergonomic solutions for the Aging Workforce,
and many others. Proposed lectures for 2014
include the Globally Harmonized System
(replaces WHMIS in 2015), the new CSA
Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in
the Workplace and the Challenges of managing
the Millennial Worker. Since 2002, PAC offers
membership fees at average to below average
rates charged by many other safety groups in
Ontario.
Reduce your WSIB costs by joining now
Deadline for 2014 membership December 31, 2013
ECO-PACK NOW
ECO-PACK NOW
CALGARY RESIDENTS SHOW OFF THEIR GREEN CREDENTIALS IN PILOT PROJECT
Teaching consumers the environmental virtues of
case the effectiveness of public spaces recycling at
recycling is all fine and noble, but it’s a wasted
a large entertainment and sporting venue,” says
effort if they’re not given the tools to do it with
Spruce Meadows president relates Linda Southern
where and when they need to dispose of their
Heathcott.
empty beverage cans and bottles in parks, outside
“We plan to build on the current infrastructure
arenas and other public recreational spaces.
at Spruce Meadows to make our organization the
Fortunately for the residents of Calgary, Alta.,
sustainability leader amongst sporting and enterdoing the right thing may soon become something
tainment destinations in Canada.”
of a second nature, thanks to a highly successful pilot
According to CBA president Jim Goetz, “The
public spaces recycling program jointly financed by
recovery rate for the beverage container stream
the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling
is impressive in Alberta to begin with but, as the
Corporation (ABCRC), Canadian Beverage
pilot has proven, public spaces recycling can take
significant at Inglewood after just a few months
Association (CBA) and Nestlé Waters Canada
the province to the next level.”
even though the bins, signage and messaging
(NWC), the country’s biggest producer of bottled
New NWC president Debbie Moore says the
were in place for only a short period of time,”
and enhanced water beverages.
program’s success indicates a need for such pilot
Moore states. “This bodes well for the ongoing
Administered by leading environmental conprograms to become permanent fixtures.
effectiveness of a permanent public spaces recycsultancy Reclay StewardEdge in the city’s
“Recycling rates for beverage containers were
ling program in Calgary and across the province.”
popular Crossroads Market shopping area, the Inglewood BRZ
(Business Revitalization Zone)
downtown neighborhood, and the
Spruce Meadows equestrian show
jumping facility, the pilot program
deployed seven aluminum dualstream (recycling and garbage)
receptacles, 20 steel dual-stream
bins and 21 aluminum triple-stream
containers at these sites respectively
to enable passerby drop off their
empty aluminum beverage cans
and PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles—two of the
most valuable recyclable materials
around—right into the municipal
recycling stream.
According to program administrators, who are forwarding the
project’s results to both the City of
Calgary and Alberta’s Ministry
of Environment, the pilot program was an instant success, with
Inglewood recording an 89-percent
diversion rate for beverage containers.
“The very stylish recycling infrastructure has helped to identify the
Inglewood streetscape as well as
differentiate us from all other business areas in Calgary, particularly
in terms of environmental sustainability,” says Brian Imeson, chairman of the board of directors for
Inglewood BRZ
Adds Crossroads Market manager Matthew McDonald: “This
pilot public spaces recycling program was immediately embraced
by our customers, partly because of
its convenience but mostly because
they all want to do the right thing,
Fresh & Frozen Portioning
Flowlines & Deboning
Software Solutions
which is to recycle,
“It has since become a permanent
Grading & Batching
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feature of the market, much to the
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satisfaction of everyone who shops
Product Freezing Solutions
Fresh Sausage Production
Breading & Coating
here,” says McDonald.
“As the world’s leading show
Skinning
Cooking
Cooked-Smoked Sausage Production
jumping facility and one of the
top sporting and event destinations in Canada, it is important that
For more information call your Marel Sales Representative at 1-888-888-9107
Spruce Meadows continually demwww.marel.com/usa
onstrates leadership in all it does,
[email protected]
and this pilot enabled us to show-
The perfe
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Leading global provider of advanced equipment
and systems for the food processing industry
DECEMBER 2013
11PAC-ECO-TAB.indd 11
11
13-12-06 9:56 AM
COVER STORY
MEAT MARKET MASTERWORKS
Ontario meat-processing pioneer blazing new trails in the cutthroat marketplace
through inspired product innovation and highly skillful brand packaging execution
BY GEORGE GUIDONI, EDITOR
PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE
I
f sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers, as
the far-out hippie hell-raiser Abie Hoffman
infamously proclaimed back in the 1960s, then
the 80,000-square-foot meat-processing facility
operated by Cardinal Meat Specialists Ltd. in
Brampton, Ont., is a veritable sacred shrine to the
virtues of continuous product innovation, progressive manufacturing prowess, and world-class
packaging excellence that have enabled the familyowned business to evolve into one of the Canadian
meat industry’s leading powerhouses and pioneers.
“We have been growing by 20 to 30 per cent annually over the last six years, enjoying a real hockey
stick-like growth curve,” says the company’s affable
and articulate chief executive offficer Brent Cator,
a third-generation owner of a thriving meat business that has grown exponentially since its humble
origins as a traveling meat wagon selling raw cuts of
meat door-to-door in and around the mostly bluecollar community of Bowmanville, Ont., about an
hour’s drive east of Toronto.
Nowadays specializing in producing premiumquality fresh and frozen meats for numerous clients in the Canadian foodservice and retail markets
from coast to coast, Cardinal today employs over
100 people at its brand new, state-of-the-art, GFSI
(Global Food Safety Initiative)-certified production
facility that, according to Cator, houses some of
the most advanced and sophisticated process technologies ever seen in the fiercely competitive burger industry that, contrary to popular perception,
largely operates on razor-thin margins.
Cardinal also operates a smaller, 14,000-squarefoot sister plant in nearby Mississauga—employing
40 people to make kettle-cooked, heat-and-serve
meat cuts.
All told, the company processes about 40 million pounds of meat per year to produce a diverse
assortment of high-quality meat products—ranging from raw burgers and sausages to pre-cooked
ribs and roasts—that its customers can’t seem to get
enough of.
Set to Grow
“We currently produce about 200 different SKUs
(stock-keeping units) for foodservice and retail
markets, and we expect that number to grow
strategically in the very near future,” Cator told
Canadian Packaging during a recent visit to the
impeccably clean and tidy Brampton facility that’s
currently gearing up for a major new retail product
launch both in Canada and the U.S.
For a company currently enjoying annual sales
of about $130 million, cashing in on the current
burger renaissance unfolding across the North
American restaurant scene and at the retail shelves
seems like just rewards for its proud track record
of uncompromising food safety and continuous
product innovation—aptly backed up by genuine
commitment to leading-edge R&D (researchand-development), formidable
manufacturing
11PAC-CVS-TAB.indd 12
Brent Cator,
Chief Executive Officer,
Cardinal Meat
Specialists Ltd.
competence, and a profound understanding of
marketplace trends and needs that often positions
it well ahead of the competition.
“We were the first multiple-species meat-processing company in the country to earn HACCP
(Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) certification for food safety,” points out Cator, whose
hands-on involvement in the family meat business
stretches back to his teenage years.
“We were also the first to install a DNA analysis
system for microbiological detection of contaminants about 15 years ago, well before the Canadian and
U.S. governments had the technologies,” he adds.
“And we were the first in Canada to start using
near-infrared lighting technologies for fat, protein
and moisture analysis.
“There are other companies doing that, yet we
were always the first in Canada’s meat industry
to employ first, second, third and fourth generations of these technologies at our plant for all
Tony Tavares,
Chief Operating Officer
protein species,” says Cator, citing the company’s
unwavering commitment to “continuous innovation and reinvention” as a key driving force
behind Cardinal’s remarkable rise through industry ranks in terms of revenues, market share and
geographic reach.
“My grandfather started out by selling raw meat
door-to-door out of the back of his salt truck, and
then reinventing the business by opening up a
butcher shop,” relates Cator, who graduated with
a business major degree from the University of
Western in London, Ont., in 1985.
“My father then reinvented the business when
he took over by targeting the foodservice market
and becoming a food ‘purveyor,’ as it was called
back then.
“My brother then reinvented the business again years
later by extending our presence into the retail segment
in a major way, thereby becoming a ‘branded’ company, with our Cardinal Roadhouse brand, which
13-12-06 9:58 AM
COVER STORY
launched us into doing increasingly more advanced
and sophisticated packaging,” Cator relates.
“Today, the foodservice and retail sectors account
for about half of our business each, and that’s the
way I like to keep it,” Cator states.
“We have a loyal and diverse customer base of six to
seven major customers on both the foodservice and
the retail side, with each one accounting for roughly
the same volumes as the other, as well as a very widereaching distribution for independents,” Cator relates.
“And that is all by design on our part: Having
that kind of stability is key in this business for sustained growth.
“The great thing from the customers’ standpoint
is that they get the feature benefits of both types
of product we make,” divulges Cator, who is also
a past president of the North American Meat
Association (NAMA).
“If there is some major development in food
safety in grocery, for example, we can easily adapt
what we learn from that to the foodservice side of
our business.”
This versatility has enabled Cardinal to maintain
and strengthen a key competitive edge for its high-volume grinding operation, with the company scooping
up the 2013 Innovation Award from North America’s
leading foodservice distributor Sysco Corporation,
complementing the 2012 New Product of the Year
award from the U.S.-based National Provisioner
magazine, for its Revolution Burger product line—
made with certified Angus Beef using Cardinal’s
proprietary, leading-edge ‘Natural Texture Forming’
(NTF) process.
“We are the most specialized and the most
diversified provider in the Canadian market when
it comes to burgers,” Cator asserts, “and that’s
all built on the many different technologies and
capabilities that we have evolved over the years.
“Technology has dominated the growth of our
burger division’s business in the last three years to
such an extent,” says Cator, “that I am fully confident in saying that our company is the leading
innovator and a food safety leader in the Canadian
meat industry.
“And when I say we lead in food safety, I mean
we lead in all aspects of it,” Cator asserts.
Pure Intentions
The newly-purchased Repak RE 20 horizontal form-fillseal packaging machine manufactured by Reiser can
handle a broad range of meat products, shapes and
species to provide the Cardinal operation with high levels
of throughput and operational flexibility to turn raw meat
into finished products in a space of about 20 minutes.
and every single line can do what every other line
does,” Cator explains. “Because these highly f lexible high-speed lines are completely interchangeable, it means that a customer’s production order
is never down just because one of our pieces of
equipment is down.
“When we have all the lines going, it adds up
to about 1,500 burgers a minute, and we run that
continuously for 18 hours a day, five days a week—
and seven days when needed,” says Cator, stressing
the importance of throughput speed, as opposed to
sheer volume.
As Cator says, “You may have a huge blender that
grinds out 10,000 pounds of meat an hour, yet if
your downstream machines can only form 3,600
pounds of meat per hour, then all you’re really
doing is creating inconsistencies in your product.
“At our plant, the whole system is set up that the
meat’s actual exposure is only about 20 minutes
from the time we open a box of raw material to the
shipment of finished goods on the other side, which
ultimately means optimal product freshness for both
fresh and frozen burgers.”
The company’s success in the burger category
naturally sets a high bar for all of its other product
The Brampton production plant boasts an on-site commercial R&D kitchen with a full-time chef for developing
exciting new products and cooking recipes for both retail
products (inset) and foodservice industry offerings.
“For example, we purify the air throughout the
facility on continuous basis, which is not something you will find in most meat plants,” says
Cator, describing the strict sanitation and hygienic
regime faithfully observed at all times at both plants,
Cardinal opened up its newest facility in 2011 to
accommodate rapid volume growth and to provide additional room for its proactive R&D efforts,
including a fully-equipped, professional on-site test
kitchen employing a full-time chef to develop delicious new products for the meat-loving public.
“Moreover, this is about as ‘green’ a plant as you
can get in this industry,” Cator proudly points out.
“We use LED lighting throughout the plant, we
recycle just about anything and everything that can
be recycled, and some of the energy-recouping systems we have here are also far beyond what other
companies may have.”
Moving to the new plant has also enabled
Cardinal to fine-tune its “lean manufacturing”
process with well-designed plant layouts that stress
operational f lexibility and a true JIT (just-in-time)
manufacturing mindset.
“The Brampton plant’s grinding operation has
five primary lines, three with nitrogen freezing,
13-12-06 9:58 AM
COVER STORY
Line workers prepare the
freshly-ground burgers
entering the high-speed
Repak RE20 vacuumsealing machine to be
individually-sealed or
multipacked in the highbarrier rollstock plastic
film manufactured by
the Cryovac division of
Sealed Air Corporation.
lines, says Cator, noting that Cardinal is also one of
the country’s leading manufacturers of non-meat
veggie burgers—marketed under the Cardinal
Select brand name in retail markets—with a strong
presence and capabilities in specialty markets for
Halal and all-organic meat products.
“We process just about every type of animal protein to meet the demands of our customers,” says
Cator, “including specialty products like bison
burgers and lamb burgers.
“Our f lexible production lines can deal with
a very broad range of species to produce many
unique varieties, including stuffed burgers with
inclusions ranging from veggies to cheeses and
other proteins such as bacon,” he expands.
“We are able to deal with segregation requirements for Halal and organic meats, along with
cooking ground or whole-muscle pork, beef, turkey and chicken—including both fresh and frozen,” Cator relates.
“Our f lexible lines are capable of full trimming
and sorting as required for our cooked items,” he
notes, “as well as designated and specific grinds,
blends and high-speed forming capabilities for our
portion-controlled burgers.”
Winning Mentality
3 FLEXIBLE PALLET OPTIONS.
CAN YOUR PALLET PROVIDER DO THAT?
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Such versatility has made Cardinal a much soughtafter producer and supplier for many store-brands of
most major Canadian grocery retailers, notes Cator.
He proudly cites the Private Label category Grand
Prix New Product Award of the Retail Council
of Canada (RCC) given earlier this year to the
President’s Choice Free From Angus Beef Burgers brand, which Cardinal produced for Loblaw Brands Limited using the aforementioned “revolutionary” NTF process.
“The reason it’s called the Revolution Burger is because it really is revolutionary insofar as dramatically changing the market,” says Cator.
“Winning all these awards really validates what we have done with our
NTF technology,” says Cator, adding that the NTF burgers—first launched
about three years ago under the Sobey’s Sensations store brand—now account
for over half of all burger grinding volumes at the Cardinal plant.
“We sought out some technologies widely used in Europe and combined
them with some North American know-how and our own in-house R&D
to develop this new process,” says Cator, citing buoyant growth for the company’s Butcher-style foodservice burger brand across Canada.
“Our zero-pressure forming method really falls into the whole current trend
of minimal processing and more natural products,” he explains. “Because there
is no pressure, you end up with a fresher-tasting product that looks like it just
came straight from the grinder, with excellent bite and ‘pebbly’ texture, and
good moisture retention that ensures a very juicy burger that most people would
think was prepared in the back of a restaurant.
“The fact is that what we do with these burgers at the plant are things that
Manufactured by Fortress Technologies in Toronto, the high-speed Phantom series
metal detection system above is one of several high-accuracy product inspection technologies employed throughout the Brampton facility to ensure optimal product quality.
14
DECEMBER 2013
13-12-06 9:59 AM
Cover Story
Advanced further-processing equipment developed by
leading manufacturer Marel forms an integral part of the
upcoming launch of a brand new range of high-quality
APP (advanced protein-portioning) products at leading
Canadian grocery stores nationwide.
you could not replicate in the back of the restaurant—particularly in respect to food safety,” Cator
points out. “Many consumers may think that the
safest burgers are ones made in the back of the restaurant or at a butcher shop and the reality is in
fact completely the opposite, as these places are not
deep-cleaned and sanitized nightly like ours.
“As a GFSI-certified facility, we have all the
systems in place to make sure our customers get
exceptionally healthy, indulgent and safe burgers.
“Being able to make burgers that taste like they
just came from a butcher in a high-speed environment is a real competitive edge for Cardinal,”
Cator asserts.
“Restaurants love the speed of service they get with NTF Burgers.
“It cooks faster and more evenlygiving them faster table turns—while
their customers get to enjoy the natural taste and texture of a product
that tastes like something their mom
would make,” he chuckles.
Extra Help
Typically running a two-shift,
five-day production schedule over
the slower fall and winter months,
Cardinal significantly boosts its output to full capacity during the busy
March-July barbecue season—hiring
up to 100 seasonal workers to accommodate an around-the-clock, sevendays-a-week schedule.
As busy as that sounds, things may get
even busier next year as the company
proceeds with the launch of yet more
revolutionary product lines to add to its
burgers and slow-cooked products.
The planned expansion is the
result of the company’s new proprietary APP (Advanced Protein
Portioning) technology, which Cator
says Cardinal installed in partnership
with leading global food-processing
equipment manufacturer Marel over
a period of about six months.
Using Marel Townsend’s hightech further-processing machinery,
the APP processing method enables
Cardinal to produce very diverse,
fully-cooked and fully-sealed, preportioned single-serve meat products
ranging from burgers and sausages
to three-dimensional product like
chicken breasts in their natural shape.
“We are very interested in growing
our business in the off-season times
of year, and this APP technology
will help us achieve that goal,” says
Cator, adding the first wave of new
APP products should be hitting the
Canadian retail shelves in the spring
of 2014.
“Each product made in APP is preportioned to what a consumer would
eat in a single meal, unlike the kettle-cooked pieces that are more likely
December 2013
15
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2012
Leading the food industry in processing and packaging solutions.
COVER STORY
to be divided at the family table,” says Cator, noting the Cardinal plant is actually one of Marel’s
designated “global innovation partner” sites.
Once up and running, the APP line will be able
to process between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds of
meat products per hour, according to Cator.
“This will be a huge market entry for us,” Cator
predicts. “The whole APP process is based on using
different existing technologies in innovative ways
that not only provides us with a greater degree of
efficiency, it also ensures that the food stays fresh
longer and maintains proper portion control, all
without using any preservatives or additives.”
The model Robot PVS
stretchwrapping machine
manufactured by Robopac
provides the Cardinal plant
with a highly mobile and
flexible stretchwrapping
system that can be easily
wheeled over to any one of
the plant’s production lines
as needed, with the onboard touchscreen control
panel (inset) facilitating
easy startup and operation.
Flying Start
sides, or whatever other
packaging features we
want to implement.
“These are all important points of differentiation
that
our
customers are looking
for, primarily from the
convenience and speedof-service standpoints,”
he explains, “and Reiser
was able to deliver all
that by installing the
new Repak in just six
weeks, rather than the
12 weeks that they usually require for delivery.
“We are so impressed
with them that we are
now looking at some
other equipment offered
by Reiser on the processing side,” Cator states.
“We find ourselves spending a lot of time with them
because of the inherent f lexibility they bring to the
table in terms of where we see this market going.”
States Cator: “Packaging plays a key role in what
we do at Cardinal, and I expect that in the next few
years packaging will become one of the biggest
To ensure a smooth and successful APP production startup, Cardinal recently purchased a brand
new, high-performance Repak RE20 horizontal
form-fill-seal (H/F/F/S) machine manufactured
by leading global food processing and packaging
machine-builder Reiser of Canton, Mass.
“We have purchased four Repak systems in the
last six years,” Cator reveals, citing the equipment’s
“exceptional f lexibility” and a wealth of valueadded features contributing to the plant’s lean and
f lexible manufacturing strategy.
Although Cardinal took all due diligence in
evaluating available equipment options from other
packaging machinery suppliers, Cator recalls that
the sales people at the manufacturer’s Reiser
(Canada) Co. subsidiary in Burlington, Ont.,
simply made him an offer he could not refuse.
“What tipped us over the edge was Reiser telling
us that if we bought their equipment and it did not
exceed our expectations after a month, they would
take it out for us at no charge.
“Naturally, we kept the equipment because it has
performed so well for us,” Cator relates. “Reiser
has been a tremendous partner for us, providing
us with the packaging f lexibility requirements
we need—be it an easy-peel top, pre-perfed film,
using large f laps or individually-portioned pockets,
whether we want to do labels on top, bottom or
The Brampton plant’s case-packing operations are
capably handled by the BEL model WFPS 5150 forming/taping machine working with high-quality corrugated
shipping cases manufactured primarily by Norampac.
differentiators both at retail and restaurant level.
“It’s not just about product quality and integrity
any more: it’s also about the f lexibility of making
that product convenient and stand out on shelf.
“This is crucial in the new market environment where customers expect minimal amounts of
physical packaging, yet still require the functionality, with much higher convenience and higher
value in terms of how the product stands out on
shelves,” says Cator.
“That’s why we have invested a lot of capital in
Reiser and other packaging equipment that provides us with the f lexibility we need to keep our
customers happy and loyal.”
This emphasis on f lexibility extends right into
the plant’s end-of-packaging operations, which are
currently served by Robopac’s innovative, fullymobile and fully-automatic model Robot PVS
stetchwrapper.
The sleek and compact machine circles around
the palleted loads on wheels to apply the exact
amount of stretchwrap film needed to secure the
load in place, automatically adjusting itself for
height and all other load dimensions and variance
on the f ly.
“It doesn’t need to be nailed to the f loor, which is
really important for a highly f lexible operation like
ours,” says Cator, who impulsively purchased the
robotic stretchwrapper from Robopac’s Canadian
distributor Jean Cartier Packaging Inc. right
after seeing the system’s live demo on the showf loor of last year’s PACKex Toronto national packaging exhibition.
“When you’re using different line configurations, you want to be able to move it to different spots within the plant, and this stretchwrapper
allows us to do just that where we want it, when
13-12-06 9:59 AM
COVER STORY
tagline for our upcoming launches, “You can with
Cardinal!’, to assure our customers that we’ll do
whatever it takes to help their business.
“At the end of the day the burger industry is
really a pennies business,” Cator remarks. ”It’s a
very competitive industry, with a lot of consolidation and a lot of failures all around, so the biggest
opportunities for growth are all about taking market share away from the competition, which is an
important driver of all our innovation efforts.
“We have been building on innovation for years,
and we have been very well validated for our efforts
with a lot of industry awards and, most importantly, the overwhelmingly positive feedback from
our customers,” he sums up. “So I’m really excited
about the future and seeing Cardinal keep revolutionizing the burger industry for many more years
to come.”
Supplied by Harlund Industries, the Hitachi PB
series continuous smallcharacter inkjet printer
is used to apply lot code
data and other required
product information onto
the designated white
space of the folding
cartons (inset) printed by
leading Canadian boxmaker Boehmer Box LP.
Note: Please see the online
video presentation of the
Cardinal Meat Specialists operation
on Canadian Packaging TV at
www.canadianpackaging.com
For More Information:
Reiser (Canada) Co.
Fortress Technology Inc.
PLAN Automation
Boehmer Box LP
EamaTech Canada Inc.
Jean Cartier Packaging Inc.
Labelling Technologies
MD Packaging Inc.
Marel Townsend
Zebra Technologies
Wexxar/BEL
AGA Nordale Inc.
AFA Nordale Inc.
Norampac (Div. of Cascades Canada)
SICK, Inc.
Harlund Industries Ltd.
Sealed Air Corporation
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
we want it,” says Cator.
product down at about 300 IQF (individually
“It is very unobtrusive, very simple to use, and very
quick-frozen) patties per minute through the
safe, with all the automatic shutoffs and safeguards,”
metal detector with perfect alignment,” says Cator,
Cator remarks. “It’s really been a tremendous piece of
who recently sold the VCS patent to a prominent
equipment for our operation.”
machine-building company.
Other key packaging equipment and supplies
“Most meat plants require a lot of f loorspace to
utilized by Cardinal’s Brampton facility include:
bring all those patties to packaging stages via hori• A Wexxar model Bel 5150u box-erector/taper
zontal conveyors,” notes Cator, “whereas our VCS
and Nordale form/glue machines for prodoes it all in a four-by-four-foot area.
cessing primary paperboard folding cartons—
“It’s just one of many things that we do in an
printed by the Kitchener, Ont.-based Boehmer
innovative way,” says Cator, adding the comBox LP—supplied by MD Packaging Inc. of
pany houses a number of similar “patented invenMarkham, Ont.;
tions, developed in partnership with suppliers and
• Various grades of food-safe packaging polyCardinal’s own dedicated staff, that give it a big
propylene packaging films—shipped and
leg-up on the competition.
used in rollstock format—manufactured by
As Cator relates: “We have developed a new
Cryovac division of the Sealed Air
Corporation;
• High-speed Phantom and Stealth series metal detection systems—manufactured by the Toronto-based Fortress
Technology Inc. and installed by PLAN
Automation of Orangeville, Ont.;
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• Food-grade Aqua Proof Sanitary serZPVSOFFET
5FBN
*45"-BC
ies conveyors supplied by EamaTech
Canada Inc.;
• MicroJet thermal inkjet printers from
Loveshaw and Hitachi small-character inkjet coders, supplied by Harlund
Industries Ltd., for primary package
coding;
• A high-speed printer-applicator from
Labelling
Technologies, complete with a thermal-transfer Zebra
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requirements;
• A highly innovative, high-speed vertical conveyor system (VCS) completely
Distributor of:
developed and assembled in-house.
“We actually built, designed and patented the system, which can bring the
Contact us at 1 800 363-2737 | www.cartierpackaging.com | [email protected]
DECEMBER 2013
17
13-12-06 9:59 AM
PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
ORGANIC AFFINITIES
Photos courtesy of Blue Goose
Organic and natural meat farmer and producer grows a new look for its retail packaging
ANDREW JOSEPH, FEATURES EDITOR
T
aking a pinch of this and pinch of that has
helped transform a renowned Canadian
cattle company into a packaged meats performer focused on the ethical feeding and treatment of the animals it harvests.
Meet Blue Goose, a Canadian company
shrouded in mystery and keen on keeping it that
way for various competitive reasons.
Opening its doors in 1992 as the Blue Goose
Cattle Company, the Vancouver-headquartered
company has evolved over the years to ‘moo-ve’
away from just being cattle-focused, today earning
its daily bread as a producer of organic and natural
beef—mostly Black Angus—as well as chicken and
rainbow trout fish
In 2012, the company decided to rename itself to
a more accurate, if slightly misleading, moniker—
Blue Goose, despite the fact that it doesn’t sell any
geese or blue-colored products.
“Blue Goose is a Canadian-based organic and
natural food brand that specializes in offering the
highest-quality beef, chicken and fish products to
Canadians who want to eat food from well-raised
animals,” Blue Goose director of brand and integrated marketing Johnathan Bonnell told Canadian
Packaging in a recent interview.
11PAC-PFF-BlueGoose.indd 18
“At Blue Goose we operate under the belief that
everyone has the right to healthy food, and that
if you look after your land and animals, they will
look after you,” he adds.
It seems to be a plan that grocers and consumers
are buying into, as Blue Goose products can nowadays be found nationally across Canada at Whole
Foods, Sobeys, Loblaws and a host of independent grocers and butchers.
Works of Art
In May of 2013, the company took its progressive
mindset nationwide by debuting a new brand identity and packaging look created by a well-renowned
branding Montreal-headquartered agency Sid Lee,
featuring highly sophisticated, upscale and eyecatching visuals from Taiwan-born, Los Angelesraised and based artist Ben Kwok.
Sid Lee is internationally renowned and respected
for its branding work with Adidas, Absolut
Vodka, Red Bull, Cirque de Soliel, MGM
Grand and many other bluechip corporate clients.
It has offices in Toronto, Paris, New York and
Amsterdam staffed with over 600 talented employees. For his part, the aforementioned Kwok is a
freelance artist of immense talent who is drawn to
completing hyper complex and detailed artwork
often with an animal foundation.
Featuring Cryovac’s patented DarfreshBloom skin-tight
packaging and fl
flair
air for the artistic, the Vancouver-based
Blue Goose meats producer has earned an easy-to spot
place for itself on the fresh-food shelves of leading grocers across Canada.
Kwok told Canadian Packaging that Sid Lee knew
of his ornate animal drawings and asked if he
would be interested in working with them.
“They had an idea of what they wanted and we
worked together in making it come to life,” Kwok
explains.
“There was a lot of back and forth, but in the
end, we walked away with a great illustration that
we’re all proud of,” he recalls.
One thing for sure: while the fresh-meat ailses
may have once been shopped by consumers ‘mainly
because of the meat’, it’s now also because of the
packaging.
The rebranded Blue Goose products feature blueink artwork featuring a chicken or two, a young
male cow, and a majestic fish that each stand out on
their own merit on the grocer shelves.
“Each of the animals has contained within it a
detailed line-drawing representation of its natural
habitat,” says Bonnell.
“The art is meant to convey to the customer the land
that the animal grows in,” he adds. “As well, the rep-
13-12-06 10:00 AM
Deep Freeze
The frozen chicken strips, bites and wings products are the only ones contained
within a carton, and as such, it has imagery on the two large faces of the package.
The chicken ink artwork is placed on one side, while the more conventional
photographic image of the actual products is placed on the other.
On the packed 500-gram packs, four strips of chicken breast strips sit innocently upon a white background, with one of the breaded pieces cracked open
with a touch of spiced dipping sauce under it, ensuring it does not obscure the
tender, white no-filler meat.
While Blue Goose has aimed to stun the consumer with its dynamic packaging artwork, it is also keen that the physical packaging of its products be
equally effective at grabbing attention.
To achieve this, Blue Goose has turned to Cryovac, the food packaging division
of Sealed Air Corporation to develop an eye-catching look for its fresh chicken
products, with possible plans to extend the format into its other fresh meats.
Using a film packaging system called DarfreshBloom, the thermoformed
package combines both vacuum and MAP (modified atmosphere packaging)
technologies into a single package form.
Fernando Caristena, Food Care Division sales representative for Sealed Air’s
Oakville, Ont. office, releates: “We supply Blue Goose with both the top
and bottom Darfresh film and the Cryovac shrink bags, and we also provide a packaging technology that was developed with a partnership between
While it looks freshly-opened, a tray of Blue Goose organic chicken legs is actually
securely and safely sealed tightly around the product within the DarfreshBloom
plastic film packaging applied by a Multivac model R 175 CD thermoformer.
DECEMBER 2013
19
PROCESSES AND PACKAGING
LEADING TRADE FAIR
DÜSSELDORF, GERMANY
08 –14 MAY 2014
INTERPACK.COM
EVERY
INNOVATION
HAS ITS
STARTING
POINT
Canadian German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Inc.
Your contact: Stefan Egge
480 University Avenue _ Suite 1500 _ Toronto _ Ontario _ M5G 1V2
Tel.: (416) 598-1524 _ Fax: (416) 598-1840
E-mail: [email protected]
For Travel Information: LM Travel /Carlson Wagonlit
Tel: 1-888-371-6151 _ Fax: 1-866-880-1121
E-mail: [email protected]
2013-10-15 interpack 2014_Kanada_Allgemein_88 x 254 Satzspiegel_Canadian Packaging_4c_2919.indd 1
2013-10-15 interpack 2014_Kanada_Allgemein_88 x 254 Satzspiegel_Canadian Packaging_4c_2919
resentation of the farms shows off the care that we have for rearing our animals.”
The frozen chicken fingers product actually contains a slightly different
piece of chicken art than that found on the Blue Goose fresh chicken wings,
chicken sausage, and whole-chicken products.
Although the chicken canvas has altered body positions, both images contain a
farm structure, silo, and furrowed lands that appear in the shape of gourds, whimsical clouds blowing behind the henhouse, and all contained within the feathered
confines of a hen with a ‘Mona Lisa’-like smile.
While the farms look different and the silo is located differently, the consumer instinctively gets the unmistakable message that this is the same Blue
Goose branding.
The fresh fish and beef products are packed in a tray and sealed cleanly and tightly
to preserve the product’s freshness and natural organic flavor, with the branding
achieved with the placement of a paper sleeve placed around the left side of the
sealed tray.
For its part, Kwok’s blue-ink fish image captures the power and free-movement of the organic fish. (See close-up images on page 20)
Using the same motif of the wind, forest of coniferous trees and white waters,
the theme is placed over the entirety of the creature’s body sans head, acting as its
fishy scales and fins, while maintaining the integrity of the fish.
As for the beef, Sid Lee and Kwok have designed a lean-looking young calf
to be the canvas, featuring the wind-blown rural motif of another old-school
cattle barn, fields, trees, winds and choppy waters of a lake, all spaced out
cleanly within the bovine profile.
“When you see our packaging, you know what you are getting,” asserts
Bonnell. “It’s all about pride and craftsmanship in production.”
11.09.13 09:28
13-12-06 10:01 AM
PACKAGING FOR FRESHNESS
Cryovac and Multivac.
“It takes a special type
of machine to create the
DarfreshBloom seal on
packaging, and that’s where
Multivac comes in,” notes
Caristena. “Darfresh can not
simply be run on any standard
thermoforming equipment.”
According to Caristena, the
new DarfreshBloom film reprep
resents the latest evolution in
30 years of Darfresh pack
packaging expertise.
Although designed primarily
for packaging red meat, it also lends
its protective and decorative powers to fish and
poultry products.
The DarfreshBloom pack consists of three webs,
starting with a rigid barrier bottom web formed on
a line into a tray.
Next, a Cryovac TB270 semi-barrier top skin is
applied over the meat product to keep it close to
the bottom web with hermetic seals.
A third web is applied to further enhance the shelflife performance of the fresh chicken product.
The DarfreshBloom, as its name might suggest, is
different from the regular Darfresh product, in that
it maintains the original meat color—the bloom,
if you will.
It does so by preventing color change thanks to that
Blue Goose’s frozen, 500-gram packs of
uncooked, breaded and seasoned
organic chicken breast strips come pre-packed
with a sweet and zesty chili sauce.
oxygen-rich atmosphere compartment between the
top barrier lidding film and the semi-permeable
inner skin film, with the inner skin film securing
the product to the bottom web.
The R 175 CD thermoforming system from
Multivac evacuates the air in the chamber and
draws the top web to the ceiling of the dome and
seals itself by absorbing heat from the dome.
A gentle air-f low is then introduced to relax the
top web, allowing it to drape itself over the meat
product and the bottom web. When the dome
opens up, the top web shrinks upon the product’s
contours to provide a skin-tight seal.
The last step for the
Multivac R175CD is the
heat-sealing of the top and
bottom films, which joins
them together to form
a f lat seal right up to the
edges of the product.
As far as customer response
to the overall look of the
packaging, Bonnell says he
is highly impressed. “So far,
the overall response to our
new packaging has been
great,” he says, “although
there is still some consumer
education that needs to happen at
the retail level, as the use of Darfresh packaging in
Canada is not as widely adopted as it is in the U.S.”
Bonnell makes a point of noting that the sleeve
labels Blue Goose uses are made of CCNB (ClayCoated News-Back) boxboard that is made from
100-percent recycled material—with minimum
65-percent post-consumer content, with the rest
derived from post-industrial materials.
“Like any industry, we exist alongside a variety
of old and new competitors,” Bonnell says. “Our
focus at the end of the day has always been on our
consumers.
“We believe the protein industry and food industry overall is a very complex one for Canadians
to navigate, and we’ve strived to keep things simple and straightforward with all of our marketing
endeavors,” Bonnell concludes.
“It’s the reason we’ve kept things simple and
clean with our packaging.”
Cryovac (Div. of Sealed Air Corporation)
Multivac Canada Inc.
Sid Lee
440
441
442
If the packaging style doesn’t capture the attention of the shopper, the eye-catching artwork from noted Los Angeles-based artist Ben Kwok certainly should. Hired by international
branding specialists Sid Lee, the Blue Goose products are certainly standing out in the fresh meats sections of many major grocery retailers across Canada.
13-12-06 10:01 AM
AUTOMATE NOW
Brianne Moar,
Sales and Marketing Director,
Edson Packaging
Machinery Limited
IN PURSUIT OF INVENTION
In-house technological advances and leading-edge equipment manufacturing
prowess provide the best of Canadian savoire faire for the packaging industry
PHOTOGRAPHY BY KAZUYOSHI EHARA
A
lthough a mere vowel removed from
being named after one of the most famous
American inventors, the folks over at the
Hamilton-based Edson Packaging Machinery
Limited certainly seem to have taken the inventing
bug to heart and stamped out a niche for itself in
becoming one of Canada’s own technological darlings—as backed up by the remarkable number of
patents owned by its employees.
In fact, along with the numerous patents held by
its engineers, Edson’s sales and marketing director holds a key patent that the company hopes will
soon usher in a new level of value-added benefits
to all of its products.
When company founders Ed McCrudden and
Hugh Anderson (Ed+Son) were first asked to
design and build a carton packer back in 1962, they
seemed to have the foresight and genuine belief
that they were on the verge of something good.
After building their first case-packer in 1964
and receiving their first patent in 1966, the company moved on from the stereotypical business-
11PAC-AN-Edson.indd 21
in-home-garage of McCrudden to owning and
operating its own two facilities in Hamilton, today
totaling a combined 80,000 square foot of production space and over 150 employees.
“While we are quite renowned for our case
packers in the tissue industry—we have machinery installed at close to 90 per cent of the North
American tissue mills—the past 10 years have seen
us return to our roots catering to a wider range
of industries, such as the food segment,” Edson
sales and marketing director Brianne Moar told
Canadian Packaging during a recent visit to their
Hamilton operations.
Tissue Issues
Moar recalls that around the beginning of the
company’s existence, Edson came up with a revolutionary carton-packer that had the tissue industry beaming.
“The revolutionary aspect was simply the fact that
our equipment was robust,” explains Moar noting
that the tissue industry is tough on equipment. “The
tissue mills have dust and fibers f lying through the
air, and equipment gets easily gummed.
“But Edson case-packing equipment is robust
enough to handle it all,” she adds, “throughout its
service-life of around 15 years.”
That well-earned reputation continues to validate itself in continued sales growth, according to
Moar, as even during the most recent economic
downswing, Edson’s production volumes continued to increase.
By always striving to add added-value propositions to its machinery, Moar explains, Edson has
been able to retain a strong competitive edge.
“While we are known in the market as a horizontal case-packing equipment manufacturer, we are
also looking to expand our reach,” Moar points out.
“In the very near future we will be debuting a
new horizontal top-load case-packer that we feel
will be perfect for the beverage and f lexible casepacking markets.”
Moar says that along with building robust endof-line equipment, Edson has always been able
to provide its customers with production speeds
greater than what they ask for.
“We’re always thinking about the future, even if
the customer isn’t quite there yet,” says Moar.
“But they will be eventually, and so there’s nothing wrong with over-satisfying the customer by
13-12-06 10:05 AM
AUTOMATE NOW
Edson Packaging Machinery’s new SR3550sa case- and tray-packer/sealer demonstrates its robust efficiency at the company’s manufacturing facility in Hamilton.
letting them know in advance that their equipment
still has some more gas left in the tank when they
need it.”
As of February 2012, Edson Packaging became a
part of the Pro Mach, Inc. family, a Cincinnati,
Ohio-headquartered conglomerate of various
packaging equipment segments across the U.S. and
Canada, ranking as one of the leading providers of
packaging equipment and solutions for the food,
beverage, household goods, pharmaceutical and
other diverse industrial and consumer companies.
For Edson Packaging, the new ownership will
provide a welcome opportunity to cross-sell products across the entire Pro-Mach board, according
to Moar.
“One Pro-Mach brand can sell you any ProMach brand,” exclaims Moar, noting Edson can
now offer its customers full turnkey solutions for
their needs.
“As an example, we could actually offer a com-
As part of its InteleSuite intelligent packaging system, Edson utilizes the power of Beckhoff Automation’s multitouch touchscreen to access the easy-to-use safety control features of the InteleVüe packaging equipment management concept.
plete upstream program to a tissue mill, right from
the log entering the mill through to a pallet load of
tissues leaving the premises.”
Moar adds that with the purchase of Edson by
Pro-Mach, the company has essentially altered the
way it thinks about who it is—which is not only a
case-packer manufacturing company, but one that
can offer end-of-line and turnkey solutions.
Case in Point
While the cross-selling of other Pro-Mach brand
of equipment is a welcome boost of business, Moar
relates that Edson Packaging maintains a keen
focus on building perhaps the most robust machinery in the business, including:
• High-speed, f lexible, large case- and tray-packer
SR 3600;
• High-speed, case- and tray-packer/sealer SR
3500;
• Four-station case-erector, packer and sealer 3200
with KDF (knocked down f lat) box dispensing;
• The versatile, general-purpose 3100S caseerector, packer and sealer;
• The basic 1000 Series air-powered semi-automatic case-packer.
For those who need it, Edson also designs and
manufactures a diverse line of robotic pick-andplace case-packers.
Along with creating customized robotic solutions
built on the integrated innovations of customized
robotic systems, Edson customers can utilize:
• RPd 270 precision-based robotic top-load case/
tray packer with multi-servo case handling
automation;
• RP 240 case-packer for small, light products;
• RP 215 Series f lexible top-load case and traypacking systems.
“When it comes to top-load case and or tray-
13-12-05 4:28 PM
AUTOMATE NOW
Left: Quick Respionse (QR) tags placed upon parts that
could potentially experience wear-and-tear over the life of
the capital equipment enables operators to perform diagnostic analysis in under 60 seconds, thanks to Edson’s
InteleLink intelligent packaging system.
The InteleLink system (below)
below) allows customers to
below
quickly and easily link directly with their machinery via a
smartphone positioned within range of the RFID tag.
packing, Edson has the equipment to handle a wide
range of product weights and sizes,” offers Moar.
“From two-axis gantry robots to the more complex multi-axis robotics that can provide orientation changes, we have a solution.”
Moar says that robotics can often provide end
users with labor savings and production speed efficiencies they may not have thought of themselves.
Taking things to another level, however, Edson
has also tapped into some of the technological
known-how of Pro-Mach’s OEMs (original
equipment manufacturers) and automation suppliers, explains Moar, to develop the InteleSuite
on-machine intelligent packaging system featuring
three new leading edge concepts marked under the
InteleTül, InteleVüe and InteleLink brand names.
Sweet Rewards
According to Moar, all three of these InteleSuite systems can help a customer reduce its downtime and
costs, while helping them maintain and operate their
Edson equipment more effectivly and efficiently.
“Customers are always looking for
value-added from their equipment
manufacturers, and the InteleSuite will
provide up-to-date information on their
tools, machine cycles, operating recipes
and parts management data for critical
preventative maintenance, better cost
management and optimized uptime,”
relates Moar.
“Not only do these InteleSuite tools
provide that information, but they can
also add a level of comfort for the customer by improving the human-machine
interaction by reducing errors, providing
instant feedback on issues, and providing detailed ‘how-to’ information,” she
continues.
“The time and efficiency savings are
substantial,” Moar states.
Developed by Edson for optimizing
product changeovers, the InteleTül will
verify that the proper part and set-up
is being used, while also recording tool
usage, number of cycles, and maintenance information.
If the wrong part has been installed, the
machine will simply not
operate.
“The
innovative
InteleTül employs an
I/O (input/output) link-based RFID (radiofrequency identification) system developed by
Balluff,” notes Moar.
“And when this whole system works with our
innovative Servo Adjust feature, the operator can
perform machine adjustments with a simple push
of a button.”
This can reduce changeover times from 30 minutes to a mere five minutes, and be completely
error-free.
“Our goal was to make changeovers as easy and
error-free as possible,” she explains, “while capturing data that can be used for overall part and
machine management.”
The brainchild of Moar herself, InteleLink uses
Near Field Communication (NFC) technology
to provide instant product support via instruction manuals, videos with set-up and replacement
instructions, and e-mail communications.
Utilizing QR (quick response) codes—a highdensity matrix barcode in the form of an RFID
(radio frequency identification) optically machinereadable label—Edson places them at various points
on its machinery.
Code Medicine
These codes can be easily accessed via a smartphone
to provide customers with quick and easy access
to specific technical manuals relating to a specific
area of the machinery; videos relating to how to
troubleshoot or replace a part; and even e-mails
with messages to a technical service department
detailing the problem.
As Moar explains, “InteleLink works like the
chip on a bankcard, but in this case providing a
link to one’s capital equipment.”
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DECEMBER 2013
23
13-12-06 10:06 AM
AUTOMATE NOW
An RFID tag is placed below a Balluff Ethernet I/O Block
by Edson Packaging as part of the company’s InteleLink
parts and machine management system.
Edson provided a live demonstration of the
InteleLink technology to Canadian Packaging
showing a total of 30 QR codes applied to various machine parts of its new SR3550sa case- and
tray-packer/sealer.
“Each QR tag represents a possible diagnostic
point on the machine, though a customer could
request fewer or more tags, depending on their
needs,” says Moar.
“After touching and scanning a QR code with a
smartphone, a customer can perform an equipment
diagnostic in 45 seconds, rather than 45 minutes.”
Moar explains that should information change on an
equipment part, an alteration can easily be made at the
catalog site, which will then automatically be updated
any time and anyplace a customer wants to activate it.
“We can customize the InteleLink tags by plant, by
machine, by part, and by customer, and have it contain nearly any kind of content users want to provide
on the machine instantaneously,” explains Moar.
“InteleLink is an outstanding maintenance,
troubleshooting and safety tool,” she asserts. “It
saves time and allows users to perform virtually
any support activity while near the machine.”
Not limited to a specific amount or location or Pro-Mach family capital equipment machine, a D-Link camera is
mounted within the machinery to provide an added level of operator safety via the Edson InteleVüe system.
The recorded video data can then help users make
fine adjustments, troubleshoot issues and identify
potential problems before they result in downtime,
Moar explains.
The 24-inch, multitouch industrial PC screen
from Beckhoff provides the convenience of a tablet
installed directly on critical capital equipment.
“Just released by Beckhoff at the 2013 Hannover
Automation Fair in April, one of the neat aspects of
the Beckhoff screen is that it allows for fingerprint
scanning,” says Moar, “which provides for secure
operation and maintenance functions.
“Thanks to the streaming live videos into
the Beckhoff HMI (human-machine interface)
touchscreen, it helps keep the operator out of the
machine’s work area,” says Moar. “You can see
potential trouble spots with the viewing screen.”
Moar adds that plans are afoot for Edson to soon
offer a wand that will allow any tagged InteleLink
content to be viewed on the InteleVüe touchscreen,
or populated in an e-mail that can be sent to connected non-NFC compliant devices.
“All three of the InteleSuite systems can help
equipment operators reduce downtime and costs,
while allowing them to maintain and operate their
Edson or Pro-Mach machines both effectively and
more efficiently,” says Moar. “It ultimately means
a better-run production line in both the short and
the long run.”
While all three systems are available together as
an integrated support system, Edson is currently
offering the InteleTül, InteleVüe and InteleLink as
individual, stand-alone systems.
The good news is that the InteleSuite systems can
each be retrofitted onto existing Edson and ProMach packaging equipment systems already on the
Looking Good
Moar relates that the development of the InteleVüe
technology was greatly enhanced by the partnership Pro-Mach has with leading automation components manufacturer Beckhoff Automation.
“This is definitely a technology that we would
not have been able to push forward without both
the financial backing of Pro-Mach and its relationship with Beckhoff,” Moar acknowldeges.
The InteleVüe system utilizes Beckhoff ’s smart
touchscreen, that provides a real-time or recorded
high-speed video captured by magnetic, wireless
cameras that Edson can place anywhere a customer
wants inside a machine.
Manufactured by Beckhoff Automation, the 24-inch color
multi-touchscreen shows four different camera views from
within an Edson SR3550sa case- and tray-packer/sealer.
13-12-06 10:06 AM
a giant breakthrough
in small readers
Edson utilizes the technological prowess of Festo’s MTR-ECI low-voltage, compact synchronous positioning servo motors, featuring an integrated drive, gearbox and encoder, for enabling a completely decentralized approach for automated motion control tasks.
production line f loor, according to Moar.
“Our Pro-Mach relationship has been highly
beneficial for Edson right from the get-go,” says
Moar adding that Edson has upped its annual R&D
(research and development) investments from 3.8
per cent to 10 percent.
“While also giving us access to Pro-Mach’s best
partners like Beckhoff Automation, it has also provided us with additional purchasing power, access
to engineering best-practices, a new product
development system, and an opportunity to reach
not only a higher level technically, but also given
us a larger customer base.
“The InteleSuite system is the first thing we have
developed thanks to our ownership and partnership with Pro-Mach,” sums up Moar.
“We still have our thinking caps on, because we
are always looking for more technological ways to
improve the whole production line experience for
our customers.”
Edson Packaging Machinery Limited
Beckhoff Automation Canada Ltd.
Rockwell Automation Inc.
Nordson Canada Limited
Festo Inc.
Shuttleworth, Inc.
Pro-Mach, Inc.
Balluff Canada Inc.
D-Link Corporation
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
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As part of its InteleLink feature, Edson Packaging has placed a QR-formatted RFID tag upon a Nordson-manufactured
Freedom Hot Melt Delivery System applicator attached to its SR3550sa case-packer/sealer demonstration unit.
December 2013 • CANADIAN PACKAGING
25
PRODUCT ID NOW
Brian Mullins, cofounder and co-owner
of HapiFoods Group
Inc. is proud to have
his all-organic Holy
Crap cereal eaten
all over the world
and out of it, at the
orbiting International
Space Station.
SPACE ODDITIES
Canadian organic cereal manufacturer blasts off to new heights and new locales
PHOTOGRAPHY BY
CHRISTOPHER GRABOWSKI
G
etting a boost of energy from eating
healthy foods should come as no surprise
from those who do it, but using booster
rockets that cost NASA (National Aeronautical
Space Administration) $36,000 a pound to
ship up into Earth’s
orbit to the ISS
(International
Space
Station)
Station),
well, that was a
Tang-moment
-moment
to
cherish forever for an
innovative West Coast
cereal manufacturer.
One thing’s for cercer
tain, whether it’s along
for space exploration or
battling the digestive tract
of the dragons, or simsim
ply putting a smile on the
face of everyday consumconsum
ers, the folks over at the
HapiFoods
Group
Inc. certainly know
their crap, if you’ll
forgive the pun.
The brainbrain
child of a
husband and
wife team,
11PAC-PID-TAB.indd 26
Corin and Brian Mullins, HapiFoods was formed
thanks to the success of its first brand offering,
Holy Crap cereal, that was started in 2009 with
a mere pocketful of change ($129) and an idea to
provide a healthy food that tastes great.
With that initial investment supported by
uncanny self-belief and resolve, HapiFoods quickly
grew to become a key player in the artisan cereal
manufacturing industry, with consumers reaching
around the world and even above it.
The 22-employee company has expanded with a
warehouse in Wilson’s Creek, B.C., and headquarters, warehouse and production facility in Gibsons
totaling 10,000 square feet.
In 2008, after settling in the picturesque community of Sechelt—a hidden gem of a place accessible only by seaplane or ferry and located about 50
kilometers northwest of Vancouver—the Mullins
set about to create a cereal that could provide a
nutritious meal for Brian, who was suffering from
various food allergies and sensitivities.
While the health benefits were of paramount
importance, the Mullins were also intent on proving that just because something is good for you, it
doesn’t mean it has to taste like crap.
In the end, they actually proved everyone right
on every point: in health benefits, in taste and in
name.
While the Mullins’ admit that the cereal idea was
to help with Brian’s dietary needs, he adds that the
idea was first formulated back in 1998, after they
had survived the devastating Quebec winter icestorm without food, water or power.
Corin thought of creating an emergency survival
kit for difficult emergencies, that contained a highprotein cereal with a long storage life, only to discover such a cereal did not exist.
Although it took a few years and 21 different
recipes combinations, the Mullins hit upon the
right formula to create a gluten-free, vegan-certified organic breakfast cereal with an all-natural
non-GMO (genetically modified organism) list
of organic foodstuffs comprising: black chia seed,
buckwheat, hulled hemp seeds, cranberries (sugar,
sunf lower), oil, raisins, apple bits and cinnamon,
that to the initial surprise of everyone involved, the
stuff actually tasted great.
“Even I will admit that most healthy foods taste
healthy, which is a code-word for ‘tastes like cardboard’,” founder and co-owner Brian Mullins told
Canadian Packaging magazine during in recent
interview.
“But we finally hit upon a winner—a nutrition-packed specialty breakfast that is 65-percent sourced from Canadian ingredients and that
actually tastes great.”
In May of 2009 after coming up with a cereal that
was safe and healthy for her hubby, Corin Mullins
decided to try her luck at the Sechelt Farmer’s
Market, initially selling a mere 10 bags.
It was at the next appearance at the market that
the Mullins’ had an ephiphany—thanks to one
experienced by a customer.
As Mullins recalls, “That customer said to me:
‘Holy Crap! After eating this, I had the most amazing —’ I’ll let you fill in your own descriptive word
here.”
Upon hearing about such earnest reactions,
13-12-06 10:07 AM
PRODUCT ID NOW
Supplied by Harlund Industries, HapiFoods uses an
Emplex 6500 bag sealer to seal in the organic freshness
of its healthy and tasty cereals.
quick-thinking Brian decided to rebrand the tasty
HapiFoods cereal as Holy Crap.
Using primarily word-of-mouth, the news of a
tasty and healthy breakfast cereal with a quirky but
catchy brand name spread like wildfire in the community, with daily sales soaring, Mullins recalls,
which sounds like a lot, but was still a growth from
10 bags a day to over 100.
“Nowadays, Holy Crap cereal and our three
other brands are sold in over 2,500 retail shops
across Canada and the U.S., and are the favorite
cereals of athletes, diabetics, celiacs, dieters and
even astronauts,” says Mullins.
“And with our on-line store, our products are shipped
to over 40 countries around the world and more.”
It’s that ‘and more’ comment that really puts Holy
Crap into some elite company.
Featuring an out-of-this-world taste that
Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has attested to,
Holy Crap was okayed by NASA to join the fivemonth space mission between December 2012
and May 2013 in the Earth-orbiting International
Space Station.
Aside from the health benefits of the cereal, NASA really liked the fact that the cereal is
crumble- and dust-free—two important factors
to consider when hungry astronauts are bobbing
along in zero gravity, and making it imperative
that the very expensive and important scientific
equipment is kept in perfect working order.
And, regarding an estimated cost of $36,000 per
pound of cereal to bring it up to the ISS, NASA
did have to design and repackage Holy Crap to its
own unique specifications for its trip into space.
Dragon’s Gold Medal
Regardless of the kitschy name that lures people
in, the Mullins’ are well aware that it is the healthy
and nutritious ingredients in the cereal that keep
customers coming back for more.
The cereal business received a healthy boost during the 2010 Winter Olympics held in Vancouver
when its kiosk at the Granville Island Market in
Vancouver was discovered by Olympic visitors and
by the international media who also seem to adore
the interesting cereal name.
With international notoriety came a huge
increase in repeat global online sales, as once again
quality won out over a rebranded expletive.
It was a few months later, in November of 2010,
that the Mullins’ made an appearance on the popular CBC television program Dragons’ Den, to seek
financial sponsorship, or at least some sound advice
on how to possibly gain more customers.
After a simple taste test, Mullins relates, some
members of the Dragons’ Den were prepared to
offer the cereal makers a blank cheque to buy into
this business opportunity.
“I should be clear, however, that HapiFoods did
not formulate a deal with anyone from the Dragons’
Den, because we didn’t want to give up majority
control in our own business,” says Mullins, noting the Dragons’ Den panel later acknowledged that
HapiFoods was indeed the most successful business
to ever come out of the show.
But for HapiFoods, aside from some great advice,
it managed to gain even more media attention.
“We had about 100 orders a month, and we went
to about 2,000 orders a day after that,” says Mullins.
“In fact, we generated over $1 million from our
on-line store the week after the show aired.”
Hot on the heels of the successful Holy Crap cereal, the company developed three other brands:
Skinny B, Mary Jane and Wild Chia.
Catchy cereal names aside, the one thing that can
not be denied is the fact that these popular cereals
are great-tasting and pack a healthy wallop to kickstart your day.
Says Mullins: “We didn’t simply just add a bunch
of healthy ingredients together, shake well and serve.
“We really did our research on many ingredients
and what benefits they could offer and how they
would blend together to provide a pleasurable eating experience for the consumer.”
HapiFoods enjoys expounding the fact that the
single serving of Holy Crap or Skinny B cereal packs
higher levels of omega-3 and omega-6 than in a
serving of wild Atlantic salmon.
Moreover, one serving of these cereals contains
50 per cent more protein than two tablespoons of
f lax seed and possesses more fiber than a standard
bran muffin.
Skinny B cereal contains all natural, non-GMO
ingredients, including: organic chia, organic buckwheat and organic hulled hemp seeds.
“Skinny B actually contains twice the amount
of chia in the blend than the Holy Crap cereal,”
Mullins points out.
According to HapiFoods, chia is a species of
f lower from the mint family that contains a soluble
and gentle fiber that is supposed to be good for the
digestive tract.
Those wanting just chia for cereal need look no
farther than the company’s Wild Chia brand, while
those preferring just hemp seed can chow down on
Mary Jane, according to Mullins.
Thanks to the marketing impact of the Dragons’
Den television appearance that caused a huge
upswing in the cereal’s demand, and a desire to
maintain control over its product to provide proper
quality assurance to its consumers, HapiFoods is
committed to owning and operating its own production facility—rather than rely on contract packaging—in whatever country it decides to expand.
“Here in B.C., when our sales started to go crazy
at the end of 2010, we looked for, but could not find
a co-packer that was allergen-free, so we built our
own facility from scratch,” Mullins proudly states.
It’s that need to ensure its products are manufactured in a safe and controlled environment that has
formed the way it expands its business into other
countries, Mullins relates.
“We just finalized a deal in China,” explains
Mullins, “and rather than have a Chinese company
order ingredients and pack product with our name
on it for the Chinese market, we are committed to
doing it all ourselves in China with our own facility.”
Joining HapiFoods on this journey, says Mullins,
will be Harlund Industries Ltd., a Canadian
firm that has already populated the B.C. facility
with production line equipment, and is expected to
do the same wherever the cereal producer decides
to set up shop.
Led by the affable Bruce Hartfelder, Harlund
Industries is headquartered in Edmonton, with
additional offices in Vancouver, Montreal and
Toronto providing top-quality printing and coding equipment, baggers and other packaging
equipment across Canada.
Mullin says that for HapiFoods, working with
Harlund packaging and coding systems representative
Rob Vanstone from the B.C. office has been great.
“Not only has the service been spectacular, but
the equipment we have purchased from Harlund
Industries could not be better,” Mullins says.
Headquartered in Edmonton, with branches in Toronto,
Montreal and Vancouver, Harlund Industries has supplied HapiFoods with top-of-the-line coders, baggers
and labeling system.
13-12-06 10:07 AM
PRODUCT ID NOW
The Foxjet Pro Series 384 box coder utilizes an easy-touse 17-inch Marksman ELITE, Windows-based controller
and operating system.
• Two Emplex 6500 continuous band sealers manufactured by Plexpack;
• One Hitachi RX Standard inkjet coder;
• One Belcor 5150 semi-automatic case-forming
top and bottom taper, including an accumulation
table and a powered outfeed conveyor manufactured by Wexxar/BEL;
• One FoxJet ProSeries high-resolution box coding system with an Elite controller and a 384
two-inch printhead;
• A Nita bag labeling system.
“We have two production lines that each pack
about 5,000 units (f lexible bags) a day, five days a
week,” says Mullins, adding that HapiFoods handpacks its bags with a pharmaceutical-like precision.
A Nita labeler supplied by Harlund Industries quickly and
efficiently applies color adhesive labels to blank flexible
film pouches before each one is hand-filled with cereal.
A close-up view of a Foxjet ProSeries 384 box-coder supplied by Harlund Industries, quickly applying smudge-proof
inkjet product data and barcodes to corrugated cartons filled with pouches of of HapiFoods cereal.
In operation, blank stand-up, laminated foil f lexible pouches pass the Nita bag to have a full graphic
label attached to each side of the pouch before filling.
Mullins says that not only cereals are packed by
weight, each container is actually packed by weight
of individual ingredient, which is why HapiFoods
currently prefers to fill each bag by hand before running each through an Emplex 6500 band sealer.
Attached upon one of the Emplex 6500’s, the
Hitachi RX Standard inkjet coder applies bestbefore and lot code data directly to the blank
stand-up laminated foil f lexible pouches used for
the eight-ounce (225-gram) cereal packs.
The Hitachi RX series features an efficient nozzle
design that provides for a higher print speeds without quality degradation. Equipped with a 10.4inch color touch panel, it can store up to 2,000
print messages and can have data easily backed up
with a USB memory stick.
After the Belcor 5150 corrugated caseformer readies a master carton, each is hand-filled with the cereal pouches, hand-taped shut, and then moved past
the Foxjet coder to have product coding applied.
“It’s quick and efficient, and it’s a real credit to
Harlund Industries, who have provided us with
such good equipment,” says Mullins.
“We’ve enjoyed working with them on our initial
packaging lines here in B.C., and we look forward
to continuing that relationship as we continue our
global expansion,” he says.
Not content to rest on their well-earned laurels,
Mullins says that along with Holy Crap and others
being available in two-pound industrial bags,
HapiFoods is releasing two new personal-size food
packs of 45 and 56 grams respectively.
While clearly excited about the new product
release, Mullins does lament a specific packaging
idiosyncrasy.
Being a food processor that cares about what
people eat, he says that he has been unable to find a
more environmentally-friendly pouch that suits his
own green mindset and satisfies the cereal’s shelflife requirements.
“We’ve had to look more to food safety than
sustainability in our packaging quest,” explains
Mullins. “Because of the ingredients we have in
our cereals, the oils secreted by them need to be
well-contained.
“And so far, we haven’t found a f lexible film
package that can withstand the rigors of our natural ingredients.”
All in all, it’s only fitting that HapiFoods has garnered more than a few awards and adulations with
Corin herself recently becoming the first-ever
Canadian winner of the Ernst & Young 2013
Entrepreneurial Winning Women competition, a
program designed to help women break through
barriers that keep thriving second-stage businesses
from reaching the next level.
Mullins says it’s an exciting award for both Corin
and HapiFoods, as the award and ensuing business
trip provide the company with a chance to hobnob with other businesses, top executives, business
advisors and prospective investors.
And, while Mullins says the company isn’t going
into such an event with its hands open looking for
money, he likens it to the Dragons’ Den opportunity: going in with open eyes and ears hoping to
gain critical data on how to make HapiFoods even
more successful.
As Mullins sums up, “HapiFoods has worked hard
to create a cereal like Holy Crap that is not only good
for you, but tastes like it’s bad for you—tasty, that is.
“Holy Crap and our other cereals use products
that are naturally gluten-free, sugar-free, nutrient
dense and delicious,” he concludes, “and for anyone
out there who wants to make a positive change to
your overall diet then HapiFoods has the perfect
cereal for you.”
Plexipack Corporation
Hitachi, Ltd.
Nita Labeling Equipment
Wexxar Packaging, Inc.
FoxJet, an ITW Company
460
461
462
463
464
465
13-12-06 10:08 AM
SHOW REPORT
STANDING OUT IN A CROWD
A novel packaging show idea gains traction with the professional packaging community
SEW-Eurodrive Company of Canada Ltd. was the sponsor of the Top 50 Packaging Ideas expo.
PHOTOS BY COLE GARSIDE
T
o put it in simple terms, it was in idea
whose time had clearly come.
Or at least it seemed this way for the
nearly 40 tabletop exhibitors and the over 300
visitors to the Top 50 Packaging Ideas tabletop
exhibition held at the Mississauga Convention
Centre last month in Mississauga, Ont.
A brainchild of Canadian Packaging publisher
Stephen Dean, the lively and highly interactive
one-day networking event hit all the right notes
in providing some of Canada’s leading suppliers
of packaging equipment, materials and services to
show off what they had to offer to the packaging
marketplace in a fairly intimate setting to an appreciative and engaged audience representing some of
the country’s prominent CPG (consumer packaged
goods) manufacturers and brand-owners looking
for practical solutions for optimizing their packaging operations, improving their environmental
profile, enhancing their product quality and generally running a better business.
Drawing healthy foot traffic throughout the day,
the Top 50 Packaging Ideas show also included a
well-attended educational conference component—thanks to two seminars presented by Eiko
Filler, product manager for gearmotors and mechatronic drive systems at the Brampton, Ont.-based
SEW-Eurodrive. Co. of Canada Ltd., and
Leonardo Giglio, vice-president of marketing with
the Innisfill, Ont.-based f lexible pouching products
manufacturer Tempo Plastics Limited.
While SEW’s Filler provided a comprehensive
technical overview of his company’s Movigear
DSC and Movifit ranges of decentralized drive
systems and controls, Tempo’s Giglio retraced his
company’s successful evolution from a commodity producer of standard polypropylene bags to a
thriving manufacturer of value-added, f lexible
stand-up pouches for a broad range of food industry applications.
Atlantic Packaging’s Vito Mangialardi (left)
left) next to Brian Iseman of SteamPak, alongside
left
Add Ink’s Dasha Pyat and Atlantic’s maketing director Luis Prior.
11PAC-SHR-TAB.indd 29
SEW-Eurodrive showcased its innovative Movigear and powerful motors at the expo.
According to Dean, “Most exhibitors at the Top
50 Packaging Ideas show were pleasantly surprised
by the steady stream of quality people who came
to the show.
“Some of our exhibitors made appointments
with new prospects who came specifically to the
show to see the products and suppliers who were
featured on the e-blasts we deployed to our extensive CPG e-database at Canadian Packaging.
“Both exhibitors and visitors alike commented
on how much they enjoyed the informal environment of the tabletop affair that was so conducive
to the exchange of ideas,” says Dean, citing the
presence of representatives from leading CPG
brand-owners such as Nestlé, High Liner Foods,
MolsonCoors, Loblaw, General Mills and
Agropur, among others.
“Many exhibitors have already told us they will
want to participate in the next Top 50 Packaging
Ideas table top expo that will be held in the fall of
2014,” Dean states.
Atlantic Packaging was voted top innovator for its augmented reality interactive packaging,
developed by its Add Ink subsidiary, activated by smartphone (inset).
inset
inset).
13-12-05 4:37 PM
SHOW REPORT
Metro Label sales team shows off the company’s broad
offering of labeling products.
This sentiment was widely shared among the
exhibitors.
“We made some nice new contacts and even came
back with several concrete projects,” says Nicholas
Taraborelli, vice-president of sales and marketing with the Montreal-based bagging machinery
manufacturer WeighPack Systems Inc.
“We had a great show,” adds Ruddy Bolanos, sales
representative for digital label printers manufacturer
QuickLabel Systems. “In fact, I had a few customers
that came exclusively to see us at the show, who complimented how well it was managed and organized.”
Adds Tempo’s Giglio: “We had a full house for
the seminar we gave during the show, so we are
very pleased with our decision to participate.”
Most exhibitors agreed that the show’s tabletop
format was more than sufficient for being able to
get out their message to the marketplace without
the burden and expense of setting up large pieces
of equipment like they do at major national and
international packaging exhibitions, with the
added benefit of being able to spend more time
IPL Plastics works on getting the leads.
Rick Gessler of Delkor Systems knows his case-packing.
Gerry Celucci of Shawpak Systems (left)
left) and
left
Gail Misener of Sealstrip Corp.
Leonardo Giglio of Tempo Plastics Ltd. talks up
shelf-life innovation.
with their existing and prospective customers.
“The f low of visitors remained quite steady
throughout the length of the show,” says Paul St.
Amour, regional sales manager for CTM Labeling
Systems, a prominent manufacturer of print-andapply equipment.
“We are very pleased with the turnout and the
quality of visitors.”
QuickLabel Systems exhibit the new Kiaro! digital color
label printer.
Brian St. Germain (left)
left) of Technical Adhesives Ltd. chats with Joseph Campbell of Atlantic Packaging Products.
left
The Igus Inc. display opens up for business.
Norampac’s display drew lively foot traffic from atten-
Sealed Air team ready to greet visitors.
11PAC-SHR-TAB.indd 30
Mark Conforti of WeighPack Systems Inc. doing booth duty.
13-12-06 10:16 AM
ANNOUNCEMENTS
EVENTS
Jan. 22-23
San Francisco, Ca.: Sustainable Foods Summit, conference by Organic Monitor. At Hotel Nikko San
Francisco. To register, go to:
www.sustainablefoodssummit.com
Feb. 3-5
Cincinnati, Ohio-headquartered automated
material handling systems manufacturer and integrator Intelligrated is expanding its southern U.S.
operations with a move to a new 54,000-squarefoot facility in Alpharetta, Ga. (see picture), which
will also house the company’s recently-acquired
Knighted logistics software business. According to
the company, the new office provides more space
for Intelligrated and Knighted solution development specialists, project managers, software and
quality engineers, sales and technical training
and support, along with state-of-the-art software
testing and customer demonstration areas. Says
Intelligrated’s chief executive officer Chris Cole:
“The new space is designed to bring our teams
together and enhance our ability to provide integrated solutions that combine Knighted software
with Intelligrated automation.”
Rochester, N.Y.-based folding-carton manufacturer Diamond Packaging has recently won
five awards—including the coveted Folding Carton
of the Year honors—in the 70th annual North
American Paperboard Packaging Competition of the
Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC) held last
month in Dallas, Tex. Selected by a jury of pack
packaging professionals, industry experts and academics, Diamond’s winning Folding Carton of the Year
entry—a high-end carton for the Elizabeth Arden’s
Limited Edition Sunflowers perfume (picture below)—
was chosen on the basis of the “overall presentation
that imparts unusual depth and distinction through
creative design, material selection, UV matte and
gloss spot coating, embossing and debossing.” Made
with the Sundance Ultra White Felt brand textured
paperboard manufactured by Neehan Paper, the
carton was offset-printed with three PMS (Pantone
Matching System) colors and dense black inks in-line
with UV matte and UV gloss spot coating. According
to Diamond, “The graphics were enhanced with
embossed sunflower petals on the front and rear panels and debossed text on
the side panels—creating
a unique visual and tactile presentation to stand
out in the crowded retail
environment.”
Miamisburg, Ohioheadquartered Anderson & Vreeland has been
appointed as Canadian distributor for the full
product line of integrated prepress hardware and
software solutions for packaging, labeling, signage
and commercial printing applications developed by
the Belgian print services group Esko. Servicing
the Canadian market out of its offices in Montreal
and Mississauga, Ont., Anderson & Vreeland has
been one of Esko’s leading resellers in the U.S.
since 2008. According to the company’s vicepresident Drew Elisius, “Our experience working
with Esko products in the U.S. offers us a great
head start in Canada, assuring that our customers
will benefit from the knowledge we have built up
over the years.”
11CPAC-ANN-PPL-EVT-TAB.indd 31
Orlando, Fla: 2014 Packaging Conference, annual
forum and tabletop exhibition by The Packaging
Conference LLC. At Rosen Shingle Creek. To
register, go to:
www.thepackagingconference.com
Feb. 5-6
Paris, France: Aerosol & Dispensing Forum 2014,
international conference by Oriex Communication.
At the Espace Champerret. To register, go to:
www.aerosol-forum.com
Feb. 10-13
Orlando, Fla.: Industry in Transition: The
Information-driven Enterprise, annual industry
forum by ARC Advisory Group. At Renaissance
Orlando at SeaWorld. To register, go to:
www.arcweb.com/events
Feb. 12-13
PEOPLE
Reston, Va.-headquartered PMMI-The
Association for Packaging and Processing
Technologies has announced the appointment
of five new members of the group’s Board of
Directors, including:
• Alan Shuhaibar, president, BellatRx Inc.,
Pointe-Claire, Que.:
• Pres Lawhon, president, Bosch Packaging
Technology, Inc., New Richmond, Wis.;
• Martin Prakken, chief executive officer, BluePrint
Automation, Inc., Colonial Heights, Va.;
• Gary Saunders, president and chief executive officer, Magnum Systems, Inc., Kansas City, Ks.:
• Gary Tantimonico, vice-president of operations,
PDC International Corp., Norwalk, Conn.
Luxembourg-headquartered printing inks and
chemicals producer Flint Group has appointed
Eric Gibbs as national accounts
manager for the company’s
Flint Group Flexographic
Products
subsidiary
in
Charlotte, N.C., with additional
responsibilities for new business
development throughout the
Gibbs
North American region.
Paris, France: Pharmapack Europe 2014, pharmaceutical packaging exhibition and conference by
UBM Canon. At Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles.
To register, go to: www.pahrmapack.fr
Feb. 17-19
Orlando, Fla.: Innovation Takes Root, international
biopolymers conference by NatureWorks LLC. At
Orlando World Center Marriott. To register, go
to: www.innovationtakesroot.com
Feb. 19-21
Orlando, Fla.: NPE 2015, international plastics
exposition by SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade
Association. At the Orange County Convention
Center. To register, go to: www.npe.org
March 13
Green Bay, Wis.: Converters Expo, package converting technologies exhibition by BNP Media. At
the Lambeau Atrium. To register, go to:
www.convertersexpo.com
March 17-20
Atlanta, Ga.: MODEX 2014, manufacturing
and supply chain exhibition and conference by
MHI (Material Handling Industries) and Reed
Exhibitions. Concurrently with Supply Chain and
Transportation USA and Georgia Logisitcs Summit.
All at the Georgia World Congress Center. To
register, go to: www.modexshow.com
March 18-20
Cologne, Germany: Green Polymer Chemistry 2014,
international conference on sustainable production of plastics and elastomers by Applied Market
Information Ltd. At Maritim Hotel. To register, go
to: www.amiplastics.com
Selby
Meech International, U.K.-based manufacturer
of electrostatic controls and web cleaning systems for
printing, packaging, converting, food-processing and
other industrial
applications, has
appointed Scott
Cook as production
manager
and Paul Levene
as web-cleaning
Cook
Levene
specialist.
Flexible packaging products group Bemis
Company, Inc. of Neehan, Wis., has appointed
William Austen as executive vice-president and
chief operating officer.
Avery Dennison, Pasadena,
Ca.-headquartered manufacturer
of labeling and packaging materials, has appointed Kelly Hall as
vice-president for the company’s
Materials Group North America
business unit in Mentor, Ohio.
Hall
SATO America, Inc., Charlotte, N.C.-based
supplier of thermal barcode printing and labeling
technologies, has appointed Len Bono as business
development manager for consumables.
April 2-4
Montreal: SIAL Canada, international food and
beverage exposition by SIAL Group. Jointly with
the SET Canada national food equipment and
technology exposition. Both at Palais des congrès.
To register and for more information, go to:
www.sialcanada.com
Intelligrated, Cincinnati,
Ohio-headquartered manufacturer of automated material handling and end-of-line packaging
systems, has appointed Rod Selby
as business development director
for the Asia Pacific region.
Luke
Joe Luke, vice-president of
sales at Reed-Lane, Wayne,
N.J.-based provider of pharmaceutical co-packing services, has
joined the board of directors of
the Healthcare Compliance
Packaging Council (HCPC).
13-12-06 10:11 AM
CHEERS TO HANDY FOODSERVICE PACKAGING
A
s more varieties of
wines continue to
enter the market
from around the world, local
restaurants are coming under
increasing pressure to offer
more wines by the glass. Long may that continue,
I say, but having too great a selection does have
its downside: namely the many open bottles left
behind the bar with contents destined to go sour if
not consumed in timely fashion. Kudos then,
to all those wine producers with enough forefore
sight to market their brands in singleserve 200-ml
200- wine bottles, be they
plastic or glass. Selling our customers
individual 200-ml
200- bottles has helped
my restaurant greatly expand our
wine varieties on offer, while sigsig
nificantly reducing spoilage and all
the associated waste. In many cases,
the mini bottles also make for pretty
good eye-candy and conversation
piece at the dinner table by being
classy and faithful reproductions of
the larger-sized bottles. Moreover, this bottle size
is perfect for the higher-end bubbly stuff, as the
fizz simply does not last very long once the big
bottle is uncorked.
With winter here in its full freezing glory, the
demand for hot chocolate at our establishment
shoots up exponentially, and the Nestlé Carnation
Hot Chocolate pouches—shipped to us in boxes of 50
pouches each—are a terrific packaging solution for
our seasonal needs, with one 21-gram pouch making
a perfect serving when mixed in a mug of hot water.
Our busy bartenders love the big tearaway opening
on the box that facilitates quick and easy access to
the packets, and the open
box fits on just about any
available bit of shelf space
behind the bar. Using these
pouches naturally encourages automatic cost and
inventory control, which
is a prime requirement in
a business where time is
money and every single second counts.
Fresh never-frozen chicken is a paramount priority,
if not an outright obsession, for our perfectionist
chef. Happily for our kitchen staff, his uncompromising stand on this subject is aptly supported by
thoughtful efficiency of the 100-percent recycled
wax replacement corrugated boardbox cases manufactured by the RockTenn Company.
Company Each of
these boxes holds four bagged five-kilogram porpor
tions of fresh chicken
meat firmly in place.
Boasting
reliable
sturdy construction
that allows staff to
stack them three- or
four-high on top of each
other, the RockTenn boxes
feature convenient handle holes on each side to help
ease the physical burden of moving 20 kilos of meat
around in a fast-paced environment.
Freshness and cost control are also important
issues when it comes to juice, or rather being able
to offer our customers multiple juice offerings.
While both grapefruit juice and pineapple juice
are ‘must have’ items, both tend to go bad pretty
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
For more
information
on Classified
Advertising
please contact:
416-510-5198
11PAC-CHK-TAB.indd 32
Page
ADVERTISERS’ INDEX
103
Atlantic Packaging Products Ltd
115
ATI Industrial Automation
108
Balluff
8
107
Beckhoff
7
113
Cartier Packaging
17
111
CHEP
14
116
Cognex Corporation
25
106
Farm Credit Canada
5
104
4
114
Interpack
19
Title
110
Marel
11
Company Name
112
Robert Reiser & Co. Inc
15
101
SEW-Eurodrive Co. of Canada
IFC
109
Squid Ink
117
Technical Adhesives
105
Tsubaki
118
Unisource Canada
102
VideoJet Technologies Canada
23
9
33
4
34
1
As more of our customers are becoming better
aware of ‘green’ businesses practices, anything we
can do in this space for the cause helps us improve
own environmental footprint. One way we feel
we can make a subtle difference is in the choice of
takeout containers we use—namely the Eco-Fibre
Ware brand containers made by Eco Packaging
of Burnaby B.C. Available in a generous selection of
sizes, the strong, grease-proof and compostable EcoFibre Ware containers—as well as likeminded soup bowls, cutlery and
cups—have been well-received
by both our staff and customers,
with our servants quite happy
to remind the customers how
to dispose of packaging properly at
home. A happy parting thought any way
you look at it.
Jeff May is owner and proprietor of Scallywags,
a popular midtown Toronto sports pub specializing
in live coverage of major international sporting events.
For broadcast schedule, go to: www.scallywags.ca
FREE
R.S. No.
2
quickly once opened up. Alternatively, mixing
juice from concentrate or using “juice on the
gun” just never seems to replicate the taste profile
of the pre-packaged stuff, always tasting a little
‘off ’ compared to the real thing. No such problem,
however, for tomato juice—thanks to 156-ml
156-ml cans
of the Heinz Canada Fancy Tomato
Juice brand from Heinz Canada.
Canada
Offering the nutritional equivalent
of one serving of vegetables, each
can provides an ideal single-serving
size on its own, or as a mixer with
vodka in a lovingly-crafted Bloody
Mary cocktail. Cheers!
Photos by Jeff May
CHECKOUT JEFF MAY
PRODUCT INFORMATION
DECEMBER 2013
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
Address
City
Prov.
P/Code
Telephone
Fax
Email Address
13-12-05 4:17 PM
No Song and Dance …
JUST GREAT PRODUCTS!
Conrad Maziarczyk
Lou Cavallo
Brian St. Germain
President
Vice President of Operations
National Sales Manager
[email protected]
Owen Hawthorne
Ontario, British Columbia,
Midwest United States
Frank Cavallo
Territory Manager
[email protected]
Western Ontario, Western Canada,
Michigan, Midwest United States
Brendan Harrington
Marcus Hamilton
Territory Manager
Territory Manager
[email protected] [email protected]
Central Ontario, Eastern Canada,
Northeastern United States
Toronto East,
Northeastern United States
George Sequeira
Key Account Manager
Regional Sales Manager
James Figura
Territory Manager
[email protected]
Quebec, Eastern
United States
Justin Wrightman
Quebec
Derek Maziarczk
Sales Representative
Customer Service
Western Ontario, Michigan
Technical Adhesives Limited
3035 Jarrow Ave. Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L4X 2C6
Tel: 905.625.1284 Fax: 905.625.6841
Website: www.technicaladhesives.ca
TechAdh.indd 1
13-12-05 4:22 PM
efficiency reimagined
™
Stretch Wrapping Innovation
= Bottom Line Results
World-class technology for your packaging operation:
t Reduce damage by up to 50%
t Set and maintain standards
t Increase productivity
Industry-leading features from world leader in wrapping:
t Variable pre-stretch throughout wrap cycle up to 400%
t Film savings up to 55% over competitive stretch wrappers*
* with the right film
t 110" wrapping height
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1.800.UNISOURCE
Unisource.indd 1
www.unisourcepackaging.ca
13-12-05 4:20 PM

home-grown burger king at the forefront of premium meat

Transcription

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