Giving consumers the spout they want pays off in sales

Super Store Industries wanted its juices and milk products to capture a larger share of the bottled water and juice market by offering consumers more convenience and differentiating its package in a significant way.

But the California company didn't want to make those gains at the expense of extended shelf life, package integrity and the other quality advantages it had worked for years to build. Portola Packaging offered a solution with a spout fitment and the equipment to apply the new spout.

'The experience of the water industry,' says Ron Harris, operations manager at Super Store Industries, 'showed us the value consumers are placing on convenience packaging, Spout fitments like those developed by Portola offer a consumer friendly, neat package.'

The EL 64 fitment that Portola recommended for Super Store's use features a removable interior oxygen barrier membrane that maintains the extended shelf life the packager wanted. The consumer removes the barrier easily using a convenient pull-ring (which also offers a second level of tamper-evidence, in addition to the tamper-evident band on the carton cap). The fitment is designed to be ultrasonically welded to the interior of the carton, rather than the exterior wall, which results in a cleaner look and a tight seal.

Portola's spout applicator system has a tool-less quick-clean sanitation capability that minimizes downtime - an important feature for any machine filling multiple products.

Since installation in 1996, the equipment has been trouble-free. Super Store Industries' chief engineer Tim Kelly states that. 'We have never had a day when the machine wasn't running.'

The new equipment and spout have proved themselves in other ways. Following the introduction of the EL 64 on the firm's orange juice with 'very positive' sales increases, management saw the ideal opportunity to test the fitment on a milk-based product with its seasonal run of eggnog. 'We had the best year ever, with a sales increase of 7%,' reports marketing manager Ron Harris. Super Store attributes the rise primarily to the product differentiation created on retail shelves by the visible added convenience of the new spout.

For more information from Portola Packaging, call (408) 441-1958.

COPYRIGHT 1998 Stagnito Communications
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