Profile Packaging (Sarasota, FL) and Weyerhaeuser (Federal Way, WA) recently formed an alliance to market the patented SAAM (named for designer Bernard Saam) box.
What makes the one-piece wraparound die-cut case unusual is how it turns from a shipper to display case at retail. A notch allows a store employee to pull off a perforated knock-out front panel. That exposes the pouches that are interleaved on their sides in the case. Perforations on the case enable the employee to "break" the case open at its center so that the case turns into a two-compartment "tray." As the case is opened, the interleaved pouches separate, with an equal number of the bottom-gusseted pouches standing on their bases inside both halves of the side-by-side tray. Another perforation in the center of this tray permits retailers to further separate the tray into two single compartments. This lets the store display product in a back-to-back presentation.
"The fact that the box can be used as a shipper and then used to display the product is what's irresistible," says Roskam Baking owner Bob Roskam. He tells Packaging World that some 1ꯠ cases will be sent to retailers initially. "It's not a big consumer test, but something where we want retailer input. We've received a real positive response so far from virtually everyone we've discussed the SAAM case with, though we're still waiting to receive the blessing of some key accounts before we go into full-out production on it."
For the test, Roskam will use a HandiPac-SAAM case. This version is almost identical to the SAAM case. The difference is the HandiPac includes tab locks to permit manual set up. The 32-ECT, C-flute test case is flexo-printed in three colors for Roskam by Weyerhaeuser.
Automated erection of SAAM cases will be possible shortly. The first production machine, designated Model PSD-12, will be exhibited by Profile at Pack Expo West. "If everything goes right, we'll likely take the [Profile Packaging] machine right from the show in Las Vegas, bring it back to our plant and start production," says Roskam. The company, which will market its 73/16" W x 95/8" H pouches in a 2x6 configuration within the SAAM case, introduced stand-up pouches as a replacement for folding cartons for its croutons in '95 (see PW, June '95, p. 48).
