"Help me, help yourself," is the moral Evelyn Auld attributes to an unusual packaging change set in motion by an alert salesman. As the story goes, Roy Romisher, a West Coast salesman with Continental Plastics, was served chips and salsa in first class on a Reno Air flight. He liked the sauce but not the package, so he contacted the company, Mrs. Auld's Gourmet Foods of Reno. After six months of testing, the small specialty food packer converted to a 4-oz polypropylene jar that's topped by a 58-mm patented Clamp-Seal cap of high-density polyethylene. Both are injection-molded by Continental Plastics (Triadelphia, WV). They replaced a 1.5-oz glass jar that was sealed with a metal closure. This is how Romisher helped the food company and himself. For Mrs. Auld's, the new package is substantially less costly because the new jar and closure are both stock items from Continental. In addition, the new package weighs less. That's a benefit to the food company, but especially for Reno Air, which also likes the elimination of breakage. Finally, the 4-oz fill counters criticism that the 1.5-oz jar simply didn't provide enough sauce for the chips supplied. "Our chips and salsa are very popular," says Ed Heinonen, senior buyer for Reno Air. "We conducted a lot of tests and found that four ounces of salsa was an ideal quantity with a one-and-one-half-ounce bag of chips. "Our catering crews really like the fact they don't have to worry about breakage, a problem we had in the past with the glass jar. This package is simply easier to dispose of." The packaging improvement was one of the final projects of Evelyn's husband, Sam Auld, who was president of the food company until he died earlier this year. "Sam was an engineer who saw the potential savings in the plastic container, and he was instrumental in selling it to Reno Air," Evelyn remembers. The company also packs salsa in quart glass jars for sale through gift and gourmet shops.
Salsa jar sealed 'first class'
Polypropylene replaces glass jar for hot-filled salsa served on Reno Air flights. Special linerless cap holds vacuum, yielding 90-day shelf life.
Jun 30, 1996
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