Unique dispenser brings strong sales for Wella-Germany

Wella's Heiko Eberhardt, packaging development, is convinced the package had a lot to do with it. "It really makes the product stand out," he says. Design work was done in-house at Wella with support from an outside designer, says Eberhardt. But the two-piece head is produced by Kunststoffwerk Kutterer, represented in the U.S. by the Tube Division of J.L. Clark (Downers Grove, IL). The bottom component is injection-molded polypropylene. Also injection molded is a top section, but it uses what Eberhardt calls a "thermoplastic elastomer." It serves as a sort of finger rest or grip. "The finger fits better because it's not as slippery as the polypropylene," says Eberhardt. Kutterer snaps the two parts together on automated assembly equipment before shipment to Wella. Cost of the novel dispensing head, says Eberhardt, is comparable to conventional aerosol spray heads, and application on standard filling lines presents no particular difficulties. The product in its 250-mL aluminum container retails for about $4.00.