UFOs land in holo cartons

With a suggested retail price of $1.59, the premium sour candy tablets are packed in sleeved cartons. The shiny cold-foil stamped and laminated 14-pt SBS embossed cartons are sleeved in embossed 14-pt SBS paperboard laminated with holographic film. The inner carton slides out, and users access the product after opening a perforated tear flap on the carton top.

Armand Hammer, president, feels UFOs’ packaging is an important part of the product experience. “It has a nice feel to it like the old match boxes. The packaging lets consumers know that this isn’t ordinary candy—the ‘wow’ packaging is great, but so is the candy. You have to have premium packaging to get people to try the product. UFOs does for candy what Altoids did for mints.”

The packaging effort was led by Bob Davis, purchasing manager. The cartons and sleeves are converted by Caraustar (Austell, GA), which laminates the sleeve with “Ripple” holographic 48-ga PET film from Spectratek (Los Angeles, CA) that Caraustar flexo-prints in eight colors. Selectively cold-foil stamped and laminated, a folded and glued portion of the one-piece carton creates a mirrored compartment for the candy.

The product is filled on modified equipment at a Caraustar plant. UFOs debuted in mid-2002 with the rollout recently accelerating into convenience stores, mass merchandisers and other outlets. Hammer says that UFOs “are screaming out of the stores. It appeals to 40-year-olds as much as five-year-olds. This is a combination of a superior package and product, and it’s doing extremely well.” —RL