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Woven-mesh film bags are purr-fect for pet food

Innovative converting process results in a woven-mesh film bag that is durable, attractive, and economical for pet-food producer American Nutrition.

Pw 6561 Coating Excellence A R

American Nutrition, Inc. of Ogden, UT, has been in the business of providing fresh, nutritionally balanced pet-food products since 1977. Operating five manufacturing facilities across the country, the company produces more than 300,000 tons annually of pet food and snacks, including dry, baked, and wet foods.

To protect its products and keep them looking good on the retail shelf, in 2006 American Nutrition switched from multiwall paper bags for its larger-size dog and cat food products to woven-mesh SuperTube™ bags from Coating Excellence Intl. (CEI, www.coating-excellence.com). CEI was one of the first companies to begin producing the woven polypropylene bags in the U.S.

Relates American Nutrition purchasing director Jim Stoltz, “We made the change due to consumer demand, improved packaging strength, and better pricing.” The SuperTube is now used for the company’s Atta Boy dog food and Atta Cat cat food in 16-, 34-, 37.5-, and 50-lb bags.

Domestic supplier emerges

Until recently, woven-mesh film bags for pet food and other non-human food products were available primarily from China (see News item on p. 10). Two years ago, flexible packaging converter CEI, Wrightstown, WI, completed a 120,000-sq-ft expansion to accommodate new equipment for the production of its SuperTube bag for use by U.S. pet-food manufacturers.

“Paper bags were a problem for our customers because some would break open during distribution or after they arrived at retail stores,” says CEI Bag Division general manager Lynda Swenson. “Additionally, the quality and logistics of printing mesh bags offshore to save money created many production challenges for these customers.

“We were approached by customers to solve the problem by developing a higher-quality package that could be manufactured in the U.S. This is really our specialty—to innovate new ideas in packaging and engage our equipment suppliers to create one-of-a-kind machines to do the job.”

The expansion, which brought CEI’s facility to a total of 600,000 sq ft, included the addition of an eight-color Windmöeller & Höelscher (www.whcorp.com) Astraflex® direct-drive, central-impression flexo press; an extrusion laminator from a proprietary supplier; and seven bag-making machines, also proprietary.

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