That's exactly what Old Navy has introduced for the body wash in its personal care line, now carried in 22 of its 200 or so stores. The San Francisco-based unit of Gap, Inc., uses a premade pouch from Kapak (Minneapolis, MN) for a liquid body wash available in eight varieties. A circular metal grommet punched into the upper right corner allows stores to build a hanging display for the colorful family-oriented products. Kapak says it's the first time such a device has been incorporated in one of its pouches. "Body washes are becoming increasingly popular," says Gap's Gary McNaughton. "Why not introduce ours in a package that the whole family can use yet one that can also be fun?" Western Pacific Packaging (Compton, CA) fills the pouches semiautomatically for Old Navy. In making the pouch, Kapak heat-seals in place a push-pull spout injection molded of polypropylene. While the spout is in the upper left corner of the pouch, the right side is left open for filling. When workers at the contract packager heat-seal the pouch closed after filling, they make the seal at an angle. This leaves a section in the upper right corner for the grommet, which is punched in by a worker using a hand tool. Current production at Western Pacific is in the range of 7ꯠ units per shift. Pouch material is a three-layer adhesive lamination of 48-ga polyester/ 60-ga nylon/5-mil linear low-density polyethylene. Kapak sends the polyester out for flexographic printing in two colors. For all eight varieties (which have names such as Red Delicious, Groovy Grape and Deep Sea), the same graphics are printed. Flavor differentiation is accomplished through an unobtrusive pressure-sensitive paper label on the front and a clear film label with bar code on the bottom. The bottom label also informs consumers of the $5.75 selling price.
