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Concentrated, bottled plant food cultivates convenience

At its facility in Fort Madison, IA, The Scotts Company is producing sleeved 4-packs and 2-packs of 16-oz plastic bottles of Miracle-Gro LiquaFeed All Purpose Plant Food.

Pw 7625 Scotts Miracle Gro Big

The specific structure and suppliers of the plastic bottles and caps for the pre-mixed plant food concentrate were not disclosed. But the sleeves are made from 70-micron polyvinyl chloride, rotogravure-printed in 9 colors, and they’re supplied by Fort Dearborn Co.. The new multi-pack sleeving system was provided by Axon Styrotech. Technicians both from Axon and New Century Packaging, Axon’s agent, were present for the installation and training at the Fort Madison plant.

Axon already had two machines installed at Scotts, but Fort Dearborn staffers helped Scotts source the new Axon sleeve application and shrink tunnel equipment. Fort Dearborn also worked with Scotts and Axon to identify the optimum sleeving material structure and size through the initial testing process and through subsequent testing to fine-tune accommodation of graphics distortions, sleeve opacity, and ink fading.

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