In the U.K., in Switzerland, and in the U.S., Nestlé's powdered milk mixes sport new packaging with a look that fits the company's "making milk fun" marketing theme. All the packs share a common feature: they're easy for children to handle, dispense and reclose. Nestlé U.K. Ltd., based in Croydon, Surrey, in January launched Nesquik® powdered hot chocolate mix in both a 225-g and 90-g trial size. The new product is sold throughout England and in Northern Ireland, in oval Cekacan® containers supplied by ~=kerlund & Rausing (Lund, Sweden). Along with the new hot chocolate mix, the Cekacan replaced an oval-shaped composite canister for three flavors of Nestlé's Nesquik cold milk drink mixes. The Cekacan body includes a 22-pt paperboard laminated to .00035 aluminum foil with an inner layer of low-density polyethylene. Body stock is printed by ~=&R in five or six colors, plus varnish, on a rotary offset press. Nestlé uses an ~=&R C-60 machine to form the body from sheetstock. A base is then induction sealed to the body. The base material is nearly identical to the body, with the exception of a lighter-weight 16-pt board. After filling, an oriented polyethylene terephthalate/LDPE/foil membrane is induction sealed to the top of the body. The final piece is an injection-molded LDPE hinged lid that's automatically glued to the body. "We consider the new package an upgrade," says Mike Peplow, packaging technologist in Grocery Technical for Nestlé U.K. Ltd., "because of its functionality. It has a hinged lid and a peelable membrane that pulls off easily. The consumer does not have to puncture it to open it, as was necessary with the previous membrane." Brand manager Catriona Hogan adds, "Because these containers are slightly taller than our old package, there is added headspace between the hinged lid and the membrane. That allows us to add in a promotional product, which we plan to do." Another consumer benefit of the hinged lid, says senior public affairs officer Marion Irving, "is that it cannot become separated from the pack and lost," as could happen with the previous package which used a separate lid. Graphics for the packages have also been updated to appeal both to parents and children. According to Peplow, container costs are about the same. In fact, there are savings generated by the use of a lighter-weight body stock. And by making the container and filling it at the same site, there are distribution savings as well. Peplow expains that in the past, container materials were sent from a supplier in Germany to Nestlé's facilities in France where product was filled, then shipped to the U.K. for distribution. "By making the container in-house, we no longer need to pay for shipping preformed containers," he says. Although it's a tad early to gauge sales from either product line, Hogan indicates the future looks promising. "The products have only been in the market for a couple of months, but we've had quite a bit of interest in them from our retail customers."
Nestlé puts new faces on mix containers
A multi-material oval can in the U.K., a twin-pack of pouches in Switzerland, and a high-density polyethylene oval in the U.S. each deliver kid-oriented retail punch for Nestlé's powdered milk mixes.
Mar 31, 1997
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