Produce Business ‘Consumer Packaging’

Feature Writing

Consumer Packaging

Innovative packaging adds value to produce

For as long as there have been produce departments, retailers have prided themselves on their beautiful, bountiful bulk displays of garden-fresh fruits and vegetables. The stereotypical produce shopper squeezed and sniffed her way through their aisles, selecting each apple and lemon and tomato individually, with the utmost care. Produce clerks in crisply starched aprons followed closely behind, culling and replenishing, piece by piece, potato by potato.

These days, however, a growing number of produce displays feature stacks of glistening clamshells, two-piece tubs and resealable plastic bags, most decorated with colorful brand logos. The consumer is inclined to grab and go. And instead of spending the workday sorting through individual fruits and vegetables, the produce clerk simply replaces packages as they disappear from the displays.

The trend toward increasing offerings of packaged produce results from a number of converging forces in the marketplace:

• Growing consumer demand for convenience
• Sanitation and safety issues
• Branding and merchandising strategies
• The industry-wide need to reduce labor costs and minimize shrink

As the produce packaging industry evolves, retailers are coming to expect packages not only to protect and contain product, but to help move it off the shelves it as well. “Growers and retailers have always used packaging to hold stuff,” says Bill Pizzico, president and CEO of Prizm Group in Fort Washington, PA. “Now, more and more are using it to sell stuff.”

“The produce packaging industry is rapidly changing,” adds Karl Marsh, director of marketing for Crown Poly, Inc., in Huntington Park, CA. “Instead of being viewed as a commodity, packaging is now seen as value-added.”

Find a Need and Fill It

As any beginning business school student can readily recite, marketing involves finding a need and filling it. As packaging increasingly becomes an integral part of the produce product mix, the most successful packaging in the marketplace meets a multitude of needs throughout the supply chain.

“The stakeholders—all the people who deal with produce—everyone from the guy who plants the plant and has to harvest it to the consumer at the grocery store—these people are the drivers of produce packaging,” maintains Jeanne Clark, market manager, agriculture, for Lake Forest, IL-based Pactiv Corporation. Clark’s office is in City of Industry, CA. “We packaging manufacturers look at the stakeholders all along the chain and ask ourselves, ‘Is there some need going unmet?’ Then we create packaging that meets the need.” Pactiv offers a line of produce packaging including film sealed, molded fiber, plastic trays, recloseable bags and vented baskets.

Michele Quirk, marketing coordinator for Genpak in Glen Falls, NY, believes most packaging trends “come from the consumer as we change the way we live. Retailers and processors recognize this and, in wanting to be innovative, work with us to make improvements and changes that will appeal to consumers.”

Genpak manufactures Secure Seal brand clamshells, featuring a patented airtight leak-resistant closure ideal for pre-cut fruits. The company recently introduced Freshtray self-absorbent foam trays, suitable for produce offerings such as sliced tomatoes.

“Convenience is in the forefront,” adds Quirk, “and the consumer is willing to pay a little more to get a product pre-cut or ready to serve these days.”

“Packaging does add cost,” notes Chuck Dunlap, marketing director for dairy and produce for the Duncan, SC-based Cryovac Food Packaging Division of Sealed Air Corporation, based in Saddle Brook, NJ. “But retailers are only concerned about adding cost when they think it isn’t justified or they can’t recapture it. If the consumer values the product more because of the packaging, the retailer sells more and the fact that they paid more for the packaging becomes inconsequential.”

Clamshells Offer ‘the Best of All Worlds’

Clark cites the clamshell as a fast-proliferating form of produce packaging that cost-effectively meets many stakeholders’ needs. “Clamshells give people all along the logistics chain the best of all worlds,” says Clark. “They offer benefits to growers and packers, shippers, retailers and consumers.”

Among the many benefits of clamshells:

• Properly ventilated, clamshells permit faster, more efficient cooling than bulk packs.
• Modular clamshell systems sized to fit standard-sized pallets allow about 20 percent more product to fit into a pallet cube, cutting shipping costs.
• Rigid clamshells protect the product inside from damage and contamination, extend shelf life and reduce shrink.
• Most clamshells are designed to interlock, creating stable, stackable displays requiring less labor to set up and maintain at store level.
• Clamshells effectively contain products, reducing the risk of a stray grape or cherry tomato causing a customer to slip and fall.
• Many consumers like the convenience of a grab-and-go clamshell.
• Consumers perceive produce in a clamshell to be of higher quality than the same produce presented in a bulk display.
• Consumers consider produce in clamshells to be more sanitary and secure than bulk produce.
• Especially for smaller fruits and vegetables in clamshells, consumers like having a convenient, recloseable storage container that fits easily into the refrigerator.

Sambrailo Packaging, Inc., of Watsonville, CA, claims bragging rights for introducing the first clamshell for fresh fruit in 1987. In the 18 years since, packaging manufacturers have developed clamshells for increasingly vast and varied produce packaging applications.

“Our number one product right now is the clamshell,” says Kurt Zuhlke, Jr., president and CEO of Kurt Zuhlke & Associates, Inc., a packaging manufacturer based in Bangor, PA. “Demand has skyrocketed over the last few years. To meet the demand, we’ve custom-designed our clamshells around each product and the amount our customers want to fill.”

Since making a complete transition to clamshell manufacturing in 1993, Pacific Agricultural Packaging, based in Watsonville, CA, has expanded its clamshell offerings to include multiple sizes and shapes designed to accommodate a range of very specific requirements.

“Right now, we’re offering eight different styles of one-pound clamshells for strawberries,” notes Dave Baum, vice-president of sales for Pacific AgPak. “We also offer clamshells in other sizes, ranging from half-pints to four-pounds, clamshells designed especially for grapes and, most recently, our line of modular clamshells designed to fit common footprint trays.”

Ron McCormick, vice president and divisional merchandise manager of produce and floral for Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, AR, is a clamshell fan. “We do use a lot of clamshells now, and we expect to use more,” says McCormick. In addition to the reduced shrink and labor savings at store level, McCormick likes the clamshell’s labeling possibilities.

“Clamshells allow us to have an easily readable UPC to scan at the register, giving us faster, more accurate rings and allowing us to track sales information,” he says. “We also like clamshells because a lot of people don’t know what some of the items are or how to use them, and the package gives you a place where you can put product information and recipes. There’s a lot of value there.”

Microwaveable Packaging

Building on their success with microwaveable pre-cooked meat packaging introduced two years ago, Cryovac recently introduced Simple Steps brand packaging for produce. “Our Simple Steps program allows fresh vegetables to be packed, shipped, displayed, prepared and served in one package,” says Dunlap. “The benefits are highly desirable for retailers and consumers.”

The Simple Steps produce package consists of a tray covered with a clear, permeable shrink-wrap selected to suit the respiration rate of the produce inside. After removing the outer sleeve, the consumer places the tray in the microwave oven where, during one-minute exposure to high heat, the film expands to form a bubble, self-vents and settles over the food. After two minutes, the consumer peels off the film and serves fresh steamed vegetables, using the disposable tray as a serving dish.

“The film forms a tight vacuum conforming to the shape of the vegetable, protecting the product and extending the shelf life,” says Dunlap, whose first Simple Steps produce customer is using the product to package asparagus and a combination of ready-to-steam green vegetables, peppers and mushrooms. “The greater the value of the vegetable, the more sense it makes as an opportunity for the retailer to sell more product,” adds Dunlap.

Zuhlke & Associates recently introduced a microwaveable corn tray, the first of a full line of produce-specific microwaveable trays to be introduced in the coming weeks. “We’ve had people find us on the Internet and call our office to praise the corn trays,” says Zuhlke. “It’s one of the best packages we’ve ever done.”

Packaging for Produce Made from Produce

With Cargill Dow’s Minnetonka, MN-based NatureWorks leading the way, packaging made of polylactide polymer, or PLA, has generated considerable excitement within the industry as an environmentally-friendly alternative to traditional petroleum-based packaging materials. NatureWorks PLA is made entirely from corn.

Wal-Mart is currently using packaging made from PLA and actively exploring the use of other, similar environmentally friendly materials as part of a company-wide initiative to “reduce our environmental footprint,” says McCormick. “The percentage of PLA packaging is tiny now because it’s still very early in the process. But we have shipped thousands and thousands of cases of product in it, and we will continue moving as much as possible to PLA.”

Although initially expensive, compared with traditional packaging materials, McCormick says, “The price of PLA has come down dramatically since we’ve been using a lot of it.”

With many performance characteristics similar to petroleum-based materials, PLA is used to make film and rigid plastic packaging materials. The material is, however, somewhat more susceptible to deformity at high temperatures. NatureWorks recommends protecting its PLA from temperatures of more than 40ºC (104ºF).

“It’s an issue we’re aware of and one we’re looking at,” says McCormick. “Obviously, there will be uses where it isn’t right, such as anything you would want to make microwaveable. But there are so many people working on PLA right now, the quality of the material and the possibilities for using it change every week.”

Find a Bag and Fill It

With the proliferation of packaged produce, most in the packaging industry agree there will always be a place in the produce department for bulk displays.

“There’s always going to be a percentage of the population that wants to be hands-on consumers of produce,” says Clark. “And there will always be retailers who differentiate their produce departments with these huge bulk displays.”

Essential to any bulk display are the bags consumers use to contain their selected fruits and vegetables. But, as Crown Poly’s Karl Marsh emphasizes, all bulk produce bags are not created equal. Crown Poly makes Pull-n-Pak brand “packaging systems.”

“We’ve been in business 14 years, and in that time, we’ve secured 14 patents on our products and earned one-third of the market share,” says Marsh. Pull-n-Pak bags dispense one at a time, self-opening as the customer pulls the bag from the roll. The bags are strategically designed to hold a lot of produce without looking excessively large, encouraging consumers to buy in greater volume—a phenomenon documented in a 17-week, 16-store study to document the impact of Pull-n-Pak on retail sales.

“We found, compared with the stores using commodity roll bags, the stores using Pull-n-Pak generated $800 more in produce sales per store per week,” notes Marsh. “That one extra apple or orange people add to our bags makes a huge difference in profits.

“There’s definitely a place for pre-packaged produce to grow,” adds Marsh, “but some people are always going to want to see a nice display of bulk produce. Some people are always going to value that element of choice. For retailers serving those customers, our bags add value by reducing bag waste and encouraging higher volume purchases.”

“There will always be the diehard, touchy-feely consumer who wants to handle the produce,” maintains Zuhlke, “but all that squeezing and smelling damages the product and transfers a lot of germs. These days, that’s offset by consumers who want the convenience of picking a package up and putting it in the cart. That’s why, when you go into a supermarket, you’re going to see more and more clamshells and fewer and fewer bulk displays.”

“There are lots of reasons to cause the percentage of packaged produce to climb over time,” notes Wal-Mart’s McCormick, “but the customer will always demand certain things to be in bulk because there are some occasions when you want to stop and touch and feel, and its fun and worth your time to pick exactly the piece of produce you want.”