STAND-UP POUCHES – ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

This packaging format has its origin in 1968, when Louis Doyen, CEO of French packaging machinery manufacturer, Thimonnier, patented a stand-up pouch design. The Doyen design consisted of two flat sheets seamed together along their sides, with a W fold (forming a gusset) running along the bottom and sealed to the tube wall. When the pouch was filled, the gusset opened and provided a circular base on which the pouch could stand.

Despite its revolutionary design, however, the Doy Pack (as it fast became known) wasn’t an immediate hit in the packaging market, mainly because it was more expensive than standard pillow pouches or bottles, jars and cartons, and filling was a slow process.

Sustainability and environment were not core issues in the 1970s!

In the US, Capri Sun was among frontrunners to introduce the stand-up pouch for juice in the 1980s.

In South Africa, an early adopter (also in the 1980s) was Cape Olive Trust for its Buffet Olives (in pouches imported from CLP in Israel); followed by Capri Sonne (as the juice was locally named).

A major boost for stand-up pouches came with their adoption by Paarman Foods and Woolworths – primarily as a replacement for glass containers. These early pouches were unprinted, with decoration via pressure-sensitive labels.

But it wasn’t until the early part of the current century, when the Doyen patent expired, that stand-up pouches started to make a major market impact. By 2004, it was estimated that some 100-million pre-made stand-up pouches were produced annually in South Africa, with Saflite (Astrapak) and Nampak Flexible holding the lion’s share of the market, but with other players including CLP, Foster Packaging, Plasticwrap (CTP), Pouch Dynamics, Packaging World and Prac-Pak snapping at the heels of these two ‘big guys’.

Since then, products once packed in glass jars and metal cans have increasingly made the switch to flexible packaging in general and stand-up pouches in particular – aided by ongoing developments from the manufacturers of pouch-forming and pouch-filling equipment.

Against that brief historical backdrop, here’s a review of recent developments in the local stand-up pouch arena.

AMONG stand-up pouch converters, a frontrunner is Astrapak subsidiary, Saflite Packaging. The company had its genesis in 1997 when Wally Smith left Kohler Flexible and established his own business (later sold to Astrapak) to take advantage of what he saw as a burgeoning market. He was right. Since then ‘stand-up pouches and nothing but stand-up pouches’ has been the name of the game at Saflite.

Initially the company produced plain stand-up pouches, then moved into printed pouches, then zip closures, then pouches with spouts and chimneys, and more recently shaped pouches with corner spouts or taps.

Over the years, thanks to Saflite’s ongoing R&D and total focus on this market niche, South African consumers have been able to buy products as widely diverse as duvets and fertilisers packed in stand-up pouches, facilitated by clever features such as zip closures and integral handles. A significant breakthrough occurred in 2007 when Saflite launched a stand-up wine pouch with integral handle, which was taken up by The Company of Wine People for two-litre packs of Versus wines. This pack – with a specially-designed Conro tap, using flexo-printed material supplied by Cape Wrappers – went on to win a Gold Pack Award in 2007.

Now, following Wally’s recent retirement, this flourishing operation falls under the management of Astrapak’s Brennan Sharp, a development that hinges on last year’s sale of Astrapak’s mainstream flexible packaging businesses to Afripack Consumer Flexibles.

Astrapak’s two remaining Cape-based flexible operations, Knilam (in Westlake) and Saflite (in Diep River), have a number of important synergies; and Brennan is now MD of both, with Jurie Cilliers playing a similar dual role on the technical front.

But soon their daily treks between Westlake and Diep River will be over, as the two operations are to be merged under one roof. ‘We plan to establish a purpose-built greenfield site within the next 12 months,’ Brennan reveals. ‘This will include state-of-the-art systems, as well as warehousing space, for much improved efficiency and productivity.’

Another critical spin-off for Saflite arises from Knilam’s status as a BRC-accredited site. ‘Right now we’re busy transferring all the necessary disciplines to Saflite, so that all the right behaviours are in place to allow for speedy BRC accreditation of the new plant,’ Brennan notes.

This is critical in view of Saflite’s predominant sales to food and beverage manufacturers, with their stringent demands for suitable safety and quality standards. ‘This is doubly important,’ Brennan adds, ‘since exports of our wine pouches have really taken off. We’re now supplying wine pouches to local wine producers for their exports, as well as shipping dry packs for filling overseas. Our wine pouches go as far afield as Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK and the US. In all of these countries, retailers demand proof of HACCP, BCR or other recognised food safety accreditation.’

Following this unbridled success in wine pouches, where Saflite’s focus is on competing with glass bottles in the premium wine sector (as opposed to a replacement for bag-in-box products), Saflite’s stand-up pouches are increasingly being used for upmarket products such as pre-mixed cocktails.

On the production front, the company’s first HCI pouch-making machine was purchased in 2001 (joining a Thimonnier bag-maker purchased at the company’s inception). Ongoing investment saw second and third HCI pouch-makers being installed to keep pace with escalating demand for stand-up pouches for refill packs, pre-prepared soups and sauces, and pouches for bite-size confectionery and snack food products.

‘Today, there are four HCI pouch-makers on the factory floor,’ says Brennan proudly.

As applications for cost-effective stand-up pouches proliferate (making it arguably the fastest-expanding packaging medium in the country), there’s plenty of potential for growth in Saflite’s niche market. The company’s ethos has always been about change, innovation and new ideas; and, Brennan concludes, this emphasis remains unchanged.

Less is more with Astrapouch

Astrapak claims that its wine pouch, dubbed the Astrapouch, offers an 85% reduced carbon footprint compared to glass. The company points out that, by weight, an Astrapouch is 98% wine and only 2% packaging.

This small, lightweight container minimises the emission of greenhouse gases during production and during transportation, as one truckload of empty Astrapouches equals 30 truckloads of empty glass bottles. So, no matter whether the wine is red or white, it’s always green in an Astrapouch!

Also interesting to note is that an oxygen transmission rate (OTR) study shows that the complete package (including film and tap) represents an OTR of 27 cm3/24 hours in a 1,5-litre Astrapouch, compared to 0,53 cm3/24 hours for a two-litre bag-in-box.

Astrapak’s Astrapouch is seen on supermarket shelves around the world.

Continuing migration to flexible pouches

AT Nampak Flexible, a pouch is never just a pouch. With more than 30 years’ experience in the manufacturing of pouches, Nampak Flexible offers an array of specialised pouches, manufactured from simple monolayer film to complex laminated structures.

Pouches produced by Nampak Flexible are renowned for excellent print quality – either flexographic or gravure, depending on run length – elegant designs and attractive colours; and they’re widely used for packaging in the pharmaceutical, food, non-food and other FMCG sectors.
 
Nampak Flexible’s list of pouch options, produced primarily at the company’s plant at Ndabeni, Cape Town, satisfies ever-growing consumer demand for convenience and includes quad-seal pouches, stand-up pouches, flat pouches, shaped pouches, boil-in-bag pouches, retort pouches, dual-compartment pouches, chevron-seal and peelable seal pouches.

‘The choices offered to brand owners are endless and so dynamic that many products previously packed in other packaging types are migrating to this form of packaging,’ says Clinton Farndell, Nampak Flexible sales director.

In addition, Nampak Flexible’s flat, quad-seal and self-standing pouches can be supplied with integral resealable zippers, for easy opening and reclosing, offering time-pressured consumers greater convenience and keeping products fresh throughout their lifespan.

For brand owners, these reclosable packs offer another major advantage – products are no longer decanted into household containers, but are stored in their original packaging – keeping the brand alive throughout the pack’s life.

Also providing consumer convenience are pouches with reclosable pour spouts and tear notches, making products in stand-up pouches increasingly accessible and easy to use (and reuse).

Nampak Flexible’s self-standing pouches, produced from clear, opaque, metallised or foil-based laminations, are used for a wide variety of household products including olives, nuts, sauces and liquid detergents. Also on offer are punched handles for carrying heavier products, tear notches for easy opening, weld spouts for pouring liquids and powders, and punched holes for retailing.

When it comes to liquids, Nampak Flexible produces a spectrum of pouches for the beverage industry, catering products from wine and milk to fruit pulps. Ranging in size from two- to 210-litres, these liquid pouches are well suited to products that require hot, ambient or aseptic filling.

Nampak Flexible also supplies both flat and stand-up pouches – produced from multilayer structures – that withstand the retort process. Because the packaging is less bulky than cans and jars, food cooks more quickly, resulting in a better-tasting product.

Products packed in retort pouches are shelf-stable and require no refrigeration – one of their biggest pluses – placing them in strong contention against the traditional can. For brand owners and retailers, retort pouches are lighter and less expensive to transport, adding cost effectiveness to the supply chain. Consumers also benefit from a product that’s easier to open, heat and use.

Supplied in pre-made format, Nampak Flexible supplies cost-effective, high-quality, tailor-made pouches to fit just about any market need and, according to Clinton, it won’t be surprising to see more and more products appearing on retail shelves in stand-up pouches.

Hudson-Sharp expands pouch machine line-up

HUDSON-Sharp’s new SUP600 is a compact pouch machine which, from a single web of various laminated and coextruded film, can produce a wide range of pouch styles including three-side seal/vacuum pouches.

Such pouches are commonly used in processed meat and cheese packaging, as well as for various food, powder and liquid applications. The machine can produce in either single or dual lane with or without zipper reclosure feature.

In producing single-lane side-gusseted bottom (quad) seal pouches for pet food and garden products, the machine offers several important benefits, including quick changeover, thanks to recipe storage for job set-up, and the ability to make several adjustments on the fly, In addition, excellent tension control and
micro-adjustment of attachments ensures consistent quality and low scrap levels.

This entry-level machine is ideal for converters exploring ever-growing demand for pouches, as it can produce several different products at an attractive investment level.

It complements Hudson-Sharp’s SUP750, 750SGBS, Inno-Lok and shrink pouch machinery range, and is available in South Africa through Advanced Packaging Technology.

Ongoing, determined innovation from Pouch Dynamics

AS recorded in the feature on Pouch Dynamic’s tenth anniversary (PPM NewYear10, p13), it’s a very bullish team – headed by founder Heinz Pospech – that’s taking the company into its second decade.

Starting from scratch ten years ago, when the first three-sided pouch came off the line at the company’s original premises, Pouch Dynamics now employs 49 people and turns out around six-million packs/month.

Today, with five lines at the purpose-built factory in Capricorn Park, Muizenberg, and millions of bags later, the work goes on around the clock.

Caption: Cliff Augustyn and Heinz Pospech … bullish about prospects for the ever-burgeoning stand-up pouch market.

‘Last year was tough. In fact, we were on short time for a while,’ Heinz admits, ‘but we’ve recovered well.’

To backtrack, as the country’s first converter of quad-seal bags, Pouch Dynamics’ status changed dramatically. The company went overnight from a mere producer of everyday pouches to a player that could offer notable, value-added innovation. Recipient of a 2007 Gold Pack award, these quad bags are made from a single web with all four panels to register and only one critical seal. Compared to side-gusseted bags, they offer production and material cost efficiencies, excellent stability and striking shelf appearance. They’ve been a particular hit for coffee and dried fruit, and are now making big strides into the pet food market, with bags up to 10kg.

Next step, after commissioning its second HCI pouchmaker, Pouch Dynamics entered the stand-up bag market. This investment allowed production of bags with exceptional features. Made from a single web, the bag rests flat on its base, and not on a sealed rim (as in the Doy Pack) which tends to fold in and look untidy on the retail shelf. This flat bottom also allows for material downgauging and cost savings. A further advantage of the single web is that the base of the bag can be printed to register with the front and back, a major plus for brand owners.

A year after moving to Capricorn Park, a third HCI machine was installed and Cliff Augustyn joined Heinz – bringing many years’ experience gained at Kohler Flexible, and subsequently Nampak Flexible.

Soon after that, an additional HCI line boosted capabilities even further, especially as it could apply transverse zippers.

‘Today’s consumers expect pouches to be recloseable, particularly larger bags such as pet food, as it eliminates the need for decanting and keep the contents fresh,’ notes Heinz. ‘We’re undoubtedly the country’s largest user of zippers for such applications,’ he adds proudly.

Among Pouch Dynamics’ most recent news is the installation of a sophisticated spout-inserting machine, bringing to South Africa the first automated means to produce these increasingly-popular convenience packs.

‘Spouts on pouches offer many application possibilities, but until now they’ve either been imported or inserted manually, and the costs have seen this format stuck in a niche for premium products. Pouches with spouts just haven’t been able to compete with a PET bottle and closure,’ Heinz explains. ‘But this brilliant format is now available at a cost-effective price point – we’re very excited at the prospects and are in the process of signing up a major deal for a great new product launch.’

And even more hot-off-the-press news is the imminent importation of a specialised multi-format pouchmaker that, Heinz reports, is a ‘first’ for South Africa.

He’s very excited about its capabilities, and a follow-up article is promised once it’s installed.

‘It will produce bags with punched-out (tacked) corners, which gives a much tidier presentation; and can punch out shaped pouches to register at the unwind station. In addition, we’ll be able to run bottom gusset bags two-up from a single web. It also has a double cutting knife for producing round corners, which is an excellent safety factor, as it eliminates “fish hooks”,’ Heinz relates.

The versatile machine will be able to produce two- and three-side seal, multiple-compartment pouches; twin-lane stand-up pouches with or without zippers; side-gusseted bags with quad-seal, centre-seal fin, offset-seal fin and lap seals – again with or without zipper.

‘We had exhausted the versatility of our current equipment … we’d done all the “MacGyvers” we could possibly do,’ quips Cliff Augustyn. ‘By combining the equivalent of three machines into one. This new machine will provide a highly flexible platform and allow us to be much more competitive and productive. There’s also a separate unwind stand which allows us to run pouches off three webs.’

As the business has evolved, Pouch Dynamics sees itself today as a well-established, nimble manufacturer of top-quality bags and pouches, and one that’s happy to deal with large and small runs .This standing has seen Pouch Dynamics grow a large customer list and develop valued partnerships as a co-manufacturer for many of the country’s biggest flexible packaging converters.

‘We complement the services offered by traditional flexible packaging printers rather than competing head-on,’ Heinz maintains. ‘We stick to our core business – bag and pouch making. We don’t extrude, laminate or print material. We’re a focused business unit, the benefits of which are passed on to our customers in terms of service, technology and price.’

In the past two years, Pouch Dynamics has expanded its repertoire even further, launching shaped pouches and retort pouches. ‘Retort pouches could be a much larger market, but we cannot get supplies of the necessary specialised laminations in South Africa,’ Heinz laments – a common cry in the industry.

But other applications for pouches continually open up: ‘There’s an enormous market in stand-up bags for ready-cooked chickens,’ says Heinz. ‘Our new generic chicken bag is set to be really big business among smaller retailers, replacing imports. Baby foods are another prime candidate for pouches, especially pouches with spouts. There are endless possibilities.’

And Cliff Augustyn reports on other recent technical developments – the establishment of a sophisticated fully-functioning laboratory, which allows Pouch Dynamics to respond to increasing customer demands for back-up documentation; plus the employment of a full-time engineer as maintenance/factory manger, which among other things alleviates the necessity for outsourcing the company’s tool-making requirements.

It’s clear that Pouch Dynamics stands determined to be an innovator in a crowded market; and its efforts are being rewarded and recognised where it counts: in the company’s order book.

Saflite’s stand-up pouch excellence

AMONG stand-up pouch converters, a frontrunner is Astrapak subsidiary, Saflite Packaging. The company had its genesis in 1997 when Wally Smith left Kohler Flexible and established his own business (later sold to Astrapak) to take advantage of what he saw as a burgeoning market. He was right. Since then ‘stand-up pouches and nothing but stand-up pouches’ has been the name of the game at Saflite.

Initially the company produced plain stand-up pouches, then moved into printed pouches, then zip closures, then pouches with spouts and chimneys, and more recently shaped pouches with corner spouts or taps.

Over the years, thanks to Saflite’s ongoing R&D and total focus on this market niche, South African consumers have been able to buy products as widely diverse as duvets and fertilisers packed in stand-up pouches, facilitated by clever features such as zip closures and integral handles. A significant breakthrough occurred in 2007 when Saflite launched a stand-up wine pouch with integral handle, which was taken up by The Company of Wine People for two-litre packs of Versus wines. This pack – with a specially-designed Conro tap, using flexo-printed material supplied by Cape Wrappers – went on to win a Gold Pack Award in 2007.

Caption: A significant breakthrough occurred in 2007 when Saflite launched a stand-up wine pouch with integral handle. 

Now, following Wally’s recent retirement, this flourishing operation falls under the management of Astrapak’s Brennan Sharp, a development that hinges on last year’s sale of Astrapak’s mainstream flexible packaging businesses to Afripack Consumer Flexibles.

Astrapak’s two remaining Cape-based flexible operations, Knilam (in Westlake) and Saflite (in Diep River), have a number of important synergies; and Brennan is now MD of both, with Jurie Cilliers playing a similar dual role on the technical front.

But soon their daily treks between Westlake and Diep River will be over, as the two operations are to be merged under one roof. ‘We plan to establish a purpose-built greenfield site within the next 12 months,’ Brennan reveals. ‘This will include state-of-the-art systems, as well as warehousing space, for much improved efficiency and productivity.’

Caption: Jurie Cilliers and Brennan Sharp … happy to report that Saflite’s award-winning wine pouches are increasingly finding their way around the world.

Another critical spin-off for Saflite arises from Knilam’s status as a BRC-accredited site. ‘Right now we’re busy transferring all the necessary disciplines to Saflite, so that all the right behaviours are in place to allow for speedy BRC accreditation of the new plant,’ Brennan notes.

This is critical in view of Saflite’s predominant sales to food and beverage manufacturers, with their stringent demands for suitable safety and quality standards. ‘This is doubly important,’ Brennan adds, ‘since exports of our wine pouches have really taken off. We’re now supplying wine pouches to local wine producers for their exports, as well as shipping dry packs for filling overseas. Our wine pouches go as far afield as Russia, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, the UK and the US. In all of these countries, retailers demand proof of HACCP, BCR or other recognised food safety accreditation.’

Following this unbridled success in wine pouches, where Saflite’s focus is on competing with glass bottles in the premium wine sector (as opposed to a replacement for bag-in-box products), Saflite’s stand-up pouches are increasingly being used for upmarket products such as pre-mixed cocktails.

On the production front, the company’s first HCI pouch-making machine was purchased in 2001 (joining a Thimonnier bag-maker purchased at the company’s inception). Ongoing investment saw second and third HCI pouch-makers being installed to keep pace with escalating demand for stand-up pouches for refill packs, pre-prepared soups and sauces, and pouches for bite-size confectionery and snack food products.

‘Today, there are four HCI pouch-makers on the factory floor,’ says Brennan proudly.

As applications for cost-effective stand-up pouches proliferate (making it arguably the fastest-expanding packaging medium in the country), there’s plenty of potential for growth in Saflite’s niche market. The company’s ethos has always been about change, innovation and new ideas; and, Brennan concludes, this emphasis remains unchanged.

Digital printing suits short-run pouches

WITH last year’s establishment of Flexible Express, a digital flexible packaging business in Ireland, equipped with an HP Indigo ws4500 press, Foster Packaging has moved strongly into short-run flexible packaging – and especially stand-up pouches – for an ever-growing list of customers in the US, Ireland, the UK and Africa.

‘We’ve also installed a special pouch-making machine to complement the narrow-web HP Indigo press,’ comments Chris O’Brien, Foster Packaging’s Cape Town-based international marketing manager.

 

Caption: Chris O’Brien of Foster Packaging … bullish about potential for digitally-printed short runs of stand-up pouches.

‘By investing in digital printing, we’ve been able to provide customers with short runs of stand-up pouches,’ Chris continues. ‘As a result, stand-up pouches for niche products can look just as good on the retail shelf as those produced for multinational brand owners, using long-run gravure printing.’

Digital printing means low-cost origination, quick changes to designs and text, changes of languages, localisation and personalisation. ‘For example, cafés that sell coffee in their own branded bags have a greater ability to build their brands and gain market share,’ Chris explains.

Ed’s note: As we go to press, we learn that Foster Packaging has installed an HP Indigo WS6000 digital press to extend its short-run flexible packaging services and to grow its market share to include medium-run lengths. Watch for the full story in the June issue of P&PM.

New quad bag from Packaging World

KEEPING abreast of worldwide packaging trends, Pinetown-based flexible packaging manufacturer, Packaging World, has added a quad bag to its extensive product range.

According to Packaging World’s production manager, Chris Burnand, this four-corner stand-up bag functions like a flexible box.

‘An innovation that has hit the packaging market over the past 12 months, the quad bag is made by sealing gussets down four sides of an existing polypropylene (PP) bag. This provides greater rigidity and means that when filled, the bag doesn’t bulge or topple off the retail shelf,’ Chris comments.
Such advantages are causing high demand for this form of packaging for a number of moderate- to high-barrier food and consumer goods.

‘It’s a great design for branding as the rectangular faces of the bag – on both the front and the seamless back – allow for maximum graphic visibility. Retailers are also saying that they prefer the rectangular body’s enhanced space utilisation,’ Chris reports.

Caption: Chris Burnand, Packaging World’s production manager, with the quad bag which is produced by sealing gussets down the four sides.  

Packaging World has been able to add the quad bag to its range by adapting one of its existing machines with an attachment that performs the side gusseting. 
‘We have completed the necessary test runs and samples are looking great. Those customers who have seen the quad bags are very excited about the opportunities it offers,’ Chris adds.
While the bag can be used for just about anything, Chris expects the point-of-purchase appeal of the bag will be most applicable to the soap, dog food, rice and cereal markets.

Retort pouches –  CLP’s global collaboration

IN 2006, Israel’s CLP Industries, developed a durable stand-up retort pouch for Marks & Spencer sauces, designed to withstand the rigors of the retort process and keep products fresh for 12 months.

Since then, CLP has moved inexorably into the field of supplying stand-up retort pouches, all of which are available in South Africa through the local CLP South Africa sales office.

The advantage of retort pouches is that dwell time in the retort chamber is short, preventing an overcooked taste that can compromise the flavour of a delicate sauce or well-balanced gravy, while the use of a non-foil laminate structure means the product can also be microwave heated.

CLP’s preformed stand-up retort pouches typically consist of PET/high-barrier PET/biaxially oriented nylon/cast PP, with a total thickness of 100µm. CLP prints, laminates and converts the pouches on a high-performance line equipped with a Cerutti gravure press and a Rotomec solvent-based laminator.

According to Abrey Page, general manager at CLP South Africa, CLP’s skill with laminates is matched by its craftsmanship in creating elegant, high quality pouches for fast, efficient filling and sealing on packaging lines around the globe, not least in South Africa.

Pre-made pouches on offer for local brand owners include retortable stand up pouches. ‘We have taken the retort pouch to the next level with shapes, laser scoring for easy opening, retortable zippers and spouts as options,’ Abrey explains.

‘We recently launched a retort microwavable pouch with double laser scoring for solid food products. The first laser score line is torn for the process of heating in the microwave, while the second is torn completely after heating, turning the pouch into a bowl from which consumers can eat directly. This concept is highly suitable for cooked rice, noodles and pasta.’

Also on offer are shaped pouches. ‘If you want it, we’ll shape it,’ Abrey quips. ‘From Spiderman to Christmas trees to Cat face, we can make any shape required’ he adds.

‘We also offer our unique bag-without-a-box. This is a spout-equipped pouch for beverages, wine, water, motor oil, and much more besides.’

When it comes to sports pouches with fitments or patented straw holes, CLP has successfully launched stand-up pouches with a round laser scored hole. This is finding ready acceptance for fruit juice markets in the US, West Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands. ‘This concept,’ Abrey explains, ‘offers a clean, easy-to-pierce hole for straw insertion while maintaining the structural, barrier and aesthetic integrity of the pouch.’

CLP’s reinforced stand-up pouches are suitable for heavy and hard-to-hold materials, such as motor oil and industrial fluids.
Features such as rounded corners, Euro slots, and round, and curved or straight laser scoring make CLP’s pouches as functional as they’re beautiful. ‘And our commitment to customer support and innovation ensures that our pouches integrate seamlessly into any packaging line for efficient, productive operation and outstanding results,’ Abrey concludes.

Flexibility counts at Prac-Pak

SINCE Prac-Pak moved to its new premises in Ottery, Cape Town, eight months ago (PPM, Sept09, p97), the business has gone from strength to strength.

Owned and run by the Webb family – Peter and Sue, and their son, Russell – the company focuses on specialised niche markets, offering customers a variety of flexible packaging formats and tailor-made solutions.

Caption: Peter and Russell Webb with one of their two new Mamata stand-up pouch-making machines. 

Prac-Pak supplies bags, pouches, reels and sheets in a range of printed or plain materials such as polypropylene, cellulose film, biodegradable film and PET/PE laminates. Recent investments in two stand-up pouch-makers is reaping big rewards and, Russell predicts, it won’t be long before the company invests in a third machine to handle growing demand for pouches.

‘One of our unique selling points is our in-house workshop and the latest in computerised milling machinery and precision lathes,’ enthuses Russell. ‘We have two full-time engineers on-site who are able to manufacture specific, customised pouch sizes, in quick turnaround time.’

This also means that any breakdowns at Prac-Pak, of which there are few, can be repaired quickly and maintenance can be carried out with minimum downtime.
A new pouch jaw can be designed and manufactured within six working days, offering Prac-Pak’s customers a fast solution with minimum fuss. Pouches can be designed with or without zippers in various substrates.

Russell believes flexibility, quality and great service are the keys to ensuring Prac-Pak’s future success. Changing customer demands mean converters have to be more flexible in their approach and offer variable packaging options, instead of relying on industry ‘standard’ pack sizes.

Another growth area for the company is working in collaboration with other converters – and with customers themselves – to turn their own printed film into pouches. It expresses Prac-Pak’s willingness to find the right solutions every time.

As well as the two new stand-up pouch machines, Prac-Pak boasts an impressive line-up of 14 bag-makers, four pouch-makers, six slitter rewinders, a guillotine and a perforator. In addition, the company runs its own sheeting department.

Customers are predominantly in the food, textile and stationery markets.

Prac-Pak is now in its 25th year of business, a real testament to its ongoing commitment to good manufacturing practices and its willingness to enhance its ability to deliver quality, innovative products on-time to its customers.

Abtech’s exports continue unabated

YES, stand-pouches are taking market share from cans and jars, but pouch filling equipment hasn’t quite matched the efficiencies of filling cans and jars. However, Cape Town’s Abtech Enterprises, under the management of Bobby Blows and Dale Oosthuizen, continues to make inroads into improving filling speeds and efficiencies.

Undoubtedly, as reflected elsewhere in this feature, South Africa has been in the vanguard when it comes to the development of stand-up pouch packaging.

 Caption: Abtech’s Bobby Blows explains his new toolless quick-change system to P&PM’s Glywnnis Wells.

Equally unquestioned is the fact that Ina Paarman was among the pioneers in the use of stand-up pouches. History relates that Ina Paarman received less than sympathetic response to her need for small quantities of glass jars, forcing her to ‘think outside the box’ and to choose pouches for her first range of sauces and condiments. The range was an immediate hit; and it was back in those days that the name Abtech Enterprises started to be heard.

Abtech started life in the 1990s developing semi-automatic machinery for filling premade stand-up pouches; then, after a couple of years of development work alongside Paarman Foods, started commercial production in 1996. Since then, Abtech has had major successes not only within South Africa but – increasingly – on foreign markets.

While things looked pretty bleak for Abtech in 2008, with machines ready for dispatch, but orders being cancelled, the market picked up again from the middle of 2009. So much so, Bobby Blows reports, that the company is now operating Saturdays and Sundays to ensure production keeps pace with demand.

Tracking the history of the stand-up pouch, Bobby notes that ten years ago packers were mainly seeking a replacement for plastic bottles or jars, but then started to view retort pouches as strong contenders to replace cans and glass jars. ‘People expected stand-up retort pouches to be a huge and vibrant market but, with the exception of pet foods, it hasn’t developed as well or as fast as expected in South Africa,’ Bobby notes.

‘However, what has come on tremendously is demand for fitments, to provide value-added packaging and to overcome the pouch’s inherent limitations,’ he adds.
As a designer and manufacturer of filling machinery, Bobby is in an excellent position to spot trends, and he predicts growing demand for spouts and other fitments to be among the most significant developments in the pouch market in the coming year. This trend will accelerate as converters invest in equipment to insert spouts during the bag-making process, and as the cost of fitments comes down. ‘It has been a problem to find suppliers of cost-effective fitments,’ Bobby explains. ‘But as more players come on board, and volumes grow, so prices will become increasingly competitive,’ he reckons.

Another of Bobby’s predictions is a significant shift towards packing baby food in stand-up pouches. ‘This is a really big market for pouches overseas,’ he says, ‘and the local market will soon follow suit.’

He also mentions enormous potential market for pouches for mineral water, bearing in mind that (in the US) the sale of water in PET bottles has been outlawed. Also making progress are pouches for wine and premixed cocktails.

All of these developments pose challenges for a machine builder such as Abtech, and Bobby and his team are always ready to meet such challenges by designing next-generation machines. The latest such innovation from this go-ahead company is a range of equipment, designed to allow improved flexibility, whether filling 25 pouches/min, 50 pouches/min or 100 pouches/min.

The design incorporates a simple change of size without the use of tools.

This has been born of requirements in the US, Bobby explains, where increasingly brand owners are turning to contract packers.

Unlike brand owners, who install equipment for a particular line which might run a similar product size for many months, contract packers need totally flexibility for short runs and the many changeovers involved in serving many different customers.

‘To meet this demand for flexibility to tackle many different packs, we’ve developed a range of quick-change machinery for both liquid and dry products,’ Bobby says.

Undoubtedly, we’ll be hearing more news from Abtech in the coming months, because – as we’ve learnt over the years – development in pouch filling technology is ongoing, as people like Bobby Blows and his team anticipate market trends and devise appropriate machinery innovations.