Safeway Foods, Pleasanton, Calif., worked with Huhtamaki, De Soto, Kansas, to develop a 48-ounce, custom-shaped ice cream container. The high-impact package with branded graphics used Huhtamaki in-plant forming machines that enable production changeover speed and flexibility, along with considerable cost advantages.
“From start-to-finish, package design as well as tooling, installation and production were accomplished within six months. Actual conversion of five forming units in both of our ice cream plants was completed within a week and we were feeding new containers directly into the filling lines,” said Ed Olivero, Safeway vice president of dairy manufacturing.
More than 60 SKUs across a variety of Safeway ice cream product lines are now being sold in the new container. The ice cream is made in Bellevue, Wash., and Phoenix. The production facilities there employ four Huhtamaki Systems FM-1400 forming machines making the Convocan MX containers.
Preprinted and die-cut package sidewalls are shipped flat, with about 10 times as much packaging per truckload compared to a preformed container. As a result, in-plant customers typically can save up to 90% in transportation costs, Huhtamaki states. Customers also see reductions in inventory and warehouse space, as well as related equipment, storage racks and labor costs.
Huhtamaki
913-583-8760
www.us.huhtamaki.com
