Whilst there is a huge diversity in the numbers put forward as to the size of the international marketplace for snacks in all their many forms, there is no doubt that it is huge and still offering significant year on year retail sales growth.
Like all significant retail sectors, this is a highly competitive market and for companies which are involved in developing machinery for snack multi-pack packaging formats, the competitive nature of the market presents constant challenges as manufacturers and their supermarket customers change the size, content and price of the products on offer to global consumers.
Redpack Packaging Machinery is a British company based in Norfolk which has been manufacturing flow wrapping machines for over thirty years. Since the company installed its first SnackPacker in 1986, the world has undergone a process which is universally accepted as a ‘snacking phenomenon.’ Today, with over one hundred P325 flow wrapping machines installed at crisp and snack manufacturers in twenty countries around the world, Redpack SnackPackers now pack around one million snacks every minute of every day.
Redpack’s multi-packing horizontal P325 machines are designed for high volume production, providing the levels of quality and reliability which are essential in a 24/7 manufacturing environment. From the very beginning their machines have reflected the company’s engineering pedigree, being built around a stainless steel frame and in-feed to ensure their continued performance in the most demanding environments.
Importantly Redpack machines have been designed and manufactured so that they can be incorporated into automated production lines; a recent installation in a factory producing nutritional chocolate enrobed cereal bars involved a P325 flow wrapping solution which featured metal detection units, phase feeders and orientating and take-off conveyors. This line now operates at speeds which can vary from 60 to 250 packs per minute, and the flow wrapper can accommodate cold seal, heat seal and laminate film stock.
Redpack builds a constantly increasing number of new flow wrapping machines and packing systems each year for global installation by its team of commissioning engineers. This gives it significant exposure to the requirements of a variety of industries which are involved in product packaging for the retail sector, and its product philosophy for the snacks industry has developed to reflect such requirements.
The latest P325 SnackPacker features touch-screen technology, providing easier operator controls and improved diagnostics, as well as a range of application specific options which include auto-splice and a temperature control facility. Options such as these mean that changes in packaging formats do not have to signal machine redundancy.
Peter Smith, who leads the Redpack’s sales and marketing team, said: “Supermarkets’ shelf ready requirements have changed dramatically over the last five years, and I expect they will change again in the years ahead. The P325 range offers far greater flexibility than many other flow wrappers, which enables our design and application engineers to work with our customers to re-configure their production and packing lines when such changes have to be introduced.”
He concluded: “Recycling and care for the environment issues are now having an increasing impact on snack packaging, and packaging development managers and production engineers are paying considerable attention to ways in which they can keep all options open when choosing flow wrapping system equipment for their individual organisations.”
redpack packaging machinery tel: 01603 722280
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