Latest / Through the Line: Packaging and Processing / How Nestlé turned Vital Proteins' Blue Tub into a Paper Canister: Packaging World

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How Nestlé turned Vital Proteins' Blue Tub into a Paper Canister: Packaging World · Through the Line: Packaging and Processing

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Through the Line, the podcast exploring innovations and information across the packaging and processing landscape.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: From topics impacting consumer packaged goods and healthcare packaging to the latest technologies and food processing operations.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Anne-Marie Mohan.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I'm senior editor with Packaging World.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I'm here with Eric Bell, principal packaging scientist at Nestle.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Welcome, Eric.
• 0:32
  Speaker: Thank you for having me.
• 0:33
  Speaker: And thank you for supporting this great summit.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: We really learn a lot ourselves through doing this.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: You just were on the stage talking about a really notable change in one of Nestle's brands, and that was Vital Proteins, where it went from an HDPE container to a paper container.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And you were saying that Nestle has a lot of paperization, a lot of transitions to paper and other brands, but this was something that Vital Proteins, a newly acquired brand, wanted to do, and you brought in the expertise from the other projects.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: So could you expand on that a little bit?
• 1:16
  Speaker: Exactly.
• 1:17
  Speaker: The Vital Proteins team came up with the initial idea to go into a paper canister.
• 1:22
  Speaker: So it was solely an idea.
• 1:25
  Speaker: They started with renderings and mock-ups, but they didn't really have a technical solution behind that.
• 1:30
  Speaker: And that resulted in a little bit of misconceptions about what this canister should be, what the available technologies are, what are the costs, safety and compliance, what works for Nestle standards.
• 1:44
  Speaker: So there was a little bit of time before, let's call it Legacy Nestle really got involved.
• 1:49
  Speaker: And I joined the project team to come up with the ultimate solution that we delivered on, which was the GPI Bordeaux systems.
• 1:56
  Speaker: So yeah, that's that's a little bit about the background, but I was able to leverage some of the learnings from the Nestle side during the initial development phase, pack development phase for the canister.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: And I understand this was not an overnight process.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: Can you talk a bit about how long this canister was in development and what some of the challenges were?
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: I think you talked about the fact that it was both a materials challenge and also an equipment challenge to set that equipment up.
• 2:26
  Speaker: Yeah, absolutely.
• 2:27
  Speaker: From start to finish, and from start, I mean the the project brief to when we actually commercialized with finished goods out of our doors was roughly about two years, which uh, as I mentioned, sounds like a long time, but it's really not when you talk about coming up with a technical solution, finding the technical partner.
• 2:46
  Speaker: And then alongside that, it was a whole CapEx project, completely retooling and rebuilding our packaging lines in our factory to be able to handle paper canisters.
• 2:57
  Speaker: So it was it was a lot of parallel pathing, a lot of quick decisions, leaning heavily on key stakeholders, working cross-functionally to be able to get all of the necessary feedback and opinions to be able to make decisions quickly.
• 3:13
  Speaker: Those two years were exciting and they went fast, but um, but ultimately we delivered with a concept and a solution that we think really uh met the brief and is as consumer-centric as we could possibly allow it to be when you look at something like a rigid paperboard.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: So we're not talking about something like, you know, I have a six-pack of uh dog food and I'm gonna take it from a shrink wrap into a corrugated box.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: This is a very complex problem from the standpoint of the product inside as well as some of the channels that you're going through.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: Could you talk a little bit about those challenges and how you address those?
• 3:56
  Speaker: Yeah, so many challenges.
• 3:58
  Speaker: So with this was not an innovation.
• 4:01
  Speaker: This was a true renovation, which means that all of the canisters, all the plastic canisters, all the channels which were uh some of our biggest channels are e-commerce and club channels like Costco, which both of those require vastly different requirements when you look at what's needed from a pack integrity standpoint.
• 4:20
  Speaker: So when we first started looking at paper or paper board, laminated paper board specifically, we really had to develop for those channels.
• 4:30
  Speaker: And just a few challenges, there are there are many, but once that I specifically mentioned was around the varnish development and scuffing.
• 4:38
  Speaker: We knew quite early on from other projects that scuffing, specifically on our packaging lines, could be a risk.
• 4:44
  Speaker: And we thought those were dealt with based on the technology solutions with the various OEMs that we chose for filling, end-of-line, conveyance, et cetera, accumulation.
• 4:55
  Speaker: Some of those assumptions were right and some of those were wrong.
• 4:58
  Speaker: And uh when we started commissioning our lines, you know, we saw that there was potentially some scuffing.
• 5:03
  Speaker: When we started doing long distribution testing, going from coast to coast, we were seeing canisters were scuffing.
• 5:11
  Speaker: So we really had to go back to the drawing board and collaborate with the supplier and their suppliers and their manufacturing process to really hone in a process that was scuff resistant, but then also we had to do a little bit of redesigning on our packaging lines to be able to gently handle the paper can paperboard canisters to mitigate their risk.
• 5:33
  Speaker: So it was definitely a journey.
• 5:35
  Speaker: Uh, you know, it's it's one of those things you don't know which you don't know.
• 5:39
  Speaker: Right.
• 5:39
  Speaker: Uh your assumptions end up being incorrect in in some cases, but it's all about continuous improvement, root cause analysis, really trying to figure out what the issue is and checking the box and just going down the list uh until everybody feels comfortable with and results.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: And so there was a lot of RD involved and you know, a lot of decisions that had to be made.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: You get the package done, you put it out on the market.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: And one thing I found interesting is that you said you didn't do a lot of messaging about this new container, either on pack or otherwise, but if you did it again, you would try, you'd approach it differently.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: Can you talk about why that is?
• 6:21
  Speaker: Yeah, we did we did quite a bit of consumer research, more so on how to sell this in, what do consumers think about the overall concept?
• 6:28
  Speaker: Uh, maybe we fell a little short on on the actual messaging on the change.
• 6:32
  Speaker: And in the example that I mentioned is that some consumers actually thought that when they received the paper paper canister that that it was a counterfeit because we didn't even say same product, new packaging, same great taste.
• 6:43
  Speaker: So I think we missed the marker, at least that was a learning for us.
• 6:46
  Speaker: I think maybe we were just so focused on on all executing on all the other details that maybe that was overlooked.
• 6:53
  Speaker: But nonetheless, we updated the artwork to really emphasize you know the change itself, the benefits, which we really really lean heavily on glass production.
• 7:04
  Speaker: So from the consumer insights and research, we see that pay uh paper really resonates with consumers, paper and glass.
• 7:12
  Speaker: So they inherently get that from just seeing, touching, and feeling it.
• 7:17
  Speaker: So we don't need to explain necessarily what it is in that regard, but we do lean heavily on the reasons and the jobs to be done, the jobs to be done, such as keeps your product fresh, uh, maintain shelf life, same product, uh submit opening instructions too, because it is a unique opening experience that is, let's say, novel in a way.
• 7:38
  Speaker: So that's what we really focused on improving.
• 7:41
  Speaker: But the overall goal of creating a paper canister and consumers understanding that, we delivered on that.
• 7:48
  Speaker: That's without question.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: So one of the things that our annual outlook report on sustainability has shown, and this is a report that we've done two years in a row now, is that the those CPGs that have an intention to use paper is just through the roof.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: And, you know, it looks like it could be an easy transition.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Obviously, it's not that easy depending on the product.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: What kind of benefits did you get out of it?
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, uh I think we link it to consumers, their perception of sustainability is that it's recyclable and paper, depending on whether you have a coating or not, meets that criteria.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: So was it just perception, or what kinds of benefits did you see from transitioning to paperboard?
• 8:38
  Speaker: So, like I said, consumers really resonate with the plastic reductions.
• 8:42
  Speaker: So when you think about vital proteins, they really innovated the collagen peptide category.
• 8:49
  Speaker: It really didn't exist in what it is today, and they were a large plastic tub, and they were known as the large blue plastic tub, and we played into that.
• 8:57
  Speaker: And and so we find a lot of pride ourselves to to try to do our part to minimize uh virgin plastic use in that.
• 9:05
  Speaker: But overall, I would say the biggest win for us is that because we're dealing with paper, we really had to put quality first and foremost, which Nestle always does.
• 9:16
  Speaker: We never compromise safety for consumers since we are a foods product.
• 9:21
  Speaker: But with paper, that takes another notch up, if you want to say that, where everybody had to put their safety hat on.
• 9:28
  Speaker: And everything from the manufacturing line to the inbound, outbound logistics to material handling, everything had to get scrutinized.
• 9:36
  Speaker: And some of our standards we leaned on, some of them we had to rewrite from a packaging quality metrics to deliver consistent, consistent top quality packaging, but that's also safe and compliant and and uh maintains its overall integrity, maintains its shelf life.
• 9:53
  Speaker: So I would say the benefit of just uh really leaning heavy heavily into the quality aspect, and we accomplish that in part from routines, but also through automation, which has long-term benefits.
• 10:06
  Speaker: We've seen improvements on our packaging lines, on and on the outputs, and also people like to frankly work on new innovative things, and we see that from the operators up to the leadership team that everybody feels like they're doing their part, and it's fun to do that.
• 10:21
  Speaker: We're in Rosemont, right outside Chicago, and our factory's in Franklin Park 15 minutes from here.
• 10:26
  Speaker: So, you know, there's a little bit of pride that, you know, right down the street we're producing these canisters and we're really making a difference and trying bold new new things.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: So congratulations on a very well done project and packaging redesign, and thank you for sharing that with us.
• 10:41
  Speaker: Yeah, no, thank you.
• 10:42
  Speaker: It's been a journey.
• 10:43
  Speaker: Thank you.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Through the Line Packaging and Processing.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: You can listen to more episodes on all streaming platforms.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Be sure to visit us at packworld.com, profoodworld.com, and healthcarepackaging.com for more packaging and processing news.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: This podcast was edited by Bri Guntz.