Private-label is leading in innovation again. A new paperboard canister with a rotating label that provides 75% more label space has just been launched for a new line of frozen chicken breast chunks for Aldi supermarkets’ Kirkwood brand. Unique for the category, the new package provides both functional and marketing advantages, providing an engaging, interactive way for consumers to learn more information about the product.
“Rather than putting chicken in traditional zippered, gusseted bags or little boxes, our new canister with spin label is a fun way to provide packaging with some personality, while giving our retailers a lot of additional, tangible benefits,” says David Mehlman, director of retail marketing for Koch Foods, which produces and packs the chicken line.
Product consists of fully cooked, breaded chicken breast chunks, accompanied by one of four sauce flavors—Asian Style Zyng, Buffalo (medium and spicy), or Garlic Parmesan. Each variety is packed with the chicken and sauce in separate, plastic pouches, held within a round-shaped Ultrakan® paperboard container from Huhtamaki (www.us.huhtamaki.com) that accommodates 1 lb 10 oz. A unique, full-body oriented polypropylene label, supplied by MPI Label Systems (www.mpilabels.com), uses Spinformation Co. (www.spinlabels.com) rotating label technology. The label, which freely rotates around the canister, thanks to specially modified container sidewalls, includes a “peek-a-boo” window that allows consumers to view selected sections printed on the base of the container.
“Consumers want information, and this is a convenient as well as intriguing, inventive way to provide it,” says Paul Beckwith, vice president, Retail Sales & Marketing for Koch.
The OPP label carries product photos, plus nutrition facts, bar codes, and other standard required product data. The clear window offers a view on recipe suggestions, sauce-and-serve preparation instructions, and information on other Kirkwood products. As Mehlman notes, for marketing flexibility, graphics on the base container can be updated regularly, for promotions, seasonal campaigns, and more. “The options are almost endless,” he says.
Functionally, the container is said to provide for more “taste-preserving protection,” according to Koch’s Ron Leskiw, who heads Koch’s product development/sales for retail, as the product’s breading is less likely to get knocked off, as it is “when bags are dropped into store bunkers and shopping carts or jostled in freezers at home.” The package has also been sized to conveniently fit in the door shelf of most upright freezers.
Koch manufactures the paperboard container in-house using a Huhtamaki FM-1400 forming machine, while labels are applied with an Accraply Trine (www.accraply.com) labeling machine.
