Inventive packaging system produces savings
A cereal company invents a new bulk packaging system that eliminates the need for bulk boxes and increases cost savings by 70 percent.
The company’s engineers were on a mission five years ago: Move cereal in a new bulkpackaging format and save money doing it. Kellogg Co., Battle Creek, Mich., is a cereal and snack food manufacturer that sells many wellknown products, such as Frosted Flakes, Special K, Fruit Loops, Pop-Tarts, and more. The company was previously using corrugated bulk boxes with flexible film liners to move cereal from a processing line to an in-house packaging line or a contract packager's line, which resulted in high material and labor costs. The company wanted to save money and knew that a better packaging solution had to be out there, but nothing in the current marketplace fit its needs. To solve this problem, the company's engineers came up with a new twist on bulk packaging. They invented a system for packaging cereal and other dry particulate products in a giant, shrink-wrapped plastic bag. Once implemented, the new bulk packaging system produced cost savings of up to 70 percent.