Stand-up pouches are catching on. And how! Top brands like Kraft Heinz, McCormick, and Mars are ditching traditional cartons, cans, bottles, bags and boxes, and switching to flexible stand-up pouches for their product packaging needs. But before we analyze why stand-up pouches are getting so popular, let’s take a little time to understand what stand-up pouches are.
Stand-up pouches are a form of flexible packaging that evolved from regular pouches. They are lightweight, portable and unbreakable. They are made of durable, puncture-resistant layers of plastic, aluminium & other film with a gusset at the bottom to give them a base that opens up the pouch and helps it stand on the shelf.
Stand-up pouches include features that make them easy to seal, open and re-close. Easy-open tear notches, heavy-duty zip lock closure, spouts for easy pouring of liquids — all these make stand-up pouches the preferred choice for producers of solid, granular and viscous food products, beverages, personal care products, pet food, detergents, vitamins and more.
Some reasons to love stand-up pouches
Protection first and foremost
Stand-up pouches fulfill the first, most important need of any packaging: protection. The innovative, multi-layer structure of stand-up pouches provides unmatched barriers against outside moisture, oxygen, odor, UV light, and bacteria — right from the warehouse all the way to retail stores and finally to customers’ homes. It also provides durability and a longer shelf life — both in retail stores and at home, after opening.
What’s more, stand-up pouches are 100% secure, being leak-proof, break-proof and puncture-proof.
Stand-up pouches are customizable
You spend time and effort perfecting the recipe and composition of your products. You need to package it well, not just to protect the contents but to stand out on the retail shelf and deliver convenience to your consumer.
This format of packaging can be tailored to complement your creativity and fit your needs. From the size, shape, materials to innovative openings and seals, you can get the packaging to suit your product, brand, and other business needs.
Stand-up pouches also allow you to “tweak” individual barrier levels through inclusion or exclusion of specific materials — driving down material usage and thereby, material cost.
You get a choice of seals
Stand-up pouches are heat sealable so you can create tamper-evident seals. You can also go for tear notches which the consumer can simply tear off to open. Or you could opt for reusable zippers and spouts which will help consumers to re-seal and store the pack after using part of the contents. That way, consumers won’t be forced to finish all the chocolates, nuts or namkeen at one go; and the uneaten product can be stored for later without compromising on freshness. This feature adds to the versatility of stand-up pouches, and the convenience they deliver to the consumer.
The upright advantage
For both consumer and retailer, the ability to stand upright has its advantages. For manufacturers, stand-up pouches offer better shelf utilization as they occupy less space on the retail shelf and can stand without secondary packaging or retail props. For end-consumers, the stand-up pouch allows for no spills as well as less waste because, unlike a bottle, the pouch can be emptied completely.
You save, save, save
The materials used for stand-up pouches cost less than that for traditional packaging such as jars and cans. Stand-up pouches also help you save on shipping/transportation costs and optimize warehouse space. Being so much lighter and less bulky than bottles, jars and cans, stand-up pouches take up little room when stacked. They occupy less space in warehouses and on trucks, and can reduce your company’s carbon footprint during transportation.
Less material is used for making stand-up pouches so manufacturers save on that too. In a comparative case study for raisin packaging, the Flexible Packaging Association found that a flexible pouch utilized at least 70% less packaging material relative to the contents than either of the two rigid alternatives: the Round Paperboard Cannister with Plastic Lid and the Folding Carton with Inner Poly Bag.
Better for branding
With so many products competing for the consumer’s attention, manufacturers need packaging that stands out — and says a lot. Stand-up pouches have a flat front, so it is ideal for creative branding and eye-catching, high-quality custom design to increase product visibility in a retail setting.
In the retail store, stand-up pouches offer greater possibilities for creative merchandising and display. They can be hung on pegs to create eye-catching promotional stands to attract attention and improve sales.
Environmentally responsible solution
Stand-up pouches are made with less material, so they ultimately generate less waste and most are recyclable. It does not take many resources to produce these pouches — it requires about 50 percent less energy to produce. Less CO2 emissions are generated during production, and they produce less landfill waste.
Conclusion
So if you’re contemplating packaging for your new product or considering a change from old packaging, you’ll find stand-up pouches are the solution for most packaging needs and challenges. Nichrome India offers a wide range of automated packaging machines operating in stand-up pouch format for diverse applications. Detergents, grains, ready-to-eat foods, snacks, nuts, liquids — Nichrome can deliver a customized packaging solutions for almost every need. With Nichrome and stand-up pouches, the possibilities are infinite.
