T.H.E.M. Helps Nutritional Industry Make the Stick Pack Transition
Marlton, NJ – Stick packs are already a staple of the packaging
world. While the food and beverage categories are the
biggest proponents of single-serve, go-anywhere convenience, the stick
pack phenomenon
is starting to mushroom in new soil. And the commitment
being made to stick packaging by Garden State Nutritionals, a leading
national and
international custom nutritional manufacturer, is proof
positive that single-portion packaging is the new wave of the future
in yet another
major product category.
According to Peter Hefele, senior vice president of Garden
State Nutritionals, the company has a healthy mix of
flexible stick packaged products in its pipeline. “We currently produce, and
have clients marketing, numerous products available in the stick pack,” says
Hefele, “with several others in various stages of product development.
All will be marketed through traditional national and
international channels of distribution with heavy sampling support and
an ad budget
for each.”
Making it easy for Garden State Nutritionals is the company
that brought stick pack technology to the U.S., Technical
Help in Engineering and Marketing (T.H.E.M.) of Marlton, New Jersey.
In fact, you can credit
T.H.E.M. for having a hand in almost every stick pack
product on the market in North America today.
“
Garden State developed a strategic alliance with T.H.E.M
in order to deliver to its clients the industry’s best-in-class
packaging solution focused on portability. Together we are stimulating
unprecedented growth in new products and condition-specific categories,” explains
Hefele.
Hefele credits his business development and product development
teams for identifying the need to use stick packs and
for following up on recommendations that identified T.H.E.M as the company
to bring
Garden State into the age of portion-perfect packaging.
“
T.H.E.M. has done wonders in supporting our reputation
in the area of customer service,” says Hefele. “They’ve
been terrific in every phase of product development, including R&D,
regulatory and supplier/component management. And they haven’t
needed much lead time at all, going from test phase to
batch development in a matter of weeks. I can honestly say they exceeded
my expectations.”
That’s saying something considering that expectations have been
pretty high for T.H.E.M. of late. T.H.E.M. was recently honored as one
of the packaging industry’s “Most Influential” by
Packaging Strategies magazine.
Of course, T.H.E.M. has a reputation for rising to expectations.
The company recently increased its production capacity
by almost 50% to meet the demand for stick packaging products in just
about every
conceivable form. As many in the industry will tell you,
anything that can be put in a jar, a can, a carton, a tube or a bottle
can be put
in a stick pack. Formats can include liquids, pastes,
creams, agglomerations, lotions, and gels. And the nutraceutical industry
has product in every
one of those forms and consistencies.
One reason why T.H.E.M. has been such an influence on
the packaging world is the company’s willingness and ability to
help marketers get into stick packaging without getting over their heads.
T.H.E.M. is the only U.S.-based company that enables marketers to test
and evaluate stick packaging in small volumes. Each of T.H.E.M.’s
packaging suites is equipped with state-of-the-art HEPA
air handling systems with humidity control.
It’s also well known in the industry that all of T.H.E.M.’s
facilities meet the industry’s highest standards for quality and
consistency, and include comprehensive laboratory support
to evaluate, test, and launch products in flexible stick
packaging. In other words,
they are perfectly suited to repackage the world of neutraceuticals
into handy stick packs.
Neil Kozarsky, president of T.H.E.M., offered his perspective
on why the nutraceutical industry can’t get its product into stick
packs fast enough. “When you put a product in a stick pack, no
one but the end user touches that product before it is used, and each
pouch can be made to hold the exact portion for one use, explains Kozarsky. “There’s
no guesswork when it comes to how much you should use, and there’s
no waste.”
So what’s after the neutraceutical market for T.H.E.M and their
stick packs? According to Kozarsky, the real model for the future of
stick packs in North America is Japan and he should know. He brought
the technology from Japan only a few years ago. “Stick packs are
already very popular in the nutraceutical, vitamin, and pharmaceutical
product categories in markets beyond the U.S., especially in Japan and
Europe,” says Kozarsky. “But we’ll catch up.”
As a matter of fact, T.H.E.M. is already working with
a number of pharmaceutical companies. Kozarsky explains, “They
recognize that if we can meet the quality control demands
of the food and nutraceutical markets, we can meet their
needs as well.”
Founded in 1973 and located in Marlton, New Jersey, T.H.E.M.
has served as the gateway for North American companies
to find innovative packaging solutions. By monitoring
packaging trends globally, T.H.E.M
identifies innovations from all over the world and has
put them to work for a wide range of companies in North America.
Visit www.them.net.
For more information on T.H.E.M.’s products and services, please contact:
Colleen Morrill
T.H.E.M.
5A Stow Road, Marlton, NJ 08053
Tel: 856-988-8436, x 47
E-mail: sales@them.net
Website: www.them.net
For more press information, please contact:
Trish Hamer
Delia Associates
295 Route 22 East, Suite 102w
Whitehouse, NJ 08888
Tel: 908-534-9044
E-mail: thamer@delianet.com
Website: www.delianet.com
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