Filipino invents innovative packaging

This is why manufacturers have been seeking out attractive yet cost-efficient packaging.’

Most manufacturers consider the following questions in choosing the packaging that suits them: Does the packaging make your product safe when they’re on display? Does it give your product a longer life, keeps it fresh and not vulnerable to contamination? Is the packaging convenient and appealing?

If a manufacturer replies yes to all the questions, then it will soon earn a space in its dealers’ minds and consumers’ hearts.

Filipino businessman and inventor Wilson D. Go recently developed and patented an exciting alternative to expensive packages.

Made of soft plastic material, Wise-Pack is pliable and compact, slim and lightweight, as well as economical – an important consideration for producers in a developing country like the Philippines.

Take a 240-ml container – a brand-new glass bottle of that size costs 12 pesos (Bt9), an aluminum can costs 9 pesos, while a rigid plastic bottle costs 6 pesos.

Apart from the high cost of the packaging material, distributors and retailers are also mindful of the fact that beverages represent significant logistics cost because of the large volume of space and weight eaten up by traditional containers for delivery and warehousing, shelf and cooler space, labour and power costs.

In developing a total solution that will provide Filipino consumers a superior beverage experience at an affordable price, Go saw that the key lay in significantly reducing the combined direct and indirect costs associated with traditional packaging.

It is a problem that weighs down manufacturers, distributors, retailers and, most of all, the consumers.

Go undertook an extensive search for packaging alternatives around the world until he found a container made of soft plastic and shaped like a pillow that significantly reduced the packaging material. Unfortunately, it did not have the capability to stand on its own.

Go then worked with packaging engineers to develop their own version.

After years of investing time and money, Go and the engineers came out with a minimalist design – a pouch that’s perfect for stacking horizontally and can also stand on its own like a bottle.

The spout was also extended to serve as a built-in straw, eliminating the cost, hassle and hazards of using a straw.

For this innovation, Go was awarded 2 patents for industrial use and design for 21 years.

 

Consumers may expect the following benefits:

_ Lower packaging cost, higher product quality. The savings generated from eliminating glass and plastic bottles, aluminum cans and carton bricks can now be ploughed back into the product itself, enhancing the quality of the beverage. Maximum taste for minimum waste.

_ Safer than glass, cleaner than plastic. Wise-Pack™ eliminates the hazards and risks, accidents and injuries that come with glass bottles. Furthermore, it is more hygienic than the plastic bags used by consumers who cannot afford to pay for a glass bottle. It also eliminates the need for costly and unwieldy glass bottle deposits.

_ Easier to open, easier to use. Even against aluminum foil, the Wise-Pack™ is easier to open because there is no need to puncture it with a sharp object. There is built-in perforation that even children can open.

_ Chill it, freeze it. Consumers now have the option to chill their beverage and drink it ice cold, or freeze it and munch on it as frozen delight, just like the popular “ice candy” or “ice drop.” A fruit juice drink that uses Wise-Pack can offer a more nutritious frozen dessert than ice cream.