Our packaging helps in-store bakeries look as if the products have come from the back of house. We did a lot of research and a strong view was that, if the product is in a bakery, consumers expect to see them in plastic trays. So we package the doughnuts in trays and wrap a plastic sleeve around them. Research suggested that although people might suspect products weren’t made fresh in the store, they were happy to believe it anyway. It’s a bit of an illusion. With our packa-ging we are helping bakeries to drive consumer perception.
Where we make doughnuts at our Kitchen Range Foods factory in Peterborough, the packaging system is fully automated to keep line speeds high - now at around 100 packs per minute. The system denests the acetate trays, adds the product, closes the lid and adds tamper-evident seals. It then puts the sleeves on the trays, runs them through a metal detector and packs them into cases. They are then coded for traceability.
We also have a flow wrapper for single doughnuts, which are packaged differently. The packaging on these is designed to be eye-catching and bright to encourage impulse buys. Our larger packages of frozen branded doughnuts, also go through the flow wrap; they are packaged in quality metal film, which the consumer cannot see through, because frozen doughnuts are less attractive.
Ross Macken,
Factory manager,
Kitchen Range Foods
l Each month, British Baker asks a member of the packaging industry to comment on a bakery product or trend
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