Cheer Pack sees big innovation in small cap

With sustainability at the forefront for brand owners, Cheer Pack North America knew the time had come for changes in the design of the company's plastic cap commonly used on baby food and applesauce pouches.

The new version, called the Vizi Cap, provides several "deliverables" to customers compared to the previous version, said Al Madonna, vice president of marketing for the West Bridgewater, Mass.-based company.

The Vizi Cap also delivered as this year's winner of the Innovation Award given out annually at the Plastics Caps & Closures 2021 conference organized by Plastics News. Other finalists for the award included a new closure system for colorant containers and an emerging cap and straw designed to fit on threaded bottles to eliminate spillage.

"We looked at it and said we know that sustainability is at the top of mind with our customers. How can we take weight out and really meet that preferred hierarchy of sustainability?" Madonna said, referring to the reduce portion of the reduce, reuse, recycle approach.

Now, in the grand scheme of things, pouch caps do not use a lot of plastic. But Cheer Pack literally has made billions of pouches and caps over time, so any reduction in weight can have a significant impact over time.

"The primary goal was reducing weight. Brand owners, in the market research that we conducted, that's No. 1," Madonna said.

"From an engineering standpoint, we did a lot of prototyping work and what we actually achieved with the Vizi is that for every 10 million units we are saving 5.3 tons [of plastic] vs. our current cap," he explained.

Using less plastic means manufacturing the same number of units compared to the previous cap also will reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with production, Madonna said during a live virtual conference session Sept. 23.

During the design phase of creating the new Vizi cap, Cheer Pack created several prototypes and sent those out to customers for their feedback. The whole process took about a year.

"Innovation is the lifeblood of our company. We see a lot of innovation happening in caps and spouts," Madonna said.

"This is just one example, one tangible one, where we made the investment. There was a business case justification. We have generated a lot of interest and commitments to date, so it's very exciting. It's good not only for our business and our customers, it's good for the environment," he added.

Other finalists for the innovation award included the ZippyCap from ZippyPlanet LLC of Port Washington, N.Y., an emerging product that threads on to single-serve bottles allowing people to use the integrated silicone straw without fear of spillage. Targeted markets include children as well as adults who face physical challenges using screw-top containers.

"We wanted to make a product that is easy to use, fun, effective and that's how we landed on ZippyCap," said Daniel Reitman, co-founder of the company. "This fits on to most bottles and it basically turns any bottle into a reusable bottle. It makes it a lot easier if you have kids."

Riverdale Global Ltd.'s new closure for its Pump in a Drum colorant delivery system also made the final cut and was featured during the conference.

The closure is designed to eliminate spillage of colorants made by Riverdale and used by plastic processors, said Kevin Cabana, vice president of operations at Riverdale Global in Aston, Pa.

"We have invented the Pump in a Drum design, which keeps the liquid color sealed inside the container during the metering process and the handling process. Tying into that we've incorporated, although we're not a closure company per se, we've designed a cap that seals off the liquid color port on top of the container when the tube set is not in place," Cabana said.

Riverdale, which is owned by equipment maker Maguire Products, used its own expertise and technology to design and manufacture the closure system. "We are able to produce these all in-house and we feel it really enhances the design," he said.