AR Packaging partners with Nestlé for new KitKat Senses packaging

KitKat Senses are a range of chocolates available in a number of flavors – hazelnut, double chocolate and salted caramel – and offered as single portions, individually flow wrapped. The individual chocolates are then packaged in a larger carton, which has been designed to facilitate sharing as a pop-open box. A sharing platter opens up when the lid is removed and the chocolates are presented. The pack can then be reclosed.

Nestlé and the AR Packaging group of companies collaborated to achieve such a packaging, and in a short timeframe. Different parts of AR Packaging contributed in this project, with the structural designs made by A&R Carton, printed prototypes produced by digital printer Mediaköket, before the commercial packaging was produced by A&R Carton in Germany. Mediaköket was able to deliver the first prototypes to Nestlé just one week after receiving the final decision of the design. Two weeks after the prototypes were delivered, the final decision was made and the production started at A&R Carton in Frankfurt, Germany. The tray and lid are made of 100 percent cartonboard and no outer plastic wrapping is needed.

Two months out from the initial idea, the concept was finalized and in another two months the final design was ready to print. The project started in January 2017 and KitKat Senses was available in shops February 2018. AR Packaging identified this as an example of how a large brand owner is committed to shortening its new product development process. It is also proof of how good cooperation, both between customer and supplier but also between the companies in the AR Packaging Group, can achieve, the company noted.

Svetlana Kourianova, European key account manager at AR Packaging, said: ‘I’m very proud to be part of AR Packaging and how it provides all possibilities to work together with its many specialized subsidiaries. In this case, Mediaköket delivered the prototypes super-fast and made it easy for me to pitch this idea to Nestlé. All credit to my great colleagues at the A&R Carton Frankfurt plant for doing a great job with design, development and of course production.’