Zip-Pak to open engineering and innovation center

The center will house 9,100 sq ft of laboratory space, along with 5,000 sq ft of engineering and office space. Initially, 20 staff will be employed at the site.

The new center will centralize Zip-Pak’s product innovation and core business functions under one roof, and places its engineering and innovation in close proximity to its core US manufacturing facilities, as well as a number of key customers and supply chain partners. In addition to a focus on new product development, Zip-Pak will continue to develop and deliver application technologies that further extend its legacy of innovation breakthroughs. The company’s history already includes inventing the process of applying a zipper to film in a transverse direction, as well as utilizing this application on both vertical form-fill-seal and flow wrappers. The Zip-Pak engineering and innovation team will continue working with brand owners, converters and pouch filling/sealing partners to provide flexible packaging advancements in this area.

‘Our new engineering and innovation center will enable us to be more nimble and flexible in responding to the needs of our customers,’ commented David Pritchard, Zip-Pak's new director of global innovation and engineering. ‘Enhanced collaboration among our teams of packaging experts, along with our supply chain partners and customers, will provide even greater levels of service, support and cost efficiencies.’

Through extensive and ongoing consumer research, Zip-Pak said it strives to deliver resealable options that deliver on consumer wants and needs. Recent focus group feedback has called attention to areas of consumer concern regarding confidence in a secure seal, the company said, and a desire for a more positive experience when initially accessing the product contents of a flexible package. As a result, Zip-Pak explained that it has developed several tactile and audible feedback technologies to provide assurance that a resealable package is fully closed. The company is also working closely with supply chain partners to enhance the experience of first opening a resealable flexible package. In early 2018, Zip-Pak plans to open the doors to its new facility, inviting supply-chain partners and consumer brand owners to see a range of resealable products in the Zip-Pak innovation pipeline.

‘With the engineering and innovation center operational, Zip-Pak will have enhanced capabilities to provide brand owners with new and more forward-looking ways to satisfy consumer demand for convenient resealable packages, while ensuring manufacturing efficiency,’ stated Pritchard.