D’Arcy works at Bosch’s Kliklok-Woodman division which primarily manufactures packaging for food and confectionery.
Bosch acquired Kliklok-Woodman in 2015 to expand its business across North America, Europe and other regions, according to a release. The company has produced packaging for several major snack brands, including PepsiCo-owned Quavers and Doritos, KIND Snacks, and Grupo Bimbo-owned Little Bites.
Packaging prototypes
During Snaxpo, Bosch showcased an array of single-serve packs attached to a merchandizing strip, designed to save shelf space in retail.
D’Arcy also displayed a bell-style package, which he described as “a compact way for getting a multi-pack out to your customers at home.”
“Rather than picking up six single bags, you can pick up one bell pack, and all your week-worth of chip products are there,” he said.
In addition, Bosch created a tub-shaped package for Balanced Breaks, a snack product that contains cheese pieces mixed with roasted nuts and dried fruits. The packages are stacked within a wrapped-around cardboard to stay on the shelf.
Mimicking Europe’s single-serve packages
“One of the biggest trends we’ve seen [in the US snack packaging industry] is smaller bags, whereas the US market for years had been heavily skewed towards large bag sizes,” D’Arcy said.
“We’re going into more single-serve packs. That’s kind of mimicking the trends we’re seeing throughout Europe which is primarily a single-bag serve market,” he added.
D’Arcy pointed out one of the biggest challenges when it comes to working with snack companies is snack products usually have varying bulk densities, so the product chart sizes differ from shift to shift.
“So we’re constantly coming up with new ways to make sure we fit all the products into that fixed bag size,” he said.
D’Arcy said Bosch will be creating faster baggers, reducing product waste, and developing new products that are easier for snack manufacturers to use.
