Invisible packaging

OVER 30% more sales is how much the Bracca Group says it has gained after converting to the LitePac packaging system from Krones. The mineral water bottler is the first to operate the new EvoLite packer worldwide and has installed the equipment at its Bergamo facility in northern Italy. The machine produces strapped packs with an integrated handle, doing entirely without shrink film for secondary packaging.This translates to significant reductions in both energy consumption and film waste. Krones calls its new system ‘invisible packaging’. 

Though with 236 million bottles and a turnover of 26 million euros in 2011, the privately run Bracca Group does not exactly rank amongst the heavyweights in Italy’s high-volume mineral-water market (which totals 11 billion litres).It has in fact successfully found its niche, with a share of just under 3%, serving primarily supermarkets, discounters and also the horeca segment. A small part of its output is exported to Germany, Switzerland and to Canada. Bracca has two bottling facilities: Bracca Acque Minerali spa in Zogno in the Brembana valley, and Fonti Pineta spa in Clusone, in the Seriana valley located in the hills above Bergamo.

Supermarket  chain  Unes  as  the pioneer

The Italian supermarket chain Unes is the first food &beverage retailer to sell the Bracca Group’s exclusive brand Presolana U! in the new LitePac. The supermarket actually set the ball rolling for the introduction of the LitePac packaging, which fits in neatly with the firm’s overall image, because sustainability and resource economy are permanent constituents of the franchise chain’s corporate system. The 45-year-old company has for ten years
now been part of the Finiper Group and has 186 supermarkets in northern Italy, in the Lombardy, Piedmont and Emilia-
Romagna regions.

Evaluating options to shrink wrap

In the beverage segment, Unes initiated a project aimed at reducing the packaging for the Presolana U! mineral water brand. On the request of Unes, the Bracca Group, headed by director-general Gianfranco Morandi, embarked on its quest for a type of end-of-the-line packaging geared to producing perceptible savings in packaging material. After studying the European markets, they came up with only two alternatives to shrink-wrapping: full-depth
trays made of cardboard, and moulded plastic trays, of the kind frequently used in northern Europe. Both variants, however, also exhibited specific disadvantages. With the full-depth tray, the labels on the bottles
would have been partly hidden, transport would have posed problems, the cardboard for the trays would have been more expensive than film for shrink-wrapping, and – last but not least – at the point of sale consumers would have been tempted to buy individual bottles instead of the whole tray. This would likewise have been the case with the second alternative, the moulded plastic trays, even though transport would have been more reliable. These trays, however, are retrays, i.e. they work in a returnable system, which would have entailed an increased outlay in terms of return transport and cleaning.

During an open day at Krones’ Italian subsidiary in Garda held in 2010, the idea of the LitePac was presented rather as a sideshow. This was the initial spark for Mr Morandi. Looking back he says, “For us, it meant we had finally cut the Gordian Knot.”  Krones  and  the  Bracca  Group became partners and together invested a substantial amount of work on this project.

In  January  2011,  Bracca  ordered the the first EvoLite machine. “It goes without  saying  that  this  demanded  a whole lot of confidence in Krones on our part.” EvoLite was integratedAir Maxs