The Cereal Pouch of the Future May Be 'Gr-r-reat!'

By David Luttenberger

This sleeve-in-pouch design seems poised to expand successfully into the breakfast cereal category.

At a Pack Expo press conference in 1990, I remember a junior reporter innocently asked why she couldn't buy breakfast cereal in a pouch with a resealable zipper. Everyone in the room turned and looked at Cheryl like she was nuts. Even her defense detailing the countless times she and her toddler had spewed cereal across the room like an erupting Mt. Vesuvius when trying to open both the carton and inner bag didn't dissuade the rebuttles from the experts in attendance.

"Pouches are incompatible with amortized carton filling lines; the costs associated with applying a zipper are prohibitive; the economics of cubed pallet loads in the distribution systems would prevent...blah, blah, blah—it just won't work," they barked.

A few years later, O's cereal in a pouch appeared to much fanfare on store shelves. The reaction of kids—who dictate at point-of-purchase which brands are purchased—told The Quaker Oats Company it was nuts. I'm certain my packaging trade press brethren gloated at their chiding of Cheryl's suggestion years earlier.

In technical, packaging geek terms, the O's pouch lacked the facings of multiple flat-panel paperboard cartons. There was no billboard effect for the brand. The pouches "slouched" on the shelves, rendering front and back panel graphics crinkled and hard to read. The package was also difficult to open, the product appeared to be crushed even if it wasn't, and the pouched cereal languished on store shelves.

For kids, the decision was less technical and more practical. If the graphics are hard to read, and the package can't stand on its own, how could you possibly position it directly in front of your bowl and play the game on the back panel while you shoveled mouthfuls of O's into your pie hole?

Despite her avant-garde approach a decade and half earlier to new product/package development, Cheryl's cereal packaging needs (and those of frustrated bag-in-box cereal eaters everywhere) are about to be realized with the sleeve-in-pouch (SIP) package design. The brainchild of Hosokawa Yoko, the SIP design emulates the cube of a carton, offers the easy-open/reclosure attributes of a zipper, and capitalizes on the efficiencies of in-line form-fill-seal manufacturing.

Commercial in Japan since April 2002 for instant coffee, tea, and pet and snack foods, the SIP design is about to crack the U.S. market—and major cereal brand owners are ready to dig in with spoons in both hands.

The current SIP is a two-side-seal heat-sealable OPP/PE laminate— although other barrier materials can be used. SIP incorporates a thin-gauge poly-coated paperboard liner laminated to the inside of the pouch, which provides rigidity. The lamination to the inner walls of the flexible material prevent rogue Lucky Charms or errant Cheerios from being lost between the carton and bag as in a bag-in-box structure.

The "wings" of the pouch are folded neatly during the form-fill-seal process and glued to the structure's top and bottom panels. They can be easily dislodged to facilitate access to the easy-tear opening feature. The zipper replaces the venerable close pin used for decades to keep bag-in-box products fresh during pantry storage.

The four flat side panels of the pouch, and the gravure or flexo print receptivity of the film allow for outstanding POP graphics and billboarding, and most importantly, the ability for kids to stand the pouch up, even after opening, and read and play games printed on the package.

Though not limited to cereal applications, one key feature is the ability to include a toy prize and not have it poke through the pouch. This makes the SIP design an emerging technology worthy of a design that will easy earn its "Wow! What A Package" stripes, or as Tony would say: "It's Gr-r-reat!"