Separable carton box meets dual needs of transport and retail

Share

JAPAN – One Japanese pharmaceutical brand owner has developed a single pack for irregularly-shaped packages for both distribution and point-of-sale display, gaining benefits of 40% transport efficiency, material and CO2 emission reduction.

A rounded item contained in a plastic clamshell with a cardboard back, the liquid toilet bowl cleaner refill from Osaka-headquartered KOBAYASHI Pharmaceutical, Co., Ltd. presented a problem in transportation as well as point-of-sale display. Because of its irregular shape, it took up a lot of space and was also difficult to stack the products vertically without the products shifting around during distribution. Short of using a display hook-rack, it was also difficult to display the refill packs on retail shelves.

“Because the header of the product is large, the void space was also larger in the transport box,” said Mr Shigetaka Yamamoto, of KOBAYASHI’s Technological Innovation Dept – Manufacturing Headquarters. “Therefore, it was necessary to improve the transport efficiency.”

The solution was the Yamamoto Special Package (YSP) separable carton box – a compact package that fully utilizes packaging capacity, cuts material usage by 37%, and yield transportation efficiency and lower CO2 emissions.

As an individual item, the carton is a long rectangular-shaped that can hold six refill units standing vertically. Depending on the transport vehicle’s storage size and shape, as well as the capacity of the retail shelves, the cartons can be joined together horizontally, as well as stacked one on top of the other. This gives KOBAYASHI great flexibility in transport and retail configuration, making it easier to adapt to a range of spatial environments.

With this new carton’s tip-prevention mechanism, product protection is also guaranteed: “The front perforation opening functions as a stopper and has the ability to prevent the refill products from falling over,” explained Yamamoto. “So the packaging can be displayed either as separated boxes, or stacked vertically safely.

“Because the side perforation of the opening is T-shaped, loss of buckling strength is also minimized.”

In 2011, KOBAYASHI was awarded the prestigious JapanStar - Director of General Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Award.

The company was also recognized globally for its YSP separable carton box by the Asian Packaging Federation (APF) as one of the winners of the AsiaStar Transportation Package 2011. It also received the World Packaging Organization (WPO)’s Worldstar 2011 award for household packaging.