United Biscuits saves thousands
6 January 2010
While the use of laser coding on primary snack packs might be some way off, laser coders are in commercial use for outer cases at United Biscuits’ KP Foods factory in the UK.
Historically, UB has always bought pre-printed outer cases for its snacks. This meant a large number of different boxes were needed to cater for all the company’s different products and for promotional offers. The problem was that if UB bought, say, 50,000 boxes for a promotion and they weren’t all used, the rest would have to be disposed of, as they would no longer be of any use.
At the beginning of 2008, UB launched ‘Achieving Sustainability’, which includes the target of achieving zero food waste to landfill by 2010 and zero non-food waste to landfill by 2015. To eliminate waste from unused cardboard cartons, UB has started buying in standard generic boxes to which a laser receptive material is applied. This reacts on contact with the beam from Videojet’s laser case markers, to ‘write’ the required data onto the boxes. In this way, UB has the ability to put any information it wants on its boxes, including barcodes, graphics and special offers. The new system has enabled UB to not only substantially reduce the level of waste produced, but also save £128,000 in the space of nine months.
