Canadian chocolate manufacturer Nutriart chooses Stretch Hood by Innova Group to protect their loads

For food manufacturers like Nutriart, a name synonymous with delicious chocolates in Canada, ensuring the integrity of their products throughout the supply chain is paramount. In the highly competitive and normative demanding food industry, companies must ensure their packaging systems provide security and protection to their products, as product quality and safety are essential. Understanding these challenges, Nutriart sought a more robust and sustainable packaging solution with Innova Group to elevate their efficiency and guarantee the secure delivery of their loads. To provide a solution to Nutriart’s challenges, Innova installed at the end of 2023 an Automatic packaging line comprised of a Vertical Strapping System and Stretch Hood to fully secure and protect their products.

Nutriart is a state-of-the-art, modern Canadian chocolate manufacturer with a flexible production platform. They provide to a wide range of business sectors in the North American food industry, offering products from Bakery to Dairy, including Confectionery, and Portable Snacks. To achieve this, Nutriart invests annually in technology to position themselves as future leaders in the chocolate industry and they are constantly innovating. In this regard, the new automatic packaging line with Innova aligns with their goals of technology innovation and sustainability.

Nutriart’s Challenge: Seeking a Secure and Streamlined Automation Solution

Before partnering with Innova Group Packaging Solutions, Nutriart relied on a stretch wrapping system to secure their chocolate boxes. While it provided a basic level of protection, it presented several drawbacks:

• Inefficient Film Usage: Traditional stretch wrapping can be wasteful, requiring a large amount of film to secure the pallet adequately. This not only increases operational costs but also contributes to a larger environmental footprint.
• Limited Protection: Stretch film can become loose during transportation, particularly due to vibrations and shifting. This could lead to unstable pallets and potential damage to the chocolates inside the boxes.
• Manual Labor: The existing process likely involved manual adjustments to the stretch wrap, adding time and labor costs to the packaging process.

Nutriart envisioned a more automated and secure packaging solution that would address these concerns. They sought a system that could efficiently secure their chocolate boxes, minimize film usage, and offer superior protection during transport.

Solution: A Tailored Packaging Line Designed for Efficiency and Protection

Innova Group, a leading provider of innovative packaging machinery solutions, stepped in to address Nutriart’s specific needs. Through close collaboration with the Nutriart team, Innova designed a customized packaging line that would optimize efficiency and ensure the complete protection of its chocolate products.

The new line incorporates a combination of cutting-edge technologies, including:

1. Pallet Infeed with Adaptable Conveyors: The Packaging line begins with a pallet infeed equipped with special roller conveyors with chains to adapt to another infeed connection. These conveyors were designed with future logistic expansions in mind, ensuring that Nutriart could scale its operations seamlessly as demand grew.

• Vertical 4-Side Strapping System with Lateral Shift: The Vertical Strapper system in their line features a unique Lateral Shift system for the strapping frame, allowing straps to be applied without moving the loaded pallet. This innovative feature minimizes the risk of product shifting and ensures secure strapping.

Furthermore, the strapping system includes a special conveyor with a rotating turntable. This ingenious design, tailored to Nutriart’s needs, enables straps to be applied on all four sides of the load, creating a secure and stable foundation for the chocolate boxes. A pallet elevator is also integrated within the conveyor system, facilitating strapping underneath the pallet for ultimate stability. This comprehensive strapping approach significantly enhances the security of Nutriart’s loads throughout transportation.

• Stretch Hood System for Superior Protection: Completing the packaging line is the Innova Stretch Hood Pro system. This state-of-the-art system features the capacity for two film reels, allowing Nutriart to adapt to various load formats or use it for a major wrapping autonomy without reel changes. Moreover, Nutriart also uses a special Stretch Hood film, composed of MLDPE multilayer, with a white opaque finish for better protection and privacy of the load contents.

The Stretch Hood system offers several key advantages for food products like Nutriart’s:

• Enhanced Load Protection: The stretch hood system provides superior protection against dust, moisture, and other environmental factors, ensuring the chocolate products remain pristine.
• Weatherproofing: Stretch hoods are particularly effective in protecting products from weather elements like rain, snow, and extreme temperatures that can affect Canada, which can be detrimental to chocolate products.
• Reduced Film Usage: Unlike traditional stretch wrapping, the stretch hood method significantly reduces film usage, leading to cost savings and a lower environmental footprint.
• Improved Aesthetics and Branding: The clear, tight-fitting hood improves the overall appearance of the packaged products, enhancing brand presentation.

Results & Conclusion: A Win-Win Partnership

The implementation of Innova’s tailored packaging line brought significant benefits to Nutriart. The new system provides superior protection for their chocolate boxes, ensuring the products remain intact and undamaged throughout the supply chain. The automated packaging process increases efficiency, reduces labor costs, and minimizes film usage, leading to substantial cost savings.

Nutriart’s CEO, Jean-Philippe Leclerc, expressed to Innova his more than satisfaction with the project: “The collaboration with Innova Group has been a game-changer for us. The new packaging line not only ensures the safety and quality of our products but also aligns with our commitment to sustainability. We look forward to working with Innova in the future.”

Similarly, Sergio Llidó, CEO of Innova Group, highlighted the success of the project: “Innova Group is proud to partner with leading food manufacturers like Nutriart. We are committed to providing innovative packaging solutions that meet the specific needs of our clients while promoting efficiency and sustainability. We look forward to collaborating with Nutriart on future projects as they continue to grow and expand their operation.”

In conclusion, the partnership between Nutriart and Innova Group Packaging Solutions showcases the importance of customized packaging solutions in the food industry. By addressing specific challenges and leveraging advanced technologies, companies can achieve superior product protection, operational efficiency, and sustainability. This case study serves as a testament to the impact of innovative packaging solutions in driving business success and customer satisfaction.