Pacepacker Services has developed a new offline, portable Mixed Tray Loader pick-and-place system.
It’s designed to quickly generate assorted trays of product for smaller outlets, such as convenience supermarkets and inner-city delicatessens. The assorted product trays provide a creative way for retailers to offer a far wider product range on space restricted retail shelves.
The product swap unit, known as the Mixed Tray Loader (MTL), has already been installed at one UK manufacturer of own-label dips. Explaining the logic behind the MTL, Pacepacker business development manager Paul Wilkinson says: “By stocking mixed trays of product, a larger supermarket can hold a wider range of product types, flavours and variants. Equally, a smaller inner-city store, which may previously have had to drop lines to make way for other products, can continue to offer a good variety.”
The dip producer installed an MTL with a pneumatic Cartesian pick-and-place system positioned over twin lanes of filled trays. The picking heads remove one line of product from the first tray, and places it into the second. The process is then reversed to swap items in both trays.
“This customer has already asked us to double the capacity to 20 single layer trays of dips per minute on the initial system, and has said it will order a second high-capacity MTL on delivery of the upgrade,” says Wilkinson. “We could not ask for a clearer indication that there is demand for this type of capability and that our solution is an effective one.”
Neil Farmer, independent consultant and spokesperson for the packaging sector, said: “The whole food and grocery retail sector is a battlefield. To achieve higher shelf spacing is the challenge facing all producers. This is particularly so in metro, convenience and local stores where space is even more limited. The use of mixed tray systems therefore has great merit, allowing more variety, choice and range of products.
“In store it’s that “blink of an eye moment”, the seven seconds when the consumer looks at the shelf and makes a purchasing decision. With an assorted range of products there’s a greater chance of seeing something which will catch the eye, leading to a purchase. The growth in brand extensions, personalisation and customisation of products is one of the most important trends in the retail sector. Consumers are used to having a wide choice of branded product options and mixed product trays can go a long way to facilitating this.”