The energy drinkers in China are still in the shocking news that Red Bull China stopped the production temporarily due to the brand ownership dispute with TC group, Unilever declared that they successfully find a probiotics which can survive the process of pasteurization and will put on market their new functional Ice cream which will have the probiotics and ice cream put together, the first time in the ice cream industry with the name of Culture Republick. Although it’s still not available in Chinese market, but as a sales of food container production machinery, we’re looking forward its entering of Chinese market at an earlier day to bring us more business opportunity.
To the food container producer, a new arrival of ice cream products means at least two orders of ice cream container. The cups and the lids. There are two different materials ice cream cups available on the market, one is made of paper and the other is food grade PP. With information available, the cup for the new ice cream by Unilever adopted a colorful abstract design. According to my experience, the 9 colors in mold labeling label printing technology will better restore the design than the four colors paper label printing technology.
The design of the lids is also a key element to help the new ice cream to stand out from it’s competitors. We’re curious about how will Unilever dispose its spoon. As the creator of the functional ice cream market, we don’t think that Unilever will choose to serve separated soon to the consumer over the counter neither not only it’s insanitary but also doesn’t meet its identity as the creator of the functional ice cream.
About the disposal of the ice cream spoons, I think the solutions of the three big names below is representative in the market.
At first lets have a look at Yili, one of the largest ice cream producer in China. As one of the best loved ice cream product available in the market, YILI Pasture accumulated thousands of fans as soon as put on market. Some carefully YILI Pasture lovers may notice that the lid of the ice cream is a little bit different from the products of year 2017. The spoon is hidden behind the label while the old lid is produced by IML technology. To the consumer the new design is sanitary and convenient, but a headache to the producer. The products manager of the lids told us that all the staff in the company include the sales and office lady were labeling the lids for just in time delivery in the peak season until the automation system designed and manufactured by SWITEK put in production. The new system will only 4 staffs/shift to put the lids and labels with a daily productivity of 140 thousand pieces of spoon lids.
Another representative solution is Baxy, one of the earliest world renowned ice cream which entered China at the earlier 1990s and regarded one of the best ice creams in China. Its spoons also hidden in the cap but mounted it. Although it looks simple but also a labour intensive work. The manufacturer of Baxy container also contacted SWITEK for an automation solution. But different from the supplier of YILI package, they requested a higher level of automation with less staffs involved. According to the chief programmer of these two project Mr. Wu, YILI choose to have a folded spoon hidden in the caps so it must be put manually, 4 staffs are need in each shift. But the spoons for Baxy ice cream is a straight and could be arrayed by a vibrator, the spoons would be arrayed and mounted to the caps with a daily productivity up to 1,700,000 pieces.
Finally, I would say that the solution of Nestle is the most efficient. With patented label production technology by DV, the spoon lids could be in mold labeled with only the spoon on the lids without be labeled. By now it’s only DV from Belgium who can produce this kind of label and the cost of which is affordable to some luxury ice cream brand. We can only expect that the price will go down with more label producer will join this market to make it affordable to everybody.
Unilever put on market 16 ice cream products in 2017, among them are Good Humor and Breyers which ranked the 2nd in US ice cream market with a share of 10.7. Although there’s still not a concrete timetable, but we’re sure that CULTURE REPUBLICK will enter China, the largest consuming market in the world soon. With its powerful marketing capability and brand appeal, it’s no doubt that the sales of CULTURE REPUBLICK is expected. I think any ice cream package producer is better to be well prepared for the booming of “Functional Ice Cream” to win out the packaging market. 20 years ago, nobody expected that Red Bull will grow up to be a business of $3 billion in China.
