Zip-Pak® Reaffirms Resealable Leadership Role with New Engineering & Innovation Center
Carol Stream, IL (PRWEB) July 29, 2017 -- With an opening date scheduled for late 2017, the EIC will house 9,100 square feet of laboratory space along with 5,000 square feet of engineering and office space, initially staffing 20 employees. The new EIC will centralize Zip-Pak’s product innovation and core business functions under one roof. It also places engineering and innovation in close proximity to its core U.S. manufacturing facilities, as well as a number of key customers and supply chain partners.
“Our new EIC will enable us to be more nimble and flexible in responding to the needs of our customers,” says David Pritchard, who was recently named Zip-Pak Director of Global Innovation and Engineering, and will carry out the mission of the EIC. Pritchard, a 30-year veteran of the flexible packaging industry, has spent his last 12 with Zip-Pak in various leadership, sales, and engineering roles. “Enhanced collaboration among our teams of packaging experts, along with our supply chain partners and customers, will provide even greater levels of service, support and cost efficiencies.”
Through extensive and ongoing consumer research, Zip-Pak continues to strive toward advancements in resealable solutions that fully deliver on consumer wants and needs. Recent focus group feedback has called attention to areas of consumer concern regarding confidence in a secure seal, and a desire for a more positive experience when initially accessing the product contents of a flexible package. As a result, Zip-Pak has developed several tactile and audible feedback technologies to provide assurance that a resealable package is fully closed. The company is also working closely with supply chain partners to enhance the experience of first opening a resealable flexible package.
“With the EIC operational, Zip-Pak will have enhanced capabilities to provide brand owners with new and more forward-looking ways to satisfy consumer demand for convenient resealable packages, while ensuring manufacturing efficiency,” states Pritchard. In early 2018, Zip-Pak plans to open the doors to the new EIC, inviting supply-chain partners and consumer brand owners to experience a range of resealable solutions in the Zip-Pak innovation pipeline.
In addition to a focus on new product development, Zip-Pak will continue to develop and deliver application technologies that further extend its legacy of innovation breakthroughs. The company’s history already includes inventing the process of applying a zipper to film in a transverse direction, as well as utilizing this application on both vertical form-fill-seal and flow wrappers. The Zip-Pak EIC team will continue working together with brand owners, converters, and pouch filling/sealing partners to provide flexible packaging advancements in this area.
“We’re committed to always making consumers’ lives easier, while increasing our customers’ brand growth,” Pritchard concluded. “The Engineering and Innovation Center is a new destination where our best ideas can come to life and go to market.”
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About Zip-Pak
Zip-Pak is a division of Illinois Tool Works (ITW), a Fortune 200 company that is one of the world’s leading diversified manufacturers of specialized industrial equipment, consumables and related service businesses. Serving customers and markets around the globe, they have a significant presence in developed and emerging markets, and offer a complete range of resealable closure services, machinery and solutions. Zip-Pak holds over 400 closure and related patents worldwide, and offers the most comprehensive portfolio of resealable zipper solutions.
The company operates in more than 52 countries around the world with a workforce of more than 270 dedicated flexible packaging professionals. These talented individuals adhere to the highest professional standards and focus their efforts to meeting and exceeding the needs of every Zip-Pak client. Combining this commitment to client success with their technical innovation and unmatched network of resources enables them to confidently and consistently deliver “uniquely flexible” solutions to their customers.
For more information about Zip-Pak, please visit: http://www.zippak.com.
For additional press information, please contact:
Ilena Della Ventura, Delia Associates
E: idellaventura(at)delianet(dot)com
T: 908-534-9044
Ed Delia, Delia Associates, +1 908-534-9044, [email protected]
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