Performance Packaging to Seal Real Deal
Protecting the premium Australian products fresh off our regional New South Wales packing lines and through national transport and export shipping networks to our customers worldwide, Manildra Group’s packaging solutions are designed for sustainable performance beyond shelf-life.
Quality of the end-product is paramount, and selecting the correct packaging is not a one-size-fits- all approach.
Manildra Group’s specialised packaging solutions factor in a range of product requirements – from moisture-resistant bags for our oil-containing bakery premixes, to leak-proof packaging for
our grain mixes, and heat-sealed edges and resealability of retail and food service products.
Manildra Group Packaging Manager Anthony Jacobson said our supply chain approach to sustainability included maximising transportation efficiencies by enhancing palletisation configurations; reusing packaging where practical (such as repurposing cartons for point of purchase supermarket displays); and helping people safely handle our products in the workplace.
“Any wasted space on a pallet, truck or shipping container increases trip numbers and environmental
impact,” Mr Jacobson said of Manildra Group’s Australian-grown and made food and industrial products packed and distributed by rail, road and sea.
Mr Jacobson said identifying, developing and introducing innovative packaging solutions to meet current and future market trends – ranging from resealable pouch formats to reusable and recyclable easy-store containers for The Healthy Baker retail flour range – revolved around food safety as of “utmost priority in production and packaging”.
He said Manildra Group manufactured our own customised bags “to ensure the freshest product makes its way to the consumer without compromise and optimised capacity for full shelf-life use”.
“Our goal is to find the best purpose-made bags for each product and end-use, factoring in size, weight, shape, ingredients and functionality,” said Mr Jacobson of Manildra Group’s flagship manufacturing sites at Nowra, on the New South Wales south coast, and at Manildra, in the state’s central west, that tailor packaging solutions to customer product specifications and end-uses from industrial one-tonne bulka bags down to 500-gram direct-to-consumer products.
“We produce and print our own bags on-site at Manildra Flour Mill, and we also purchase natural unbleached and unglazed brown paper and packaging cartons from Australia’s major paper manufacturers, Opal and Visy – who in turn utilise Manildra Group’s industrial wheat starches to make their own packaging, pulp and paper products,” Mr Jacobson told The Cultivator.
“Utilising our own products further along in our supply chain contributes to our closed-loop approach in zero-waste value-adding for sustainable Australian manufacturing and agricultural industries and strong regional communities.”
Shoalhaven Starches Head of Capital Engineering Projects, Aaron Ticehurst, said our state-of-the-art northern packing hub under construction at Nowra for operation in late-2023, boasted two modern 25-kilogram packing lines and a one-tonne bag packing line to centralise packaging of our Australian-grown and made product range.
Along with two rail sidings and pneumatic transfer pipes to seamlessly bridge Shoalhaven Starches’ manufacturing operations with the new northern packing hub, rigorous quality control tests will
be performed prior to packing – guaranteeing consistency and quality of Manildra Group’s grain-based, all-Australian products to precise technical specifications of customer requirements.
“As well as increasing capacity and enhancing production flexibility, the hub will optimise on-site structure and workflow while consolidating packaging capabilities and strengthening our supply chain,” Mr Ticehurst said.