In a high-speed world where convenience is king, the demand for ready-to-eat foods featuring compact packaging has propelled the user friendly pouch into the spotlight. And as the presence of pouches within retail stores continue to grow, CTP Flexibles have positioned ourselves as leading supplier of both printed pouch-laminates and preformed pouches. 

At CTP Flexibles we custom print and manufacture pouch multi-laminates to enhance the packaging’s protective properties and its shelf life as far as possible. We supply either preformed pouches or pouch-laminates in reel form to be converted on our clients’ form, fill and seal machines, whichever format suits the clients’ needs.

For heavier products, weighing more than 500g, we manufacture stand up K-seal pouches with a bottom gusset. This offering makes use of the maximum inner capacity of the pouch and is a particularly popular solution for pet foods, maize and cereal products, confectionary and snacks and soups and sauces.

For lightweight products, weighing less than 500g, we produce Doy Packs. This style, with its bottom seal enables lightweight products to stand upright and is favoured amongst retailers and brand owners when packaging coffee, powders, frozen berries and general dried goods.

A popular solution for single-serving portions, our 3-side seal pouch is an easy to use, convenient offering suitable to products like biltong, seafood, snack foods and spices.

We’ve invested in the latest print equipment, allowing us to customise each offering to meet your exact requirements. All styles can be produced in various sizes, flexo printed in up to eight colours in a design of your choice and can sport a gloss or matt varnish. A resealable zipper can be inserted to ensure airtight closure during storage while an easy-tear nick simplifies the end consumer’s experience at the point of consumption.

Additionally, our latest investment, the installation of a new laminator with cold-seal technology, further enhances our pouch portfolio. Complimentary to our existing solventless lamination equipment, the compact machine is capable of both solventless and solvent based laminating. With this new solvent based capability, we are positioned to produce pouches for more aggressive compounds such as sugar, chemicals and alcohol. The laminator also boasts superior web handling technology which ensures laminate quality of the highest standard and mitigates the risk of delamination issues. Furthermore, its coating weight control system ensures consistency in glue laydown to achieve a more aggressive tack.

As a packaging solution, pouches are beneficial in many respects, says Paul Prophet, new business development director at CTP Flexibles; “Pouches are the epitome of convenience and their lightweight nature supports on-the-go consumption. Additionally, it’s lightweight nature realises a cost reduction on packaging material relative to traditional formats, coupled with transportation and logistics efficiencies and savings. Notably, many of our clients have reported reductions in production costs because of the pack’s ease of handling on filing lines.

From a marketing perspective pouches are a modern packaging solution, often boasting premium-looking designs and favoured amongst clients as a tool to breathe life into mature brands or when launching new products, the pack itself is a powerful marketing tool and serves as a voice piece for brand communication.”

On the sustainability front, relative to glass and rigid alternatives, pouches are known to have a low packaging weight relative to the product itself and a lower carbon footprint. Furthermore, flexible packaging uses less material overall and consumes less energy and fewer natural resources during its production and transportation processes.

Traditionally the materials used in the production of pouches are often mixed which hampers its recyclability. CTP Flexibles, through our environmentally friendly brand Earth Choice, are continuously developing recyclable pouch-laminate solutions which possess the same advantages typically associated with a pouch.

Along with having state-of-the-art equipment and a specialised team, we recognises that quality always comes first, CTP Flexibles is a BRC accredited flexible packaging converter.

For more information, contact paulp@ctpflexibles.co.za