MAKING A BETTER PIZZA BOX

THE CHALLENGE

It's the way it had always been. A top pizza chain had come to expect tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars in spoilage of pre-made personal pizzas during lunch.

The problem was that customers couldn't see the product they wanted to buy. Personal pizzas were put in corrugated pizza boxes and placed under hot lamps to allow for quick "grab and go" self-service. But customers would open several boxes before selecting a pizza, causing contamination and spoilage.

But, that was just a cost of doing business. At least, until Bell Incorporated developed a breakthrough new paperboard container design.

THE SOLUTION

The challenge was to find a way to allow consumers to view the pizza without opening the box. The solution was to design a paperboard container that would meet all the consumer's needs for a pizza box - and would have a window on the top panel.

The first step was to create a paperboard carton not just to hold a pizza but to provide a platform for eating pizza on the go. It had to be strong enough to support a 24 oz. drink on top. It also had to resist grease and moisture from the inside and meet FDA requirements for direct food contact packaging. Bell packaging engineers met these requirements by developing an intricate but rigid clamshell design with a thin poly film on the inside of the board substrate. They also designed die cut holes to manage fog and steam from the pizza and help keep the crust crisp.

The next step was to develop a window that could withstand an hour under 150º heating lamps. Bell engineers researched low-cost, permeable films and glues that could hold-up under the intense heat. Using restaurant warming units and special diagnostic tools, Bell conducted over 30 hours testing. Finally, they found a combination of film and glue that could withstand the heat without fogging over and without emitting odor. The packaging was ready to go.

THE RESULTS

The benefits from the new packaging were immediate and dramatic. As expected, contamination and spoilage decreased dramatically. But there were a number of additional benefits.

The old corrugated packaging required time by employees to construct each box. Transitioning to a formed, nested clamshell eliminated this time. It also dramatically reduced storage space requirements. The new paperboard packaging also provided the opportunity for higher-impact graphics. The chain capitalized on the opportunity to create a family of grab-and-go products, including pizza, sandwiches, breadsticks, and breakfast sandwiches.

In the end, Bell Incorporated's new container saved the pizza chain hundreds of thousands of dollars - in packaging costs, spoilage, and operating efficiencies. The Bell packaging has now become the industry standard.


"We didn't think it was possible to transition from corrugated to paperboard pizza packaging. Bell Incorporated proved us wrong. In the process, they saved us hundreds of thousands of dollars."