Constantia Flexibles says….CHEEESE!

Constantia Flexibles: When it comes to packaging – can every cheese be treated the same?

Frédéric Roffé: Certainly not. There are many, many types of cheeses – there are more than 1.000 types of French cheeses alone! Many of them are soft cheeses like Brie or spread cheeses – we are mainly interested in the hard cheeses packaging market, which is typically pressed cheeses like Emmentaler or Gouda and come in blocks, slices or grated. Even here every country is different – in Germany most hard cheeses are sold as slices, while in France and Italy there is a big demand for grated cheese.

The hard cheeses are best packed in packaging based on film materials – it keeps the cheese fresh and aromatic until the package is opened.

Constantia Flexibles: Why is the hard cheese market interesting for us?

Frédéric Roffé: There are two main reasons. First of all we already have excellent connections and very long relationships with the dairy product manufacturers. We supply all the big brands for dairy products like yoghurt, butter or cream cheese with our packaging solutions – mainly aluminum-based lids and wrapping foil. So we already have the contacts to support them with additional packaging needs – for example the hard cheese the dairy brands produce.

Secondly, Constantia Flexibles has gained a lot of expertise regarding film packaging for dairy products recently. Of course, we offer either standard high-quality material like OPA/PE for grated cheese packed in flow pack - The flow pack foil wraps around the product during the packaging process and is welded and cut off at the back and at both ends.

Besides that, we also deliver wonderfully smooth reclosable lidding for rigid trays, we call these “Integrated Adhesives” made from PET/PE. They belong to our so-called “Reclose Family” featuring our packaging solutions that can be opened and closed again to keep food fresh over a longer period of time. Our cheese packaging solutions have many benefits for our customers – there is no modification necessary on their lines to move from standard lidding to convenient packaging. Both - rotogravure print and flexo print are possible, and HD Flexo* is providing fantastic results, too.

We feel that it is the right time for a big push to additionally supply the dairy brands with our film-based packaging solutions because we have the capacity and know-how to upscale the business substantially. With a rising world population and more and more people living in cities, the demand for dairy products will definitely increase in the next years to come.

Constantia Flexibles: Can you tell us about a successful example?

Frédéric Roffé: A very successful cooperation with one of our clients just hit the supermarkets in France. The “Fromagerie Etrez” is a small, but very traditional and high-quality mountain cheese manufacturer for whom we developed the packaging and supplied out of our Constantia Teich plant in Poland. They trusted us also to extend their offer to some demanding French restaurants.

One interesting aspect of the manufacturing of this packaging was that “Fromagerie Etrez” went with a totally new color code. You have to know that most hard cheese packaging is yellow and red – just have a look yourself the next time you set foot in a supermarket or smaller grocery store. The Fromagerie decided to go with a new color code and they sell their cheese in our blue and green packaging – in order to stand out on the shelf and also underline that they are a sustainable company.

Find more information about our portfolio for the cheese industry here: http://www.cflex.com/products-applications/packaging/food/dairy/

Contact: Frédéric Roffé

*HD Flexo is the next step in high quality flexo printing. HD Flexo is a new process for making digital flexographic (flexo) plates. The improved plates are higher quality and print more consistently than standard digital flexo plates.