Speeding up the packaging process for Latin America's largest egg retailer

 

The science class egg drop experiment: One part physics, one part engineering and one part architecture, it's become a staple of American middle school STEAM education.  

While it’s not as popular in other countries, it's so popular in the U.S., the biggest science and engineering influencers (Lego, Ryan Kung and more) have produced their own takes on the experiment. It always involves some version of figuring out a way to drop an egg from a certain height without breaking it.  

You-tube Influencer and Former NASA Engineer Mark Rober, famous for engineering porch-pirate glitter bombs and Ninja Warrior courses for squirrels, decided to take the experiment to another level. His team worked tirelessly for three years to drop an egg from space without breaking it. (They achieved success on their 5th attempt and set a Guiness World Record that’ll be hard to beat.)  

Taking on a more real-world version of this experiment, a Smurfit Westrock designer in Brazil recently got a chance to channel his inner middle-schooler. The challenge: transport over two-dozen eggs from packers to consumer homes, without breaking them, in containers that use less fiber packaging and are easier and quicker to assemble.

The need for new egg packaging

E-commerce has become big business, and so has purchasing eggs right from the farm. Direct to consumer farm sales climbed over 33% from 2017 to 2022.

Mantiqueira, the largest retailer of eggs in South America, has become a company known for identifying shifts in consumer habits like these and adapting their business models to give their consumers what they desire. Being a leader and market trend-setter is a priority for the company. Listening to its consumers, in recent years the business also made greater sustainability commitments. 

“In 2020, our founder, Leandro Pinto, announced a commitment to have two and a half million free-range chickens by 2025,” said André de Carvalho, Mantiquera’s Marketing Director. “Our Happy Eggs® product is the result of this effort, and we’re on track to reach this goal in 2024.”

Flowing with the e-commerce and farm-to-consumer trends, Pinto’s team began offering Mantiqueira em Casa in 2018, an egg club where consumers can purchase cases of 30 or 40 eggs at the subscription frequency that suits them. While quick packaging and delivery could ensure fresh eggs, they also needed to make sure those eggs were delivered intact. They had to create packaging to hold egg cartons and protect the eggs throughout the delivery process.

 

 

The former design and branding of Mantiqueira's egg club packaging.

Finding success with their packaging and the new platform, they recently turned to optimizing their operations and maximizing sustainability. They realized that with a package redesign, they might be able to 1) use less fiber to make their egg boxes, and 2) create containers that could be assembled and opened quicker and easier, helping them speed up their packing line and order-processing time and improve the customer experience.

Redesigning with Smufit Westrock

As Smurfit Westrock was already Mantiqueira's main supplier of corrugated boxes, leaders approached the Smurfit Westrock team about redesigning their delivery boxes. They chose Smurfit WestRock because of its reliability in the development of new and innovative packaging solutions. 

Smurfit Westrock Senior Development Analyst Emerson Secafim went to work on creating a new box that would reduce assembly and packing time, improve customer experience, and do it all using less fiber material. Secafim designed a box using the same B Flute corrugated fiber used for the current packaging. 

To increase the speed of assembly, Secafim created a bottom with a semi-automatic closure. He used a different lid design with a die-cut handle, which was also key in reducing assembly time. 

“For the lids, we deviated from the norm and proposed a model with less use of corrugated cardboard, which would provide a quick and secure closure, and more sustainability, given the lesser use of corrugated cardboard fibers,” said Secafim.  

Since Mantiqueira recently went through a rebrand, the new packaging also included using a high-quality printing technique with the new branding for a fresh, vibrant, premium look and feel. The team at Mantiqueira liked Secafim's design so much, they ended up using the initial iteration with only minor adjustments.

 

The new package design reduces the amount of corrugated fiber used and is assembled in less than half the time.

To make sure the new packaging would still protect its delicate contents, Smurfit Westrock then took on "real-world" tests with Mantiqueira. A pilot batch of the new boxes went through the entire packaging process and on to actual delivery. The team then evaluated the eggs to ensure the new boxes maintained the same (or better) product quality and integrity. When tests determined the packaging was a success, the egg company rolled out the new boxes in March of 2023.

What success looks like

While it's not like preserving an egg dropped from space, the results of the transition are still impressive. According to Mantiqueira, boxes are now assembled in less than half the time. It used to take approximately 45 seconds to assemble one box, but the new packaging is assembled in an average of 18 seconds.

The new boxes are made of approximately 10 percent less fiber when compared to the previous box design. Mantiqueira estimates they’ll use around 150,000 boxes in the next year, which would mean saving tons of fiber in the long run. This fiber savings could help Mantiqueira reduce their carbon emissions, an example of how packaging can impact a brand’s efforts to meet sustainability targets.

 to explore your options.  contact our team Smurfit Westrock team members are experienced in production line optimization, as well as packaging design. If you’d like to see how new packaging could positively impact your production line or help you further your sustainability efforts,

While Mantiqueira is happy with its results, the team says their customers are as well. The Customer Service department already received compliments and positive feedback regarding the new packaging.