Morris the Cat is purring with enthusiasm about Del Monte Foods' latest launched of new packaging for 9Lives® dry cat food. The winner of the Bernard M. Seid Best of Show award in the 2006 National Assn. of Container Distributors (NACD) [www.nacd.net] Package of the Year Awards Competition, the glass-clear polyvinyl chloride container is provided by distributor All-Pak (www.all-pak.com), which worked closely with Del Monte to provide several attributes to the package. Designed especially for introduction to the Target store chain, it holds an ample 3.5 lb of nugget-shaped food, so it has a built-in handle for carrying convenience. It's completely clear, so it provides maximum product visibility, has softened sightlines, an oval shape with a sophisticated, rather than industrial look and a value-added cap that doubles as a feeding bowl and a measuring cup, molded with graduation marks for metering out the product. The threaded cap is made from a clarified polypropylene so that consumers can see the food inside as well as a visible giveaway that fits underneath the closure/bowl.

Target likes Target-specific packaging, explains All-Pak's Steve Galligan. “Del Monte wanted to present Target with new, innovative, value-added packaging just for them. So we helped to design the container according to Del Monte's specifications and came up with a cap/bowl on the top that would include the giveaway. Del Monte decided the first giveaway would be a can of cat food. So the feeding bowl had to be designed with a recess that locks the small can in place inside the bowl to prevent movement in shipping.”

The feeding bowl/measuring cup snaps over the closure, keeping the inner giveaway secure. Extrusion/blown by Captive Plastics (www.captiveplastics.com), the container is labeled with front and back labels featuring the familiar 9Lives graphics. The orange 110-mm PP closure and the clear PP bowl/cover on top of the cap, are injection-molded by Almega Plastics, Inc. The awards were announced in April during the NACD's convention in Charleston, SC. For more about these and the rest of the NACD winners, see our website exclusive for July at www.packagingdigest.com/info/nacd2006.