Giving Power to Pouch Producers: How Sihl & OKI are creating a new market

I recently spoke to Rob Brown of OKI Europe and Tobias Cloidt of Sihl about the powerful combination of OKI printing technology with Sihl’s innovative Artysio stand-up pouches. I discovered how this was gaining traction and helping producers to increase creativity, efficiency and sustainability!

Tobias Cloidt, Sihl (left) and Rob Brown OKI Technology

Tobias, what is special about the Artysio stand-up pouch?

REVOLUTIONARY is the "PACK&PRINT" method. ARTYSIO film is first processed on the line into unprinted stand-up pouches, which can then be individually printed later as required with laser printers of the Pro9000 series from OKI.

The pack&print variant is suitable for small, highly flexible customer orders of up to 10,000 units and represents a completely new benchmark in the industry.

Rob, what makes OKI's printer series the ideal printer for this application?

As part of OKI's continued expansion in providing in-house, direct-to-pack solutions, the Pro9000 range delivers outstanding results and is the perfect answer to the high-quality demands customers place on it.

Tell us more about the OKI technology & Sihl combination and what this enables.

The OKI Pro9000 range uses hot fusion laser technology. The pouch goes through the OKI machine and it is robust and reliable. These machines were made for and sold to commercial printers, and they could work with up to 350-gram weight. But that market has declined, and more and more people were printing onto pouches and unknown to us bought the machine to do short-run pouches. These are well suited to short runs. Makers, (who can be print service providers, brand owners or co-packing companies), do not want large quantities of minimum order – they want to change ingredients or design or personalisation and lends itself well to this OKI and Sihl combination.

This enables a shorter lead time on pouches as we supply blank pouches directly to the maker. This is an important trend. The outsourced print business does not get involved and it gives power directly to the maker. This is great, especially for smaller businesses with specialist craft products. With outsourced printing, pouches could take weeks to arrive and then more time is taken to get the printed product out of the door. The companies would also have to purchase a large stock of printed pouches. With this combination of OKI & Sihl, the customer orders unprinted Sihl pouches, and then they can directly start printing whenever they need to. This gives control to the maker and reduces waste.

Is it Sustainable?

Print-on-demand is sustainable anyhow, with very little to no waste. If you need just 100 pouches that is fine, you just print what you need. The design and ingredients may change but this offers late-stage customization to the maker and adds a huge amount of flexibility into the production. Also, monomer pouches are recyclable. The other big thing is the weight of Artysio is considerably less than other materials, meaning less weight overall.

With the old production model, it is common for 5-6K packages to get thrown away – ingredients may change or there may be a design change and then producers will have to throw away stock. When people buy cheap pouches and then switch jobs with analogue printing the waste is huge, and the environmental impact is terrible. Artysio is a premium pouch which can be printed on demand, you can then print what you need and therefore eradicate waste – so it is both efficient and sustainable.

What kind of products and ingredients are placed into these pouches?

Food, confectionary, chocs, sweets, pet treats, coffee, horticultural products. The key markets are food, health and beauty. One customer even produced 10,000 first aid kits! So the applications are wide and varied. The applications are across everything. In addition, Superfoods, and sports nutrition in essence high-value items – it shows the need for high-quality packages and materials, it is a premium product, robust, durable plus eye-catching as well as a great surface for promotion and branding.

Who is responsible for creating these new possibilities?

Our customers tend to decide and we like this because it gives power directly to the customer – you do not need to wait for the print house - you can do it yourself and sit with the manufacturer. It is amazing how low the cost is and it brings possibilities to craft retail product producers. It is a huge differentiator.

Are there any other advantages?

Due to the oval welded bottom, the bag remains upright and offers an attractive product presentation at the point of sale.

Unfilled stand-up pouches can be stored efficiently and, in a space-saving manner due to their practical flat shape, resulting in low storage and transport costs compared to other types of packaging.

The pouches offer plenty of space on the front and back for an attractive and individual design and information on ingredients and additives. The OKI Pro9000 range enables instant ink drying and seamless finishing.

Are Artysio stand-up pouches suitable for all food products?

Yes, ARTYSIO films are manufactured according to GMP guidelines. They are therefore suitable as flexible primary packaging for food & non-food applications where particularly high barrier properties are required to protect the freshness, aroma and appearance of the products.

Which sizes and features for the stand-up pouches are available?

The pre-made stand-up pouches are available for 250 ml and 500 ml filling volumes. Both sizes are available as zipper or non-zipper pouches. In future, there will also be further sizes, features, and materials combinations.