Van der Pol
Thinking in solutions
Van der Pol has years of experience with making butter pastry products, including ready-to-eat cookie dough chunks. Although Van der Pol packs these products in bulk packaging in its own factory, the company wanted to find a flexible co-packer with experience in packing frozen products to help pack the chunks in consumer packaging. NOMI Co-Packing fitted the bill.
Geert Houbraken, international account manager at Van der Pol, explains how he found out about NOMI via one of his customers. "They had already worked with NOMI Co-Packing and that is how I knew they'd be able to pack frozen products. We hit it off right from the start and it was clear that our companies are a good fit. I soon knew we'd made the right decision, certainly after our quality department had carried out certification audits at NOMI and after the necessary changes had quickly been made. That ability to act quickly was something that characterised the whole process. We both adapt and communicate quickly." Marketing manager Zoë Klijs had a similar experience. "I get an immediate answer to any questions I have. And that's great."
PACKING CAPACITY DOUBLED
Initially the volumes were only small and Van der Pol and NOMI started the process of developing doypacks. "That all went really well. The volume size increased after a while. It was then we discussed switching to film packaging. However, we both wanted to keep using the stand-up pouch, partly with a view to product recognition in stores. This presented us with a challenge because capacity would have to be doubled. In cooperation with NOMI we used a dual filler pipe in the packaging machine, instead of a single one, so that twice as many cookie dough chunks could be packed in the same time. That is typical of the partnership: thinking in terms of solutions rather than problems."
BOUNCING IDEAS OFF EACH OTHER
Van der Pol expects to continue working with NOMI in the future. "Last week NOMI sales director Carlo Jochems visited us and while he was here we came up with four new ideas. These ranged from a larger family pack to a multipack with several flavours of cookie dough in a single box and to packaging for small ice cream parlours which would enable them to incorporate the chunks into their ice cream on the spot. Bouncing ideas off each other is key to progress." Zoë adds, "We are very happy with NOMI's performance. Consultations with us, the packaging supplier and our customer have enabled the four of us to achieve an excellent result."