Low Count Diaper Packs from Fameccanica

Allesandro D'Andrea, Marketing Manager, Fameccanica Data (Italy) saw increasing demand for low count packs of hygienic disposables in emerging economies where minimal outlay per pack would encourage users to try the new products.  Here small independent stores were currently breaking open larger packs and selling the products singly.  He also saw potential in developed economies where “daily packs” of diapers and femcare could improve hygiene and be easy to carry around.

Examples now visible in stores included:

• 1-packs of P&G Pampers pants in Indonesia.
• Unicharm had 2 or 3 packs of pant diapers in the Indonesian market (Mamy Poko Pants)  
• Local producer Softex were making 1 and 3 packs of “Sweety” diapers also in Indonesia.

• Germany had 2-packs of diapers in sizes 3,4,and 5.  (“Beauty Baby”)
• “Lines e”, the Italian brand of Always Infinity was being sold in 2-pack for      trial.
• SCA “Libero” swim-pants were available in 6-packs in Hungary.
• KC were selling changing pads in 4’s in the USA.
• P&G were selling femcare in 2-packs in China and Unicharm had 4,5 and 6 packs.

Production lines optimised for high-count packs have to operate uneconomically slowly to make low-count packs so low count packs are often produced by manually repacking diapers from high count packs.  Fameccanica have now developed a low-count module to fit in a high count line so that product can be diverted into the low-count system and packed automatically as required.

(from EDANA Middle East Symposium  - Dubai - 14th and 15th Feb 2012)