The nation’s leading supplier of fresh-cut packaged onions, Gills Onions of Oxnard, CA, is changing its approach to retail packaging by offering a rigid package as an alternative to flexible-film packs.

In March 2005, in response to retailers who thought it would display better, Gills Onions released a thermoformed PET cup with heat-sealed film lidding and a snap-fit overcap.

Thermoformed PET cups, from Cool-Pak, are 4.5” square and 3” deep. The lid, a 1-mil DuPont Mylar with a heat-seal coating, is from Packaging Products. A pressure-sensitive bar-code label is applied to the bottom of each cup by Packaging Products. The firm also applies a brightly decorated, pressure-sensitive label to the side of each container. This label is printed flexo in four colors and is supplied by Label Technology.

Sliced onions are filled 8 oz per cup, while diced onions—including a diced onion/celery mix—are filled 10 oz per cup. Cups are manually packed six per corrugated tray. Refrigerated shelf life for the cups is 16 days. The cups sell for about $1.99.

“We think consumers will like the cup better, and we already know that retailers prefer it because it displays and merchandises better than the pouch,” says Steve Gill, co-owner of Gills Onions.

By Pat Reynolds, Packaging World