Here's a clever design in pouched microwavable heat-and-serve sauces and gravies. Royco sauces, from Master Foods, a division of Mars, in South Africa, are packaged in retorted pouches. Before microwave heating, the consumer snips the pouch corner for venting and pouring.

Home-meal replacement moves a notch higher in Sweden with environmentally friendly trays on ready-made meals from Gunnar Dafgard AB. Billy's Lasagne chilled meals come in molded wood-pulp packaging.

Well-executed packaging graphics can "sell the taste." In the highly competitive chilled-foods aisle, f'REAL! Foods, Orinda, CA, achieved this objective when switching from preprinted cups to shrink sleeves for its 10-oz serving of frozen dairy products sold at convenience stores. The family line uses polyvinyl chloride sleeves, provided by Fort Dearborn, gravure-printed in nine colors to maximize visual impact through the glass doors of cooler cases.

Innovation, sustainability, and global issues will be among the focuses of the fourth annual Packaging Summit Expo and Conference.

In the hardware business, Elmer's Wood Glue is No. 1 in market share. Celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, Elmer's Products Inc., Columbus, OH, decided the brand needed to look more contemporary to support its reputation as a reliable product.

With reports stating that Europeans recycle only 7% of the estimated nine billion plastic milk bottles they purchase each year, sustainability efforts are gaining a foothold. One U.K. supermarket chain is doing its part to advance the "green" movement.

Know your consumer—and even those who aren't your consumers. That has been a recurring theme among branding and marketing professionals whose thoughts have graced Shelf Impact!

The challenge for third-generation DelGrosso Foods: Increase distribution to gourmet supermarkets and specialty food stores. The solution: The company developed ultra premium, natural Italian sauces, marketed under the La Famiglia DelGrosso brand name, and then introduced them in packaging that reflects both the quality ingredients and family pride vested in the products.

Guardsman is a "heritage" brand in the furniture-care products industry. The brand was founded in 1915 in Grand Rapids, MI, and Valspar Corp. wanted to make it more contemporary.

If you're a brand manager or package designer, you can play an important role in creating packaging that achieves branding objectives and also uses less packaging materials or incorporates reusable or recyclable materials. So says Amy Zettlemoyer-Lazar, Sam's Club Director of Packaging.