Inline Plastics Playbook v2 JUL-21

Safe-T-Fresh (Hi)Story

With this feedback, the R&D group developed 12, 16, 24, and 32oz rectangular Tamper Resistant/Tamper Evident containers, which were the most popular sizes for cut fruit in 2004. The TS8 through TS32 containers were designed with dimensions in order to fit in the flats and on the pallet. The new containers were initially called the “Integrity” line. There was still not much interest in the tamper resistant containers. It was a very new and different container concept. Until September 2, 2004, when Del-Monte was the first company to place an order and buy Integrity, the TS16 container. Inline had a great idea, but needed to find the right market, and the right value proposition, to get this product to take off. A Sales and Marketing consultant named Robert Suhr, from Modesitt Associates, was hired in April 2005 to help get the new product line off the ground. Herb Knutson (Senior Product Manager) was named interim Director of Marketing and tasked with the project. The consultant’s recommendation was to Re-Brand the product as “Safe-T-Fresh” as that name combined two of the attributes of the containers. The value propositions were expanded and refined, and used in advertising and promotion, and, printed flyers were put into the cartons with Close / Open instructions. At a “Go to Market Strategy” meeting in 2008, the Inline Leadership Team had an idea for a Safe-T-Fresh container that could hang on a hook. We developed a way to do this on the TS8, TS12, and TS16 containers without liberating any pieces of plastic from the containers. Inline developed shelf talkers and made these available to stores, as well as designed and produced a Safe-T-Fresh flyer with its own tear strip. Subsequently, Safe-T-Fresh won numerous industry awards, allowing the company to use these achievements in its marketing efforts. Over the years, the Safe-T-Fresh line was expanded to include many other rectangular, square, and round containers, not only for cut fruit, but also baked goods, snacks, candy, condiments, salads, and nuts. It has become the most recognizable and trusted brand for providing safety and freshness, with ease of use by consumers.

In June 1998, one of our sales brokers submitted a suggestion that Inline explore the market for vented clamshell containers for whole fruit and veggies. Vented fruit containers had to conform to certain dimensions in length, width, and height to be able to fit into the produce industry standard trays, called “FLATS”. The FLATS fit perfectly on 48” x 40” GMA Pallets. We found that vented whole fruit containers were a very low margin item, and typically made from recycled PET. Inline was running all its stock containers in OPS at this time, so the vented whole fruit container idea was put on the back burner. A year later, Inline kicked off a Simplified Strategic Planning (SSP) project to explore new markets and products to expand our business. Many ideas were evaluated, and the vented whole fruit container idea was again discussed. Vented whole fruit containers had a very poor locking mechanism. Most of the containers had only a rubber band keeping them closed. Store assessments revealed that people were not bashful about tasting the fruit before purchasing, and some consumers would even pack extra fruit into the container that they ended up purchasing. This sparked our idea of a tamper resistant / tamper evident container. A decision was made to shift the focus of the research to cut fruit containers, because they often used a shrink band to prevent tampering and leaking. Running a package of fresh cut fruit through a heat tunnel to apply a shrink band could reduce the shelf life of the fruit. A tamper resistant container would eliminate the need for shrink bands and heat tunnels. In 2002, Inline kicked off SSP27A (Fresh Cut Produce Packaging). It was the plan to develop clamshell containers that were leak resistant, tamper resistant, and tamper evident. Inline’s first R&D concept for a tamper evident, tamper resistant, leak resistant clamshell container was a 12oz round with no ribs. The first prototype was made on July 14, 2003. Inline presented samples of the round TR/TE container to customers, but there was not much interest. The market at that time preferred square and rectangular containers for cut fruit.

S A L E S P L AY B O O K

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION – For Internal Use Only