Gleukos sports performance beverage launches in custom stand-up pouch from Ampac Flexibles

Cincinnati, OH (September 12, 2005)Heralding a new era in sports performance beverages for athletes, Gleukos™ has just been launched using an innovative 16-ounce standup pouch from Ampac Flexibles—Converted Products, a unit of Ampac Packaging.

Gleukos’ formula is being touted as a “revolution in energy replenishment and hydration.” It utilizes the body’s direct source of fuel—glucose—to quicken replenishment times and eliminate energy dips associated with traditional sports drinks.

Two flavors of Gleukos beverage—Lemon and Punch—will be sold exclusively at participating 7-Eleven® stores nationwide. Gleukos will introduce new flavors about every two months.

“Everything about our project was unique and everything we do is about providing a better product for athletes,” explains Mark Jensen, Gleukos, Inc., founder.

Jensen was a Nike runner and employee, who was disappointed with the sports and energy drinks available to athletes. By day, Jensen sold shoes for Nike; by night he studied carbohydrates. Jensen learned that the sports drinks he had been using, while adequate for rehydration, did nothing to improve his performance. In fact, they hindered it. This caused Jensen to ask if there was a better way to deliver a “pure” form of energy to athletes that could be used by the body immediately.

“The answer was glucose. The most simplified form of energy the body can use—glucose requires no digestion. It is instantly absorbed by the blood stream and muscles, giving athletes immediate energy,” Jensen explains.

This became the basis of Jensen’s formula, which in turn led to a search for an innovative and functional packaging form that could deliver his vision.

“We wanted a distinct, new shape for Gleukos. The package had to be functional and have a great appearance. We also wanted great hand feel,” Jensen explains.

It was that desire for differentiation and functionality that led the company to Ampac Flexibles and its expertise in stand-up, flexible pouches. (The pouch making capability was acquired with the recent purchase of Kapak Corp.)

“Packaging for the competition in this category is big and bulky. We wanted a slender-looking, lightweight alternative,” Jensen says. “We also feel that graphics are everything. The ability for the package to showcase what is inside the pouch is an important element.”

The end result was a tall, hourglass-shaped standup pouch that is easy-to-hold and can mold to the body when placed in an athletic apparel pocket. In fact, the custom stand-up pouch is 80 percent lighter and takes up 50 percent less space than its rigid packaging competitors, according to Jensen.

Additionally, the pouch will be going to market shortly with Ampac Flexibles’ Smart Spout™ fitment/valve combination which will make accessing Gleukos spill and leak proof.

The dispensing assembly features a three-piece design which consists of a polyethylene base fitment with a spout and a silicone valve, topped off by Seaquist Closures’ EZ Turn Cap—a tamper-evident, easy-to-turn, swallow-resistant closure. The cap’s enlarged, ergonomic design makes it easy to grasp, turn and access the liquid.

The patented system enables dispensing in two different ways—the flexible pouch can be squeezed to evacuate the product through the spout or the consumer can place their lips around the spout and draw the liquid up through the valve.

If the pouch is inverted without any of the two above actions taking place, the valve holds the product inside the pouch with “no spills, no leaks and no drips.” The valve also keeps out air and contaminants from entering. Additionally, the pouch reduces in size as the liquid is removed.

But before Gleukos could go to market, there were several packaging challenges that needed to be addressed. To meet Gleukos’ marketing requirements, Ampac engineers had to design a pouch that could stand up on the shelf despite the taller profile and narrower base.

“We had to make sure that the height-to-width ratios could hold the required 16-ounces and still be stable enough to stand up at retail without any point-of-purchase assistance,” says Craig Rutman, director of sales and marketing, Ampac Flexibles—Converted Products, Minneapolis facility.

Ampac’s pouch making expertise also came into play when it was time to mate the fitment to the pouch. The sloping shoulder design “flares in” at the top and does not provide much of a gap in which to insert the fitment assembly. Ampac’s technical expertise enabled it to modify its Hensen Packaging Concepts (Germany) spout inserter to work within a very tight insertion tolerance. This enabled the mandatory leak proof seal—which is created by applying a heat source on the two opposite sides of the material/base assembly—to be executed.

Another critical path point was the execution of Gleukos’ vibrant graphic design. It was important to the marketing effort that the typography, logos, color, etc. communicated the right visual message to the target consumers.

Ampac Flexibles has long been considered a leader in rotogravure pouch printing. The company’s investment in an eight-color Toshiba Sectional Drive press enables cost-effective, high-definition printing. As a result, it was able to execute high-quality print for a company which believes that “graphics are everything.”

And finally, it was critical that the standup pouches could be filled at commercially acceptable speeds. Ampac’s partnership with The Jel Sert Company, West
Chicago, IL, a contract packager and food manufacturer with more than 75-years experience, has created a turnkey environment for those wanting to commercialize pouch applications without significant capital expenditure.

To facilitate filling, the spout’s base has been engineered with a patent pending, molded feature that allows the pouch to slide onto parallel rails positioned on either side of the fitment. This allows the flat, flexible pouches to be moved through the filling process easily and efficiently.

After the pouches are assembled at Ampac’s Minneapolis facility, they are then transferred from stainless steel rails used for in-plant assembly to plastic rails, which are used to transport the packages to Jel Sert for filling.

At Jel Sert, an attendant removes the empty, rail-mounted pouches from the Gaylord container and uses the same rails to mount them onto the Hensen filler’s conveying system. The continuous-motion unit then fills each Gleukos pouch at a rate of up to 200 per minute.

Gleukos, Inc., based in Portland, OR, formulates and sells scientifically-based beverages and nutritional products that assimilate into the human body’s blood stream quicker than any other form of carbohydrate available. For more information visit: www.gleukos.com.

Ampac Packaging LLC is privately held, and is owned by senior executives together with equity backing by Key Principal Partners and Pouschine Cook Capital Management. It is a diversified, international, flexible packaging company with nine operating sites in North America and Asia employing approximately 850 people with revenues in excess of $200 million annually. In addition to products offered by Ampac Flexibles, the company is the preeminent supplier of domestic and overseas retail specialty shopping bags, and disposable, tamper evident, security bags.