Solutions in connected packaging

With the sup­port of SIG’s Con­nect­ed Pack solu­tions, Brazil­ian dairy pro­duc­er Lan­guiru Coop­er­a­tive has become one of the lead­ing mar­ket play­ers in the south­ern­most state of Rio Grande do Sul at a time of increas­ing com­pe­ti­tion and grow­ing con­sumer demands. And to reaf­firm its ongo­ing part­ner­ship with SIG, Lan­guiru has com­mis­sioned anoth­er fill­ing line from SIG.

Since imple­ment­ing SIG’s pio­neer­ing dig­i­tal solu­tions in 2017, Lan­guiru has expe­ri­enced a num­ber of achieve­ments. These include greater con­sumer trust and qual­i­ty per­cep­tion in their prod­ucts, improve­ments in pro­duc­tiv­i­ty, and now a mar­ket share growth that puts Lan­guiru in the region’s top three largest dairy pro­duc­ers, accord­ing to Kan­tar World­Pan­el. Before its trace­abil­i­ty project with SIG, Lan­guiru was the fifth largest dairy pro­duc­er in Rio Grande do Sul.

Lan­guiru oper­ates in an envi­ron­ment where con­sumers are demand­ing more trans­paren­cy in busi­ness, more prod­uct infor­ma­tion, and more dig­i­tal com­mu­ni­ca­tion with their brands of choice. Along­side this, food and bev­er­age pro­duc­ers like Lan­guiru need to reli­ably man­age prod­ucts in their sup­ply chain, and ensure vis­i­bil­i­ty at all times to guar­an­tee effi­cien­cy, con­trol and safety.

As a response to these mar­ket chal­lenges, Lan­guiru set out to cre­ate a new dairy con­cept: Qual­i­dade do iní­cio ao fim, which trans­lates as “Qual­i­ty from begin­ning to end”. But in order to realise this promise, the pro­duc­er need­ed a solu­tion that not only makes prod­uct data eas­i­ly acces­si­ble, but can also dri­ve con­sumer engage­ment, trust and brand recognition.

Quality from beginning to end

To tech­ni­cal­ly realise its vision of “Qual­i­ty from begin­ning to end”, Lan­guiru turned to SIG’s inte­grat­ed Con­nect­ed Pack plat­form – a dri­ve to deliv­er unique dig­i­tal cod­ing tech­nolo­gies and track-and-trace solu­tions that ensure 100% con­nec­tiv­i­ty and trans­paren­cy togeth­er with greater dig­i­tal inter­ac­tion and engagement.

“Lan­guiru has always stood out for the qual­i­ty of its prod­ucts, and the use of SIG’s inno­v­a­tive Con­nect­ed Pack tech­nol­o­gy has enabled us to strength­en this per­cep­tion and show con­sumers that Lan­guiru milk is tru­ly dif­fer­en­ti­at­ed,” said Lan­guiru Coop­er­a­tive pres­i­dent, Dirceu Bayer.

As of May 2017, Brazil­ian con­sumers of five dif­fer­ent Lan­guiru milk prod­ucts can access qual­i­ty data, brand infor­ma­tion and inter­ac­tive quizzes direct­ly on their smart­phones by scan­ning a unique on-pack QR code. This QR code sys­tem was unprece­dent­ed in the food indus­try when it launched and proved SIG’s ear­ly com­mit­ment to the con­nect­ed pack­ag­ing trend.

“We have no doubt that with SIG we have a greater com­pet­i­tive advan­tage with­in the mar­ket com­pared to many oth­er brands,” added Languiru’s Bay­er. “SIG under­stood our demands and devel­oped a tai­lor-made solu­tion for Lan­guiru that demon­strates qual­i­ty and there­fore adds val­ue to our brand.”

Adding value throughout the supply chain

With a direct link to con­sumers, Lan­guiru also has the oppor­tu­ni­ty for dig­i­tal mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties, such as games, quizzes and pro­mo­tions. In addi­tion to this, in-line mon­i­tor­ing capa­bil­i­ties and vast data col­lec­tion in the prod­uct jour­ney has enabled Lan­guiru to opti­mise pro­duc­tion and logis­tics, and man­age qual­i­ty risks more proac­tive­ly. The process of prod­uct trace­abil­i­ty in the sup­ply chain has now been reduced from five hours to five min­utes, mak­ing recalls sig­nif­i­cant­ly eas­i­er. And in 2018, Lan­guiru record­ed a pro­duc­tiv­i­ty improve­ment of more than 5% at its dairy plant, result­ing in less waste and improved costs.

Lan­guiru has also com­mis­sioned a third SIG fill­ing machine. This new line ensures that 100% of Languiru’s long-life milk and choco­late milk prod­uct Chocolan has sur­gi­cal trace­abil­i­ty with unique QR codes secur­ing end-to-end trace­abil­i­ty for con­sumers and Languiru.

“For SIG, our great­est achieve­ment is the suc­cess of our cus­tomers. Being part of the growth of Coop­er­a­ti­va Lan­guiru and its con­sol­i­da­tion as a mar­ket leader in long-life milk in Rio Grande do Sul is very grat­i­fy­ing and shows SIG’s com­mit­ment to be not only a sup­pli­er but a solu­tion part­ner,” said Ricar­do Rodriguez, CEO of SIG Com­bibloc Americas.

Traceability from the start for Origem

In August, Lan­guiru launched a new pre­mi­um milk called Origem. The milk is pro­duced by only five farms, which all have the Good Prac­tices of the Farm seal – a local ini­tia­tive recog­nis­ing dairy farms with best prac­tices and process­es – and are filled with­in 24 hours. The orig­i­nat­ing milk doesn’t have sta­bi­liz­ers, which main­tains its puri­ty, fresh­ness and flavour characteristics.

With SIG’s Con­nect­ed Pack tech­nol­o­gy, con­sumers can obtain infor­ma­tion about the milk and the farm where it was pro­duced, as well as infor­ma­tion from pro­duc­ers, time of col­lec­tion and satel­lite images of the farms.

Unique QR codes tied to the orig­i­nat­ing milk, as well as Languiru’s reg­u­lar line, offer detailed infor­ma­tion on fac­to­ry qual­i­ty tests and sup­port trace­abil­i­ty all the way to the shelf. This means Lan­guiru can offer con­sumers an even more pre­mi­um prod­uct with dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion for those seek­ing a prod­uct of proven quality.

SIG’s Con­nect­ed Pack is one of three val­ue-adding seg­ments that are part of its Val­ue Propo­si­tion to help food and bev­er­age pro­duc­ers meet increas­ing indus­try demands. Oth­er solu­tion-dri­ven seg­ments avail­able include Prod­uct Inno­va­tion & Dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion, and Smart Factory.