Heinz in Russia Partners with Sealed Air Cryovac 

Heinz-Petrosoyuz is the fully owned local Heinz company headquartered in St. Petersburg. With 2,000 employees, it runs three production plants across Russia. Dynamic growth has led the company to seek strong partnerships with its suppliers.

20/12/07 Heinz, the US-based global food company, is a chosen supply partner of fast food restaurants chain McDonald’s in Russia for the production of liquid products. These products include ketchup, mayonnaise-based sandwich sauces, syrups for milk shakes, ice cream toppings and dipping sauces. Similar packaging formats are used by McDonald’s in other markets. As a result, global cooperation in production and packaging is key. Heinz already works with Sealed Air Cryovac in other parts of the world, but there were additional reasons why it chose to work with them also in Russia.

In Russia, Heinz-Petrosoyuz is the fully owned local Heinz company headquartered in St. Petersburg. With 2,000 employees, it runs three production plants across Russia. Dynamic growth has led the company to seek strong partnerships with its suppliers.

Last year, Sealed Air in Russia efficiently helped Heinz-Petrosoyuz find a Vertical Pouch Packaging machine for its operation. A new machine was needed in order to commence prompt supply. Sealed Air was very responsive and quickly coordinated the tasks of finding, delivering and installing a new machine in two months.

Heinz-Petrosoyuz adopted the Vertical Pouch Packaging (VPP) technology from Sealed Air Cryovac to pack products for McDonald’s in 1kg and 2kg resistant flexible pouches. The VPP technology results in hygienic and highly resistant packs that ensure prolonged shelf life, convenience and security.

Cryovac flexible pouches are made of fully co-extruded, multilayer, high barrier film. This unique technology provides a pack with no headspace, which is formed, vertically filled, heat sealed and separated into a finished, hermetic, puncture resistant pillow pouch offering high pack integrity. The high barrier materials provide optimal protection and extended shelf life. The chlorine free formulations are compatible with environmental and recycling requirements.

Heinz-Petrosoyuz manufactures and fills some liquid products in this packaging format, thereby achieving the benefits outlined above. The Cryovac VPP technology ensures perfect preservation and reliable shelf life of quality products. Another advantage to the Cryovac technology is the local supply of materials. Cryovac FS film is produced in the Sealed Air plant in Volgograd, which has a positive impact on logistics.

Heinz-Petrosoyuz now owns two Cryovac machines to support the growing demand for this type of pack format. All the quality standards that Heinz implements globally are implemented at the Heinz-Petrosoyuz facility: Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Good Hygiene Practice (GHP).

The Cryovac packaging has enabled Heinz-Petrosoyuz to efficiently respond to growing volumes and expanding demand, as well as geographical expansion projects. “Developing a close partnership with Sealed Air has become a great business advantage. We appreciate the very efficient support they provided when we urgently needed a second VPP machine to satisfy our increasing customer demand, which was quite an achievement!”, said Maxim Kiselnikov, Head of Foodservice for Heinz-Petrosoyuz. “Cryovac is a good reliable supplier of packaging solutions. This is one of the major factors that influenced our decision when we were looking for a packaging supplier”.