Unette Corporation
The originator and world's largest contract packager of single-use plastic tubes
If Unette Corporation posted a sign like McDonald's, it would read "billions and billions sold," and that number is climbing at an exponential rate, says Joseph Hark, president and CEO. In fact, the Company recently moved from a 24,000 sq. ft. plant to a new 60,000 sq. ft. facility to handle the volume.
Unette's customers are apparently pleased. But so are the Company's employees-they are the owners of Unette who have made their little tubes into a big business.
Single-use tubes: then and now
In 1955, engineering inventor and Unette founder, Frank Brown, developed the first tear-top plastic tubes-also commonly referred to as unit-of-use tubes, squeeze tubes, or portion-pack tubes.
The tubes were formed using plastic roll stock slit into various widths, which was then hot-stamped, formed, filled, and heat-sealed in one operation on specialized equipment developed by the company. Speed of production and relatively low material cost enabled Unette to package customer-supplied liquids and pastes, often at lower cost than other packaging methods.
The tubes provided a flatter decorating area than round bottles or tubes, while the narrow tip channel offered more dispensing accuracy than foil pouches. In addition, the tear-off top made the package tamper-evident, and ensured that the recipient would dispense the correct portion of the product for the intended application.
The small size, low cost, fast turnaround, quality appearance, and convenience of the tubes made them a favorite among consumer product manufacturers wishing to sample, as well as sell single portions of liquid and paste pharmaceuticals, toiletries, cosmetics, hair care, skin care, and household products.
A variety of sizes ranging from 0.5 to 60.0cc (1/60 to 2 fl. oz.) were developed to encompass a wide range of single-use portion sizes. New tip styles were added to handle viscosities ranging from thin liquids to heavy pastes, and to provide the dispensing accuracy desired for each application. One such style is the company's "Flag-Tip" which features a long, narrow channel for accurate dispensing of low viscosity products, as little as one drop at a time. That design received Gold and Silver awards for "Tamper-Proof Packaging" in the "New Jersey Packaging Executive Club" competition.
Unette develops the first and only single-use tubes with multi-color stamping, 2-sided stamping, and full process color printing
In 1992 Unette introduced multicolor stamping on tear-top tubes, and remains the only contract packager with this important decorating capability. Unette also offers the only two-sided stamping as is often required to carry ample promotional and instructional information.
In 1999, Unette developed a decorating technique of even greater significance: The first process color pre-printing of film used to make the tubes, in up to eight colors, offering unlimited design freedom. This advance allows Unette to reproduce the most sophisticated, high resolution, process color or spot color graphics, including blanket coverage of the entire tube exterior in any standard, custom, metallic, pearlescent, or neon color desired.
These exclusive capabilities enable Unette tubes to precisely match the appearance of other products contained in multi-component packages, and for sampling campaigns, to mimic the appearance of full size packaging.
Another Unette exclusive: Twin-Pack tubes
Another recent Unette innovation is the Twin-Pack style of tear-top tube that divides the tube into halves using a heat-welded partition. When formed with two separate tips, the Twin-Pack can hold any two "companion" products to be dispensed separately such as shampoos/conditioners, cleansers/moisturizers, or disinfectants/salves. A single product can also be packaged side-by-side to simply provide double portions.
When formed with a common tip, Twin-Pack tubes dispense simultaneously, in equal amounts, product components that should be combined at the time of application, such as certain tanning products, and other two-part formulations that undergo a chemical reaction when combined.
Unette adds bottle filling, labeling, safety-sealing
Some of Unette's customers requested contract packaging of small fluid volumes of their personal care and household products in bottles as well as tubes, so in 1990 Unette added its first filling line. Today, Unette operates 12 fully equipped lines that fill and cap a large and growing volume of containers from 1/10 to 10 fluid ounces (3 to 300cc), including bottles with off-center and angled necks. In fact, bottle filling has grown into its own department and, together with labeling, tamper-evident seals, ink-jet coding, and secondary bottle packaging, represents a significant portion of Unette's sales volume.
Unette adds secondary packaging, related services
Because customers often utilize Unette tubes, bottles, and jars as part of multi-component promotions, Unette now offers a host of ancillary services including: printing, carding, bagging, boxing, and distribution of finished, assembled items such as P.O.P. packaging, hand-outs, mailing pieces, displays, and dispensers.
New tanker receiving capability
A new tanker receiving station enables Unette to accept customers' bulk liquid and paste products delivered by tank trucks with capacities to 60,000 gallons. The tank handling system can transfer product from the tank truck directly to the filling line or tote filling station, reducing costs associated with shipping and handling of multiple containers of equivalent fluid volumes.
Expanding facility adheres to "Good Manufacturing Practices"
Unette was started in a 13,000 sq. ft. facility located in Livingston, NJ in 1955, and in 1977 moved to a 24,000 sq. ft. plant in Parsippany. The company outgrew that plant in 1986, necessitating the use of off-site warehousing space. To consolidate operations and meet increased space requirements, Unette relocated to a 60,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art contract packaging facility in Wharton in 1995--the year of its 40th anniversary. In 2000 Unette added an additional 30,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing and warehouse space. As with the previous facility, the new plant complies with Good Manufacturing Practices and is FDA registered.
Unette is a charter member of the Contract Packagers Association and has recently expanded the sales of its tubes into common market countries through an exclusive licensing agreement with Douglas Packaging Services, Ltd., Manchester, England. Unette has opened a new facility in Manchester, England to expand the sales of its unit-of-use tubes into common market countries.