Resealable slider closure comes out tops with consumers

Consumers are willing to pay a premium price for a resealable slider closure on their flexible food packaging, according to a new survey.

The research, funded by resealable packaging technology firm Zip-Pak, involved 200 face-to-face interviews with shoppers in Birmingham and Kingston. Zip-Pak tested consumer preference for three of its resealable technologies: two with slider technologies and one with a press-to-close zipper. Results showed that consumers would like to see more slider technology on their product packaging for easy opening to access package contents and easy closing to enhance freshness.

The survey revealed that 88% of respondents would like to purchase food products with a resealable slider closure and 71% said they would be willing to pay slightly more for a food product in a pack with a resealable closure operated by a slider. The majority of consumers were keen for cheese (78%) and salads (79%) to use slider closures, while 56% want it to be used on meat packaging and 53% on fish.

Global fast moving consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser used the slider on its French’s Potato Chips product, which is normally packed in a spiral wired can, and found that sales increased, said Zip-Pak. The company claimed that at 1/2p the slider technology was relatively cheap compared to heat processed labelling, which cost several pennies a piece.

“Companies are losing brand recognition because consumers empty bagged products into tupperwear,” said the firm. This could be reduced if manufacturers used slider technology because they were likely to re-use resealable flexible packaging once they had bought it (depending on the original contents) and were more likely to do so if the package had a premium feel, such as with a slider closure, according to the survey.