Mizkan Holdings Co., Ltd. is a leading global food products company. The company, founded in 1804, in Handa, Japan, is a family-owned company known for its rice vinegar and cooking wine products.
Mizkan entered this US market in 1981, through its purchase of a major vinegar manufacturer, American Industries Company. In 2014, Mizkan expanded its presence in the U.S. by purchasing the Ragu® and Bertolli® pasta sauce brands from Unilever. In the United States, Mizkan sells to consumers through grocery stores and club stores, such as Costco, and also has a significant presence in foodservice through branded and private label products. Mizkan has worked with PakTech as a packaging supplier and a partner for many years.
Mizkan: A Values-Driven Company
In the past century Mizkan has been guided by two core principles:
1. Offer customers only the finest products. Connect with customers to serve them better.
2. Continuously challenge the status quo. Ask yourself what you can do better.
Driven by these principles, Mizkan developed the following vision, which focuses on Bringing Flavor to Life™.
Vision Statement
For the future of this planet, Mizkan promises to:
• Act for the well-being of the earth, society, and all that dwell on it
• Evoke social changes through new taste experiences
• Establish the governance of the future
Jason McDonald, Procurement Manager, Ingredients, at Mizkan America and previously Senior Commodity Leader, has managed several different categories of packaging procurement for Mizkan. McDonald, who has been at Mizkan for about three years, said that unlike many companies where the principles, values, and vision statement are just words on a piece of paper, at Mizkan, the entire company truly lives by the principles and values in the vision statement. Mizkan lives its vision in how the company operates each day.
Translating the Vision and Principles into Action
Because water plays such a key role in Mizkan’s products and manufacturing processes, Mizkan has focused a great deal of attention on water and water usage, through multiple water initiatives that aim to conserve water and use water effectively.
McDonald said, “Everywhere we manufacture, whether it is in Japan, Europe, or the US, water is a major focus. This includes how we use it, reuse it, displace it, and the impact on communities where manufacturing facilities are located.”
However, even though sustainability, preserving the environment, and conservation of water are extremely important to Mizkan, to date, focusing on the sustainability of the company’s packaging hadn’t necessarily been a priority.
But this is where principle #2 comes in: challenging the status quo.
McDonald and others on the packaging procurement team felt comfortable challenging the status quo related to the sustainability of the packaging materials being used. McDonald and Mizkan also benefitted from PakTech’s knowledge and expertise about opportunities to improve the sustainability of Mizkan’s packaging.
Knowing that sustainable packaging materials had become much more important to consumers and to industry customers such as Walmart, the packaging procurement team worked with PakTech to explore opportunities to make the company’s packaging more sustainable. In particular, McDonald was interested in sustainable packaging that would be easy to implement and that wouldn’t impact Mizkan’s costs.
Partnering with PakTech for recycled packaging materials
As a long-time Mizkan supplier McDonald knew that PakTech offered products and solutions that used 100% recycled materials. In particular, he investigated the possibility of switching to PakTech’s 100% recycled handles. In working with PakTech to investigate the possibility of switching to 100% recycled material for its multi-packs, McDonald found:
- There would be no cost increase to switch to PakTech’s 100% recycled material.
- The switch would be easy and would work on Mizkan’s existing lines and equipment. It would only involve minor costs for new molds and tooling.
- Mizkan would avoid using, or would “divert,” 200,000 to 250,000 pounds of plastic per year.
- Each handle would say “100% rHDPE” (recycled high density polyethylene), showing consumers that Mizkan was using recycled materials.
- Mizkan’s marketing team liked the handles made with 100% recycled material
Based on the fit with Mizkan’s vision, and most importantly, based on saving up to 250,000 pounds per year of plastic with no upcharge,Mizkan’s management team supported this switch to PakTech’s 100% recycled handles.
This was the first instance of Mizkan adopting 100% recycled packaging materials in North America. McDonald hopes this is something that Mizkan can build upon in considering more sustainable packaging materials across its entire business.
McDonald said the experience of working with PakTech and the entire implementation of switching to 100% recycled material was extremely easy. PakTech was knowledgeable about recycled materials, was responsive and flexible, and has been a great partner.
After Mizkan conducted initial testing of the new multipack handles, which went well, Mizkan proceeded to fully switch to PakTech’s 100% recycled handles.
In just the first six months since making this switch to 100% recycled material, Mizkan has ordered 2.3 million multi-pack handles, which equated to saving more than 100,000 pounds of plastic by using fully recycled material.
In keeping with Mizkan’s understated corporate philosophy, the company has not issued any press releases about its switch to 100% recycled materials and hasn’t drawn any attention to itself by engaging in marketing or PR. The company’s decision to switch to more sustainable packaging was not made to derive marketing benefits; this decision was made because it is consistent with the company’s values and vision about the future of the planet.
Comments