The fundamentals of manufacturing mylk: Part 2
In Part 1, we spoke about the processing side of mylks. Now, we’re going to explore packaging and distribution, and how they affect your manufacturing decisions. Let’s jump in.
1. Packaging-
A good packaging format -
- Keeps your product safe
- Prevents it from contamination
- Looks attractive on a retail shelf
- Stores and handles easily
- Is easy for the user to interact with
- Makes your brand memorable
- Is recyclable
- Is cost-effective
Here are 5 popular formats for mylk and their manufacturing considerations-
Cans
Pros- Compatible with retort processing. In addition to being strong, this format isn’t too heavy. It is also recyclable. It also acts as a barrier against sunlight.
Cons- Your transportation costs on the sourcing side will be higher, though, seeing as you can’t collapse cans and transport them. They are not cheap.
Glass bottles
Pros- This format is all the rage today among more conscious consumers. Glass is made with abundantly available natural resources and can be recycled endlessly. It looks attractive, too!
Cons- The big challenge with glass is that it breaks- resulting in less-than-delightful user experiences and safety hazards for those handling it. Glass isn’t as cheap as plastic pouches or UHT cartons. That’s why mylks in glass bottles are usually premium.
Plastic bottles
Pros- Plastic is popular because of its light weight and low cost. It also offers endless possibilities on shape and texture, making it the most widely used packaging format out there.
Cons- Bottles are not collapsible, so they also carry a higher transportation cost on the sourcing side, but not as high as cans and certainly not as high as glass. Plastic has a bad rap from consumers lately.
Cartons
Pros- Cartons collapse, making them easy to transport, and at scale, can offer low costs. Cartons also look great- you can use all four sides to create attractive packaging that speaks to your consumers. UHT carton can unlock months of ambient shelf life for you.
Cons- UHT cartons are harder to recycle because the facility needs to separate out the layers of aluminium, plastic and paper. They also have high MOQs and won’t work for small scale manufacturing
Pouches
Pros- they are collapsible and can unlock savings for your brand; they are cheap. While they usually work well for refrigerated mylks, you can get shelf stable ones by using retort or UHT pouches.
Cons- They look less attractive, though. They are not as strong as other packaging mediums and can burst if handled improperly.
Here’s a side-by-side comparison of packaging options for mylk-
Distribution — ambient
Airplanes don’t carry liquids in India, so your only choice is Surface transport.
Thankfully, almost all logistics companies offer surface shipping. The recommended way to avail it is through an aggregator. They get volume discounts and then pass it on to businesses with smaller volumes. You don’t have to be a large company to avail reasonable shipping rates. Some companies in this space are Shiprocket, Vamaship and Zepo Couriers.
If you are doing Direct To Consumer (D2C), the recommended strategy is bundling.
Usually, surface logistics rates have weight slabs: 'Upto 4 kg', 'Upto 10 kg', etc.
For example, in the case of a 10 kg slab, the courier company will charge you for shipping 10 kgs of product if you have anywhere between 0.1 kg to 9.99 kg. In order to increase efficiency, it makes sense to have your consignment be as close to 10 kgs as possible. You can do this by offering discounts to consumers on buying bundles of your product that weigh close to 10 kg, or by incentivising them in other ways.
Distribution- Cold chain
Unless you have large volumes, it is hard to outsource distribution at chilled temperatures in India. You’ll need to build this capability in-house.
Frozen distribution is easier to outsource. If you freeze mylk, though, it may develop an undesirable texture when thawed. Almost everyone avoids frozen distribution for milk/mylk.
There are no companies that courier cold chain products. If someone solves this, it would enable D2C brands to go cold chain, driving a whole new consumer movement. Currently, only large online retailers are able to pull this off. Now, if only one of them decided pursue a model other than retail, things would heat up (or… the opposite).
Final thoughts:
While I have tried to be thorough with this series, there is a lot more to explore. I am constantly learning every day, thanks to Goodmylk. This should be enough to get you started, though.
Good luck in your plantrepreneurial journey!