SmartPak is a family owned Australian packaging business with over 50 years experience in the table grape industry. They have a proprietary design that they hope will re-shape the punnet industry by reducing the time it takes to package fresh grapes, improving shelf-life, and saving costs for Aussie farmers.

When the director at SmartPak, Joey Prochilo, originally approached Sourci, he was in talks with other product sourcing companies. After engaging another sourcing company and being sorely disappointed with their ‘empty promises’ along with their unwillingness to understand his needs, he quickly enlisted Sourci’s services. The other companies failed to fully understand Joeys vision, not only for this particular product but for the role that Smartpak will play for the entire agricultural packaging industry. The challenges Joey faced was ensuring the manufacturer had the required machinery that allowed the punnets to be produced at a very specific height, requiring special machinery clearances. Within just a matter of days after engaging with Sourci’s team, Joey was presented with a capable manufacturer that could produce these complex food-grade punnets at his desired price point.

After regular, almost daily, communication with their Sourci project managers, SmartPak soon had a number of product samples of their innovative grape punnets, which were then approved and a production run was quickly initiated. Due to growing market demand pressure, we understood the pressing timelines and now are pleased to have a full 20ft container on the water and En Route to the SmartPak facility – allowing Joey to test the latest iteration of the 4 pack punnet using his own produce, and provide supply to the Australian domestic market.

You can visit their website here – https://www.smartpak.net.au/

Giovanni Pino

Giovanni’s passion and interest in global sourcing and trade gives him insight and understanding that most would miss. His love of research mixed with his background in business makes for an interesting read.