The intense cooperation of Kohler Paper, part of the Koehler Group, and the Leipzig chocolate manufacturer nucao has borne fruit: from now on, also the Nucao chocolate bars will be packaged in paper.
The flexible packaging paper “Koehler NexPlus® Advanced” from Koehler Paper has an excellent barrier against oxygen, mineral oils and fats, making it not only suitable for packaging chocolate-coated fruit. This 100% recyclable paper is not only suitable in vertical packaging machines, but now also for processing in horizontal packaging machines.
The Nucao bars "Crisp & Crunch", "Almond Butter & Sea Salt", "Roasted Hazelnut Butter", "Creamy Strawberry" and "Salted Caramel" are the first chocolate bars in paper packaging that can be obtained on the German market .
In recent months, the Koehler Paper team has developed together with researchers and developers at Koehler Innovation & Technology the Koehler NexPlus® Advanced flexible packaging paper for application in horizontal packaging facilities. «Considered from a technical point of view, this is a revolution, because vertical packaging facilities have a very high production speed. For this, the paper needs to have very good resistance properties, but without being too thick, to be able to be processed," he explains. Alexander Rauer, business development director for flexible packaging papers at Koehler Paper. In this way, it is possible to reach production speeds of 600 bars per minute.
Since the brand owner, the packaging paper manufacturer, the printer and the packaging machine manufacturer were equally involved in this collaboration from the beginning, the time required for market introduction could be significantly reduced. «Transparency and the reciprocal transfer of knowledge are essential for innovative projects of this type. That is why we are very happy to be able to take these steps in confidence together with Koehler Paper. Thanks to our innovative paper packaging, we have taken another big step forward in our mission to positively impact the planet with chocolate," he says. Mathias Tholey, co-founder of Nucao.
With the NexFlex® product series, the research and development team at Koehler Innovation & Technology together with the experts at Koehler Paper developed a unique, 100% recyclable generation of flexible packaging papers. The objective is to replace plastic in packaging, where this is possible, using so-called barrier papers. The assortment covers a wide range. These include standard products in the area of coated and uncoated papers, as used in composite materials for bags, envelopes and other applications, making them suitable for a wide variety of food and non-food product packaging. The next generation of flexible packaging papers are sustainable barrier papers, with their functional surfaces for specific product protection (Koehler NexPlus®). In addition, the NexFlex® product family also includes single-sided coated papers with good dimensional stability and high smoothness (Koehler NexCoat®) as well as uncoated papers with a natural appearance (Koehler NexPure®).
