The grape tomato category has seen significant growth in recent years and it has reached the point where it makes economic sense for Sambrailo Packaging to manufacture one-pound RunRite grape tomato clamshells in its Mexican plant.

“This will give us quicker turnaround time for our customers in Mexico,” said Jim Scattini, vice president of sales and marketing for the company.

“It also lets us avoid some of the issues involved at the border crossing” with regard to bringing empty clamshells from the United States down into Mexico, he said.

In early June, Scattini said, “We are close to making it happen.” Until the change, that specific clamshell was manufactured in the United States and shipped down to the Mexican packingsheds.

While adding manufacturing capabilities for an additional clamshell at another one of the firm’s facilities might seem like a relatively easy adjustment, Scattini said it is an expensive one and can’t be entered into lightly. To make these clamshells, the company has to invest in molds, which can easily cost several hundred thousand dollars.

In fact, Scattini said, even simple tweaking of existing molds run into the tens of thousands of dollars. “The packer or shipper doesn’t really know or care about our issues and they don’t need to, but before we add a new clamshell model, we have to make sure it’s worth it.”

He said the company has to sell millions of a specific clamshell to justify the cost of a new mold. In Mexico the size of the grape tomato clamshell market has reached that tipping point where it is worth the investment.

The clamshell being manufactured is designed to work in high-speed packing operations so the clamshell itself has to be made to exact specifications to keep the line running efficiently.

Scattini said field operations where packing is done by hand don’t require the same precision in a clamshell as do these automated packing sheds. He added that the year-round nature of the Mexican tomato deal with its shadehouse and greenhouse operations has created a bigger demand for this particular clamshell.

Sambrailo is constantly evaluating its line of clamshells looking for ways to improve the design and gain market share, but again, he said any change has to have a fairly defined market. For example, several of the club store operators are asking for a better locking mechanism on the larger clamshells used at retail. These stores are noticing some pilfering of product and would like a clamshell that uses a “button lock” rather than an easier to open “friction lock.”

“In a situation like that,” he said, “we checked around and determined that there was a good market for this so we are making some changes to some of our clamshells.”

But even though it doesn’t require an entire new mold, Scattini classified it has about an $80,000 cost. That has to be amortized over a significant number of clamshells to give Sambrailo the confidence to move ahead with the change.

Sambrailo Packaging, headquartered in Watsonville, CA, is a third-generation family-owned company that has served the produce and floral industries since 1923.

The firm provides produce packaging solutions from its locations in California and Mexico. Its produce packaging line of products is extensive, eco-friendly and innovative.

Sambrailo was one of the first produce packaging companies to develop a plastic clamshell for berries. Similarly, the company has continued to provide improvements to the industry with its patented freight-savings MIXIM Packaging System and family of MIXIM Snap-Flap and RunRite containers.