An ingenious Sunshine Coast invention that is being snapped up by the world’s top food and product brands has been awarded a sizeable federal grant.
Snapsil Australia, based at Forest Glen, has developed ‘world-first’ packaging which consumers bend to snap open ‘portion products’ using just one hand.
The packaging is already drawing interest from leading food companies for single-serve products such as tomato sauce, salad dressings and jam.
As part of its early development it has also been applied to cleaning products, insect baits and garden fertilisers.
Member for Fairfax Ted O’Brien said Snapsil had been awarded a grant of $999,065 as part of the Accelerating Commercialisation element of the Federal Government’s Entrepreneurs’ Programme which would enable the company to accelerate commercialisation of its new Conduction Path Technology invention.
“The best inventions are those that offer a solution to a problem, and one of the problems consumers face today is difficult-to-open packaging,” said Mr O’Brien.
“Stubborn packaging is definitely a frustration – like using your teeth to rip open a sachet of soy sauce for your sushi, or creating a mess of your hands when squeezing out single-serve salad dressing.
“Snapsil’s packaging means you can literally bend and snap open the packet with one hand and squeeze out the contents with no mess.
“You could have your frying pan in one hand and snap open the stir-fry sauce with the other. Mums could be carrying baby on the hip and use the other hand to snap open a packet of milk powder for the bottle.
“You could snap open serves of sugar, coffee, protein drinks or even a toothbrush.”
Snapsil CEO Neil Cashman said the technology behind the new packaging was the ability to fracture polymer-based materials along a pre-determined path way.
He said it could be used in the food, medical and pharmaceutical sectors and to assist Australian exporters with packaging solutions for e-commerce.
Mr Cashman said the original idea and technology development happened on the Sunshine Coast where there was access to science, design, engineering and management expertise.
Mr Cashman said Snapsil wanted to build a global business based on the Sunshine Coast, creating more local jobs and export revenue.
“This technology can replace hard-to-open packaging such as clam shells, blisters and sachets – that often need scissors, knives or teeth to open – with easier-to-use packs that can be opened in just one snap,” said Mr Cashman.
Minister for Jobs and Innovation Michaelia Cash said Snapsil was one of 14 Australian businesses sharing in $7.4million of Commonwealth grants.
“Since 2014 almost 300 Accelerating Commercialisation grants have been awarded to businesses across the country, injecting nearly $150million into the Australian economy,” said Minister Cash.
“The funding has enabled small and medium businesses all over Australia to commercialise their novel products, processes and services, and to grow and create jobs as a result.”
Mr Cashman said the grant would enable Snapsil to accelerate its technology to commercial readiness over a two-year-period.
“The funding will be used to increase the speed of design development, prototype testing, commercial production machine trials and market development,” he said.
“Without the funding, commercialisation would progress at a much slower rate and be restricted to fewer packaging formats.”