NCI Packaging has been around since 1954 – and after 60 years, it’s still moving forward, installing a brand-new aerosol line and developing home-grown technology. Tim Grey reports in the latest issue of PKN magazine.
Consumers might not notice it, but the packaging of everyday goods has changed radically. The contents of the kitchen or bathroom cupboard have transformed in subtle but profound ways, using materials that are manufactured faster, cheaper and more robustly. Take the ubiquitous aerosol can, for instance. In the course of sixty years, it has gone through revolutionary change: it’s lighter, safer, stronger and uses far less material. However, to the end user, most of these developments are totally invisible.
It is a fact not lost on Anthony Hengel, CEO of NCI Packaging, a family-owned company that’s been manufacturing in the northern suburbs of Melbourne’ since 1954.
“Having been involved in packaging for a long time, often these things that are subtly refined over the years, the consumer doesn’t notice the differences,” he explains. “But they continue to improve, or the technology improves so packaging can be more lightweight, material is taken out of it. But because they’re driven by performance criteria, they can use technology to deliver the same performance. And so as the consumer, you say, ‘Oh, how I use it hasn’t changed.’ But the packaging still improves and develops.”
The people who do notice, however, are NCI’s customers. For sixty years, NCI has been making vessels for the region’s top paint, food and aerosol brands, including plastic pails, aerosol cans and high-quality paint cans – the company’s foundational product.
