Consumers are now able easily to spoon or sprinkle their favorite Bart spices thanks to a new dual feature cap produced by RPC Containers Halstead (www.rpc-group.com).

Part of the relaunched packaging for The Bart Ingredients Company’s market-leading spice range, the closure has been developed by Bart following consumer research which found that customers considered the awkward shape of most spice jars a hindrance to their particular cooking styles.

The resulting closure design, called the ‘Spoonkler™’ and an industry first, features a flip top cap that can be opened in two ways, either to reveal a collection of small holes through which the product can be sprinkled, or a full opening wide enough to fit a teaspoon.

Having developed the concept, Bart worked with RPC Design and RPC Halstead to produce a fully functional closure that could be commercially manufactured and was able to work reliably on high speed capping lines.  A particular challenge of the design is the opposing side hinges, which enable the closure to be opened in either spoon or sprinkle mode, and RPC Halstead has invested in special manufacturing equipment to enable this to be achieved. The closure is injection molded in black polypropylene and features a gloss surface finish to maximize on-shelf appeal.

The new spices packaging is the work of a Bart development team which included representatives from across the business who had input into every element of the pack. 

“Our development team was made up of enthusiastic cooks both from within Bart and our agencies, so in conjunction with our consumer research it meant that we were in a great position to make sure that the Spoonkler would work for every consumer,” says Camilla Bond, head of marketing at Bart. “The Spoonkler is versatile and user-friendly to suit all cooking techniques, and we are delighted with RPC’s contribution in helping us bring this unique concept successfully to market.”

 Spoonkler was launched across Bart’s herbs and spices range late last year and featured on shelves in Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Budgens and Ocado.