It has already produced around 45m packs to satisfy the market from the launch on 15 September until December.

But brand manager Cheryl Wells said she was confident that demand would stay buoyant, expecting 120m packs to be dispatched within the products first year on the shelves.

Alcan was actively involved in the development of materials for the packaging, which comes in two sizes, printing them on its Cerutti 1240 gravure press.

Nestl almost entirely uses rotogravure, so we produce these packs in bulk, printing millions at one time rather than delivering to their requirements, said Alcans Nestl account manager Patrick Manning.

The smaller of the bags, which contains 16 bite-size Kubes, is a surface-gravure-printed metallised OPP (oriented polypropylene) with coldseal, providing an easy-open unsealed area at the top of the pack that can be peeled open.

The larger, 56-piece hanging pack is a heat-seal surface-gravure-printed metallised Hicor laminated to clear, acrylic coated OPP.

The easy-open cross tear on the pack overcomes the problem of opening bags with hanging slots in the top seal, according to Alcan.

The company also had to ensure full compatibility between the inks and the pressure-sensitive label to ensure that no ink lifted off from the body of the pack.

Alcan is Nestls major supplier of flexible packaging and last year produced the packaging for its luxury chocolate bar, Double Cream, as well as producing the metallised foils for Polos and Rolos.

Story by Rachel Barnes