by N.S.
In this context, packaging has strategic value. It does not merely contain the product correctly, but protects it, enhances its positioning, and strengthens its perception. It also has the task of accompanying it throughout every stage of the supply chain, from production to logistics, up to its presence at the point of sale. In nutraceuticals, this role emerges more clearly, because the content often has higher added value than traditional food products. For this reason, it requires packaging capable of clearly communicating its identity, quality, and value.
Growth prospects confirm the relevance of this sector. Globally, the nutraceutical market is projected to exceed 600 billion dollars by 2028. In Italy, the supplements sector reached approximately 5.2 billion euros in 2024, with growth of 5.5%, consolidating our country’s leadership in Europe with a 26% share of the continent’s total turnover.
Today’s consumer stands behind this growth: more aware, more attentive to ingredients, to label clarity, and the perceived quality of the product. For this reason, too, packaging is no longer an accessory element but part of the message. It tells the product’s story, supports its credibility, and helps build trust.
To understand how these needs translate into concrete solutions, we interviewed Giovanni Anzani, Sales Director of Gampack, who helped us take a closer look at the ongoing transformations and at the way the company responds to the requirements of this market.
“From protein bars to functional products, through to nutritional beverages in small bottles or bricks, nutraceuticals present different needs, but they can be traced back to a common thread: flexible, fast secondary packaging and end-of-line systems are needed, with careful presentation and capable of supporting increasingly dynamic production rates. It is on this ground that Gampack’s experience becomes particularly interesting. The solutions developed by the company show how packaging for nutraceuticals today must go beyond the simple function of containment. It must protect, communicate, simplify production management, and strengthen the perceived value of the product. In a sector growing at this speed, packaging quality is no longer just a technical detail. It is an essential part of the value proposition.”
The needs of the nutraceutical market and Gampack solutions
The nutraceutical market requires packaging capable of following dynamic and sometimes fragmented production. Brands demand medium or small batches, rapid launches, and frequent promotional activities for fast product rotation on the shelf. For this reason, system design must respond to a dual need: managing just-in-time production and, at the same time, reducing consumption, waste, and operational errors.
“Gampack looks at this sector with great attention. The machines dedicated to nutraceuticals come from solutions already adopted in the food industry, which are applied effectively, considering that product geometries remain similar,” Anzani explains. “What changes, however, are production rates, batch magnitudes, and the frequency of size changeovers. On this level, one of Gampack’s main strengths emerges: system flexibility. To manage production with small batches and frequent changeovers, we have automatic size changeover systems controlled by brushless motors. The operator recalls the recipe from the control panel, and the machine automatically adapts the size. In most cases, the changeover takes place in about three minutes. Only when the difference between two sizes is particularly wide may it be necessary to replace some physical elements.”
Fast size changeover is a particularly useful solution for packaging nutraceutical products whose sizes may change several times during the week, or even several times on the same day. This is accompanied by another central aspect: the need to contain material and energy consumption, limit waste, and ensure product stability during storage and transport. Gampack responds to the needs of this market with flexible, fast, and adaptable solutions, designed to support a sector that continues to grow and diversify.
“Gampack has gained significant experience by designing several solutions for the sector, such as the packaging of nutritional beverages intended for sick or weakened people, oral nutritional supplements, and high-calorie drinks for the international market. Recently, a packaging system was created using our Mini Tray for the Italian and French markets for several juices enriched with supplements. Sometimes, we have also used the Mini Wrap, which is well suited to products of this type and has already been adopted by leading players with whom we collaborate.”
Packaging and end-of-line for enhancing nutraceutical products
In nutraceuticals, secondary packaging and end-of-line have a direct impact on product perception. They must protect the content, ensure traceability, and support efficient logistics. At the same time, they must communicate quality and reliability, representing a real competitive lever.
“In this sector, it is not enough to place the product in a package. It is important that the packaging helps communicate its value, especially when dealing with items positioned higher than traditional food products. Packaging is an integral part of the message that the brand conveys to the final consumer,” Giovanni Anzani continues.
“It is here that Gampack solutions acquire particular relevance. One of their strengths is the ability to accompany innovative products with equally innovative packaging. The novelty of the content finds immediate correspondence in the novelty of the package, with a positive effect both in terms of marketing and visual impact on the shelf. From a technical point of view, solutions such as our Mini Tray and Mini Wrap summarize this approach. They offer compact packages, aesthetically pleasing and attentive to limiting paperboard consumption. Added to these advantages are flexibility, fast size changeover, product protection, and end-of-line efficiency. In this way, Gampack can offer automatic systems for secondary packaging and end-of-line for nutraceutical products, capable of combining production efficiency, packaging quality, and perceived value.”
Data, robotics and predictive maintenance: the future of packaging for Gampack
In packaging for nutraceuticals, automation plays a central role. It does so in secondary packaging and end-of-line, where it includes activities such as picking and placing, case packing, palletizing, and managing multiple or multi-flavour packages. In a sector that requires speed, flexibility, and frequent format changeovers, automatic systems are a decisive lever for ensuring efficiency and production continuity.
“Gampack responds to these needs with an integrated set of technologies. Some solutions originate in the automatic machine division, others in the robotics division. This approach makes it possible to combine different skills and build responses suited also to the specific needs of nutraceuticals. Artificial intelligence finds one of its most interesting applications in the analysis of production data and in system maintenance.
Gampack has started collecting the statistical data generated by its machines and is developing tools capable of processing them to obtain useful indications for improving processes. From this come predictive and preventive maintenance packages, which the company is already including in its scheduled maintenance proposals,” explains Giovanni Anzani. “The objective is clear: to analyse errors, variables, and micro-stoppages to intervene before the problem creates inefficiencies or line stoppages. Added to this are remote assistance and solutions that make it possible to check the status of the system even remotely, with fast and precise technical support.
The advantage for the customer is concrete. Better data reading helps reduce costs, improve efficiency, maintain high production continuity, and strengthen workplace safety. In this way, not only automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence represent a technological evolution but they become real tools to make nutraceutical packaging more reliable, more efficient, and more competitive.”
Mini Tray, Mini Wrap, Eco Label: sustainable paper-based solutions for nutraceuticals
Among the most interesting Gampack solutions for nutraceuticals, Mini Trays represent a concrete example of sustainable, functional secondary packaging capable of enhancing the product. Together with Mini Wrap, display boxes, and other technologies already available in the company portfolio, they show how many solutions originally developed for the food industry can also be applied effectively to this sector.
“The difference, in nutraceuticals, does not concern so much the basic structure of the package as the quality of the presentation, the aesthetic care, and the value that the packaging must convey. For this reason, materials and printing take on particular importance. The paperboard is often more refined, the graphics richer, and the visual impact more sophisticated. The package, in other words, does not merely protect the product, but contributes to communicating its positioning,” Anzani continues.
“Mini Trays respond well to this need. They are erected blanks that join beverage cartons by covering only the lower part and leaving the rest of the package visible. They allow the creation of multipacks in regular configurations, with graphics coordinated with the product, and offer practical and environmental advantages. The pre-cut allows the individual pieces to be separated easily, the carton maintains its graphic appearance intact, and disposal is simplified because all the material used is always and only paper. The barcode can also be integrated directly into the die-cut blank, facilitating sales operations. Alongside this solution is Eco Label, a paper adhesive label applied halfway up the carton. Here too, the objective is clear: to eliminate plastic and create multipacks consistent with the product image and with the information required by the consumer”.
Gampack’s sustainable approach also continues beyond the multipack dedicated to the point of sale. The company has developed trays, quarter pallets, and half pallets in recyclable paper, designed to protect products during transport and to make them immediately ready for display. It is a concrete response to the demands of a market seeking sustainability, speed, and adaptability.
