This article is brought to you by Ronpak Inc.

In 2023, foodservice accounted for 26.7% of in-store sales, making it the largest contributor to c-store sales behind fuel. Foodservice sales increased 9.0% year over year, and even more impressively gross profit dollars increased 10.4%. With the growing prominence of prepared food in convenience stores, retailers need to consider all aspects of this critical category—from what food they’re serving to what packaging they’re serving it in.

“Retailers are already offering great food, but they need to ensure that their food items remain at a high quality for customers to give them a consistent experience,” said Jerry Fajardo, director of national accounts, West, at Ronpak, a manufacturer of custom paper bags and food wraps for retailers.

“This means having the right packaging is a vital component of a convenience retailer’s foodservice program,” Fajardo continued. “Consumers expect that their food will be delivered and transported safely, and that the food quality will be preserved for a reasonable amount of time. In addition, consumers desire packaging that helps to make the food item convenient and easy to eat on the go.”

One major area of concern for retailers with hot takeaway menu items is heat retention and condensation reduction, Fajardo said.

“Packaging maximized for heat retention and moisture evaporation has become very important, as restaurants look at preparing hot food in larger batches while ensuring the quality of the food is not compromised,” he explained.

Fajardo noted that having QSR-level packaging is ever more important as c-stores compete with QSRs for their share of the market—27.2% of c-store customers surveyed said they planned to purchase food elsewhere within 30 minutes of their visit, according to 2023 NACS Convenience Voices Data.

Ronpak, which has many years of experience producing packaging for QSRs, feels that there are best practices that convenience retailers can benefit from.

“One thing QSRs have down is speed of service,” said Fajardo, adding that speed is also paramount to the c-store customer and to retailers looking to alleviate labor burdens. “Can you design packaging that is not just useful and effective for the consumer, but also effective for the operator by facilitating speed of service for your store employees?” he added.

As c-stores have unique foodservice operations and sometimes a variety of menu items, Ronpak works directly with retailers to design customized packaging solutions tailored to a store’s products and operations.

“One of Ronpak’s strengths is product development and innovation, and the flexibility and ability to meet our customers’ varying and evolving needs,” said Fajardo. “We work with retailers to understand the requirements of their menu items and optimize the design of the required packaging with the right paper types, coating, printing and more.”

For example, one of Ronpak’s clients wanted a vented bag for its hot foodservice items. “But they were worried about condensation. We were able to develop, test, sample and ultimately create a product for them in a three-to-six-month period, which is half the time for most product development,” Fajardo continued.

The company has also worked with retailers to find alternative solutions and create customized packaging specifications. “One retailer we worked with had packaging that was too big—therefore costing too much and contributing to waste. We were able to offer them an alternative spec, which provided cost savings to them but still did the same amount of work and accomplished what they needed for their foodservice offerings,” said Fajardo.

This is the first in a two-part series on Ronpak. Look out for part two on Thursday.