Giro Pack launching cellulose mesh bag

Atlanta-based Giro Pack has been making mesh bags and machinery to make those bags for about 100 years.

Although the company has changed over the decades as new technology comes online and customers and consumers clamor for sustainable packaging, "We haven't gotten away from our core," said Jen Doxey, national sales manager.

Giro Pack makes only mesh woven net bags, she said — no pouch bags or any other type of packaging.

"We were the first company to put a piece of fruit into that mesh bag," she said.

Traditional plastic mesh bags still account for most of the firm's output, but as customer requests for sustainable packaging grow, the company has come up with a couple of other options.

Its newest, most sustainable product is a cellulose mesh bag that is paper based and plastic free. For those who prefer traditional plastic, Giro Pack makes a bag from a reduced-plastic mono material.

"It's a single-layer substrate that is still traditional HDPE, but it is less plastic than what anyone is using today," Doxey said.

There hasn't been a full changeover to the cellulose product, which is pricier than traditional mesh bags, but customers have been showing a lot of interest, especially those in California and other states that are implementing strict environmental regulations.

Cellulose may be a popular choice in Canada as well.

"Some of our Canadian customers have started to perform the evaluation process, and they are in preliminary testing at this point," Doxey said.

The family-owned company was founded in 1925 and has a manufacturing facility in Vidalia, Ga., a global headquarters in Spain, and commercial presence on every continent.

"We have a pretty vast reach," Doxey said.

Giro Pack offers 15 styles of mesh bags.

"One customer is using a cellulose clip bag that is compostable," Doxey said. "We have multiple options, depending on user demand."

Onions, sweet potato, citrus, avocados and apples are the main items sold in the bags, which are on the verge of a formal U.S. launch.

"We’re very, very close," Doxey said. "We are testing them with several customers."

Giro Pack also makes film wineglass labels and manufactures the equipment to make the bags.

"We’re a full turnkey for the machinery side of it as well," she said. "We can fully automate an entire packinghouse and provide consumable solutions for mesh bags."