Perrigo’s SmarTub™ packaging design aims to improve ease-of-use and reduce theft of infant formula

Tyco Integrated Security (TycoIS), a Tyco (TYC) company and the industry’s leading security systems integrator, has teamed up with Perrigo Nutritionals to develop a theft-resistant infant formula container. Perrigo Nutritionals is the leading infant formula company that supplies mass retailers, grocers and drugstores with their own Store Brand Infant Formulas. Baby formula frequently tops the list as one of the most commonly stolen products, and according to last year’s National Retail Security Survey results conducted by the University of Florida, the supermarket and grocery industry had the highest total shrinkage percentages of all retail segments.

In order to combat high theft numbers and prevent losses, Perrigo Nutritionals invested significant resources in developing the SmarTub™ packaging to aid retailers in reducing the costs of theft associated with infant formula. The SmarTub includes a Sensormatic® Acousto-Magnetic Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) tag that resonates when placed in an electromagnetic field, alerting the retail store’s staff of the theft. 

"We worked with Tyco Integrated Security to update our packaging in order to help our customers better prevent infant formula theft in their stores," said Perrigo Nutritionals General Manager Scott Jamison. "Our team invested $29 million and three years of development work into this effort to better serve our customers, and the result is an innovative, theft-resistant package on the outside with the same trusted formula on the inside."

“This is the first infant formula package on the market that is compatible with our EAS tag and designed to significantly reduce shrinkage for retailers across the country that sell Perrigo baby formula,” said Mike Creedon, Vice President of Retail Sales and Operations for Tyco Integrated Security. “By tagging the product right at the point of manufacture, our customers can be sure their product is protected from step one. We make it a top priority to aid our partners and customers in reducing shrinkage to more effectively increase profits, and our involvement in Perrigo’s development of the SmarTub™ has done just that.”

“We have been attempting to have infant formula source tagged for many years and have finally demonstrated through the partnership we have with our private label brand that it can be done,” said Karl Langhorst, Corporate Director of Loss Prevention, The Kroger Co. “Our desire would be for the national brands to follow suit. Tagging compliance and labor savings through Source Tagging is critical to our program’s success, but more importantly, it helps us maintain in stock availability, which improves the shopping experience for our customer.”