A great idea (I think that we'll buy that!)

In the printing business customers have a choice of three characteristics for their print job; fast, cheap, quick. The problem is you only get to pick two of the three.

In the plastics business the trio appears to be; smart design, good quality manufacturing, safe materials. With a huge volume of plastics produced in China, many consumers wisely question the safety of some low cost products made there.

Salad Max lunch container (Closed)

This firm, Sistema, manufactures its "Phalate & BPA free" plastic containers in New Zealand. These containers are not cheap, with this set selling for $14.99 CDN at Staples. But what price would you put on your child's health?  

Salad Max lunch container (Open)

Salad Max lunch container (Open with tray removed)

The answer to that is $640 million NZD. (About $460 million USD) That is how much Newell agreed to pay for Sistema in December 2016. Newell has committed to continue to manufacture in New Zealand for another 20 years. New Zealand is a high cost place to manufacture plastics as labour is not cheap and all of the ingredients must be imported. But the perceived high quality of New Zealand goods adds a lot to consumer's piece of mind.

And who is Newell? You may know the firm better by one of its consumer brands such as Yankee Candle, Rubbermaid, Coleman, Oster, Jostens, Jarden, Crazy Glue, Sharpie, Paper Mate, Sunbeam, First Alert, Dumo, Elmers, FoodSaver, Calphalon, Rawlings, Contigo, Marmot, Expo, Graco, and Nuk. And of course Newell is also the company that owns Parker, the 130-year old pen company.