Guinness World record holder honours Reproscan’s Vinay Mehta

Reproscan, a 35 year old firm is based in Lower Parel in Mumbai deals in pre-media and offers print services to packaging firms, advertising, corporate marketing and publishing sector.

VENTiT, the brand name for Mehta’s design, was judged by Scott Wiener, the New York-based pizza aficionado and a Gunness world record holder. Wiener said, “I have collected approximately 650 pizza boxes from around the world since 2009 and out of all these boxes Mehta’s design is best suited to delivering steaming pizzas.” “It’s smart because it doesn’t add any hardware, just rethinks the common construction of a box and rearranges it,” he added.

Mehta says he realized that the biggest challenge faced by take-out restaurants is the poor ventilation of the packaging. “Trapped steam condenses on the food making it unappealing and dampening its aroma,” he says.

Mehta claims VENTiT to be a simple solution to the challenges. “VENTiT boxes are basic cardboard boxes having two flat surfaces and one ridged corrugated sheet in between. VENTiT boxes have holes in the two flat surfaces, but not in the middle layer. This permits steam to travel through the grooves in the middle corrugated layer, without getting trapped inside the box. More importantly, no additional material is required to manufacture the box,” he explains.

“It’s the biggest challenge of pizza box designers to create something that retains heat without trapping steam while still staying inexpensive and I think this box has achieved just that!” said Wiener.

Currently Mehta manufactures 100,000 boxes a month for his clients in south Mumbai. Some of his esteemed clients range from Smokin’ Joe’s, Francesco‘s Pizzeria and Pizza Metro Pizza. He also supplies boxes to purveyors of other cuisines, from fruit to south Indian delicacies.

Post his success, Mehta is planning to tie up with international partners to produce and distribute VENTiT boxes all over the world. He has patents to sell the box in over 100 countries.

According to Mehta, the cardboard industry has remained static for over a century. “It has always been about two things: compression and cushioning. With my box, I’ve added a third element to this. That is ventilation,” he concludes.