Sandpoint company gets $80,000 grant

SANDPOINT — Unicep Packaging has received an $80,000 research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to develop a new package design.

The Sandpoint company makes single-dose vials for medications and cosmetics. Unicep wants to expand into a line of vials that includes a wand-like applicator, but the machinery to produce such an applicator in one-step doesn’t exist, said Frank Kallio, the company’s marketing director.

Unicep will use the grant to refine designs for the new machine and to modify existing machinery to test the concept. If the design is successful, Kallio said, Unicep will apply for a second grant next year to build the machine.

The $80,000 comes from USDA’s Rural and Community Development program, designed to help diversify the job base in small communities. Unicep employs about 100 people in Sandpoint, and the new packaging line could result in more jobs in the future, Kallio said. The company is already discussing the vials with large pharmaceutical and cosmetic companies on the East Coast, he said. “We believe it will result in orders for tens of millions of units.”

Unicep Packaging was founded in 1991 by Dr. John Snedden, a Sandpoint dentist.