Learning Objective: Decide on the type of packaging you will use to protect your chocolate products
Lecture: Sourcing your packaging
The first "chocolate box" was introduced by Richard Cadbury in 1868, when he decorated a candy box with a painting of his young daughter holding a kitten in her arms. Cadbury also invented the first Valentine's Day candy box.
EC Grad Ginger Elizabeth coordinates her packaging.
Decide on the kind of packaging you'll need for your operation and how it will reflect your vision and brand for the business.
Hand-made Wedding Boxes used by graduate
Thitima Boonserm's business in Thailand
A short but interesting promotional video on package development for Swoonbeams.
Research the types of packaging used by other chocolatiers.
Graduate Laurier Dubeau who founded his business La Place Collection in Beijing
sent us a picture of his 2005 Holiday display.
Graduate Ana Mini of Coti Cacao & Chocolat sent me this picture. Not only is the packaging
beautiful but her thoughtful mixture of products makes a good package look even better when opened.
Packaging for retail is a big business and you should be able to find distributors in your local trading area that will sell you packaging wholesale. Find out the retail costs for the packaging by looking through the following packaging sites and reduce the retail price you see by about 25% to have an idea of what your costs per box or bag would be if you were buying in wholesale amounts.
For wholesale chocolate businesses sellling to speciality retailers, remember your packaging design doesn't stop with the chocolate box or wrapper itself but also with the carton of boxes that is delivered to your retailer. "If retail-ready packaging – RRP – isn’t designed with all supply chain stakeholders in mind, it won’t bring the benefits it’s potentially capable of," says James Tupper, ECR (Efficient Consumer Response) Learning & Change Manager at IGD, a not-for-profit organization whose goal is to be the leading expert on international food and grocery retailing and supply chain. In the recent Australian Institute of Packaging’s 2010 national conference in Melbourne, Tupper lead a session on RRP. I thought the following would be helpful for you designing your packaging. Tupper was asked:
How do you define retail-ready packaging?
It’s an approach to packaging wherein 11 key activities are easy to do. We call them the Eleven Easy-Tos [see Figure 1]. Four major stakeholders – shoppers, distribution people, CPG companies, and retailers – are the beneficiaries of these 11 factors. The shopper wants packages that are easy to pick and put into a cart and easy-to-find products within the category. Stakeholders involved in distribution want packaging that’s easy to transport along the supply chain. CPGs want packaging that’s easy to pack on line. As for the retailers, their Easy-To list is the longest. The retail-ready package they’re looking for should be easy to reduce and dispose of, easy to rotate by date code, easy to open to access the primary packs inside, easy to identify in hand, easy to locate in the back room, and it should be designed so that store personnel have no difficulty filling the cubic space assigned to it.
In this image below you can see the chocolate bars on the shelf in their RRP carton with bars facing out – making it easy to identify and pick up by the customer.
Being Eco-friendly is important with some consumers:
Hotel Chocolat cuts packaging with move to low-migration inkJill Park, packagingnews.co.uk, 08 September 2009 Hotel Chocolat had reduced the packaging for its chocolates by changing the inks used on in-pack menus, removing the need for a plastic barrier around the product. Suffolk-based Easypack/POP Displays Group has supplied the chocolate brand with in-box selection menus printed with low-migration, low-odour inks, meaning plastic barriers are no longer required to separate the menus from the chocolates.
|
Using QR Codes
I am really, really excited about the use of QR Codes on your packaging. The means putting them on business cards, any paper promotional pieces AND also your boxes, bar packaging and bags - anything with your name on it should also have a tiny QR Code. Its a mobile world and anyone with a camera phone can use the QR code to find out more information quickly and easily.
What is a QR Code?
This little code (it can be even smaller in print resolution on your packaging) is a link to a promotional page on your website. |
I think this may in the future replace the little menu card that we all put into our boxes of chocolate. With this code on the outside of your box people won't need the physical card, they can just capture the QR code link and immediately on their phone is all the information about what is in the box and more - how you made it, why you made it, where the ingredients are from, the farm in Belize where the chocolate comes from and more and more.
The benefit for you - no more printing of tiny menu cards that may change with the seasons and holidays. Just update the webpage and its done. You can generate QR codes for every different product in your product line so potential customers have access to the all the information they need to make a decision to buy one product instead of another.
Selling Chocolate Bars - with a QR code the front of your packaging you can tell the story behind the bar while the customer is still making a decision on the store shelf.
Want to send one to a friend? Customers can even order another box or bar online immediately and have it shipped if you build that option into the webpage along with the discription of the product.
QR codes are easy to generate. Just google "qr code generator" and you'll have lots of choices. Most are free. You can get colors to match your packaging. They don't have to be black and white. But then again, make it stand out so people recognize what it is.
QR Readers - there are different ones for any phone. Just google "qr code reader".
Packaging Suppliers
The following are only examples of packaging companies or distributors with websites in English. Packaging is a big business so while this is a US centric list for example purposes, your own country will have a number of similar packaging companies with websites in your language. Again this is not a definitive list of all packaging companies as there are literally thousands of those around the world. This is only a short list in English to give you an idea of the depth of the offerings in order to complete your assignment.
- A Specialty Box - Discount Available see ** below at bottom of the page under Resources
- Accent Packaging
- All American Label
- Alufoil Products Co.
- Allsorts Premium Packaging
- AMAC Plastic Products
- Armadillo Packaging
- Atlantic Sales and Distribution
- Babcor Packaging Corp.
- Billie-Ann Plastics Packaging
- Bi-star Enterprise
- Box City
- Box Perfect
- Brimar Packaging
- CandyLand Crafts
- Charles Clay
- CK Products
- Classic Packaging
- Control Temp Packaging - package insulation material recommended by chocolatiers who ship a lot of product.
- Custom Chocolate Shop
- Dunwoody Booth
- Easypack/POP Displays Group
- Efavormart
- Embaline
- Expo International
- Fasco Packaging
- Favour Boxes
- Friend Box Company
- Friesens Packaging
- Get Crafty
- Gift Box Corporation
- Glerup Revere
- GYGI
- Impress Packaging
- InsulTote - line of insulated shipping products
- JA Packaging
- Kent Holdings - wooden boxes from Sri Lanka
- KMM Products Inc.
- KodiaKooler
- Machine Runner
- Mac Paper Supply
- Marshallom Metal Manufacture (huizhou) Co., Ltd
- Mason Box Company
- Meridian Specialty Packaging
- ModPac Corp
- MTC Trading
- Murata Kimpaku Co. - foil stamping specialists
- Murnane Specialties
- Nashville Wraps
- NovaCartUSA
- Packaging TradeWorlds Portal
- PaperMart
- Pendragon Presentation Packaging
- Pioneer Packaging and Display Cases
- Plantic Technologies Limited - Plantic® trays biodegradable inserts and sheets
- Polar-Tech Industries - temperature sensitive packaging
- Pour n' Pack
- Primera Labels
- Premier Concepts HK
- Pritchard Packaging
- Qualita Paper Products
- Quick Label Systems
- Ribbonza
- ScienceThings (mugs imprinted with chocolate molecules)
- Siam Woodworks
- Simplex Paper Box Corp.
- Specialty Wraps
- Sweet Packaging
- Tap Packaging
- The Box Depot
- The Mason Box Company
- The Revere Group
- The Tin Box Company
- Thermal-Shield
- Thermosafe - contact Robin Kaplan: robinkaplan@tegrant.com
- Thomas Catanese
- Tomric - the mold company also carries packaging
- USBox
- Bags and Bows Online
- Viking Importing Company
- Winbeckler
- Zatara International Inc.
Mariebelle presents chocolates using real jewelry boxes.
Packaging for shipping
If you're planning to wholesale products you'll need to look for packaging that protects your products in both transit and storage. Here is Thomas Haas' solution, which cost him about $60,000 to implement but is paying back by reducing credits for damaged products from his clients. He had plastic trays formed to fit his bonbons then covered with a plastic sheet across the top. A box was made to fit the trays so they don't move around.
Article of interest on packaging: New Cailler chocolate packaging: flop or not?
Interested in sustainability? Here's a life-cycle assessment of packaging: LCA of Chocolate Packed in Aluminum Foil Based Packaging
How A California Chocolatier Is Going Nationalby Jeremy Caplan, UPSVoice, November 29, 2012 When the Venezuelan Antonorsi brothers opened a chocolate boutique in Encinitas, California, in 2002, they lavished attention on tiny truffles, not large distribution networks. But in the decade since, Chuao (pronounced chew-WOW), has exploded into a national player in the super-premium chocolate-bar market. This fall, chef Michael Antonorsi and his brother Richard are relaunching their collection of 10 chocolate bars with new packaging and streamlined distribution. They’re taking advantage of strong demand from a variety of outlets — including Whole Foods, Wegmans and other specialty markets — for products like their Maple Bacon Bar and the Firecracker, filled with popping candy, chipotle and sea salt. Named after a cacao-rich region of central Venezuela, Chuao Chocolatier morphed from a single location retail outlet in 2002 into a specialty food up-and-comer in 2005, shipping 2,000 bars per flavor every month. That monthly number has since grown tenfold. Consumers now buy the pricey, swanky bars, often for $5 and up, at some 2,500 spots around the country. The company has begun discussions about eventually shipping to Japan and Hong Kong. To reduce costs, CEO Sergio Alvarez is consolidating Chuao’s distribution network to work with fewer distributors. Alvarez is banking that fewer, more robust partnerships will yield economies of scale: As each distributor carries more product into stores, the overall per-unit cost of distribution will drop. One thing Chuao can’t change is the weather. The company generally trucks its product cross-country. In a hot region, that means paying a 40% premium for refrigerated trucks when delivery routes cross desert areas. Though there’s not much the company can do about that now, in the future — should plans call for expansion — Chuao could consider adding regional distribution centers, so that trucks wouldn’t have to drive long distances in chocolate-melting weather. Even as Chuao focuses on larger-scale logistics, managers keep an eye on little details. Chuao staffers crush chips by hand for the Potato Chip Bar so the chocolate is interspersed with chunky potato chip pieces rather than salty dust. For other bars, Chuao staffers inspect every shipment of nuts for shells, debris or other imperfections. CEO Alvarez, who came to Chuao from Hewlett-Packard, said one of Chuao’s challenges is dealing with shortsighted industry practices. “There are a lot of newcomers in the chocolate space because the barriers to entry are so low,” Alvarez said. “It’s easy to start a local shop; but when they start to grow regionally or nationally, newcomers naively comply with what distributors and retailers push for, including big discounts and free product up front.” The big break for Chuao came in 2005, when it won a coveted award from the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, helping put the then three-year-old chocolatier on the culinary map. That same year, Chuao shifted from wrapping bars by hand to semi-automated packaging. Rapid growth thereafter required occasional improvisation. Communications director Brooke Feldman remembers once driving an order to a customer’s home after he called to ask about the status of his shipment. “When I showed up at his door he was shocked,” Feldman said. “I told him that we make the chocolate with care, so we want to make sure it’s delivered that way, too.” |
|
Resources and Bibliography
** EC Graduate Bill Copeland: I was reviewing the interest in packaging needs and I thought that it would benefit everyone in our class and the school if I provided an Educational Discount to all members and Alumni. This will help everyone with their packaging needs and who knows, it might do well enough that we can provide larger discounts in the future.
Please note, this items can be directly ordered from the website and that is the only way the discount will be applied. I have provided the discount code to be used during checkout that you can use. Also feel free to call our offices at anytime to ask questions regarding sizes, colors, special freight quotes to other countries, etc. If you're outside the U.S., we'll need to quote the freight separately to be competitive so we would allow you to order via phone.
This code is good until Dec 2015.
Discount Code: ecole2013
Receive 15% off all On-line orders.
Educational Discount to all Students and Alumni of Ecole Chocolat.
Cannot be combined with items on sale, Quantity Discounts or closeout.Rigid, Seasonal Confectionery packaging
http://www.aspecialtybox.comCustom Branded Folding Cartons
http://www.pi-pkg.comIn closing, I want you all to know that my intention is not to solicit business from this group, just to extend a helping hand as you start your businesses. I have been in your shoes many times with start-ups and fully understand the financial impact capital demands can have on a small entity.
留言列表