Packaging Solutions
The Ginger Pig has blossomed into a burgeoning and hugely successful butchery business. Each of its nine shops in London offers a wide range of delectable high welfare meats.
Like many other businesses using chilled packaging to send products direct to consumers' doors, its previous e-commerce packaging wasn’t meeting the right needs, resulting in disappointed customers due to damaged packaging and poor unboxing experiences.
The team at Smurfit Kappa was able to combat these problems by creating a bespoke chilled packaging solution for The Ginger Pig that reduced product damage and offered more benefits.
Ginger Pig was so impressed with the packaging solutions that Smurfit had created for Mindful Chef that it approached the team to explore creating something similar to protect its fresh produce and ensure super satisfied customers. The company turned to the Smurfit Kappa Beacon team for its extensive expertise and innovative ideas to create fit for purpose and on-brand packaging that mirrored the quality of the products.
The bespoke chilled packaging solution for The Ginger Pig boasts a whole host of benefits for the brand, including:
Reduced product damage: the newly sized boxes were fit for purpose and correctly sized, leading to better customer experiences, lower returns, and a higher likelihood of repeat purchases.
Improved unboxing experience: when the packaging was reviewed, the recommendation was to switch to gel packs as the ice packs previously used were impacting the internal liners and compromising the integrity of the packaging. The gel packs meant no more unsatisfactory and soggy unboxing experiences for The Ginger Pig customers.
Reduced costs: the introduction of self seal tape replaced the previously labour intensive taped base and hand glued finishing, reducing the time needed to erect the boxes. The new packaging reduced the time it takes to pick, wrap, pack, and ship products. Plus, the new solution resulted in decreased DPD postal subscription rates per year.
Increased sustainability credentials: the bespoke chilled packaging removed the need for non recyclable wool insulation whilst maintaining the required temperature of the boxes. Plus, smaller boxes mean more boxes per pallet, reducing CO2 emissions and the brand’s wider carbon footprint.
Increased storage space: by no longer needing to store the wool insulation in its warehouse, the company could reclaim up to 30% of its racking for additional storage space.
The new chilled packaging was the result of Smurfit Kappa’s packaging experts assessing the needs of this brand and how the products fared as they travelled through the supply chain. It devised a corrugated solution, utilising new pack styles that featured a tamper evident pack with self seal tape and zipper rule openings for improved security and efficiency.
Lynsey Coughlan, operations director at The Ginger Pig, said: ‘The team at Smurfit Kappa was able to take the problems we were facing and provide truly effective solutions. Our new packaging adds value in so many different ways, not only for the business but most importantly to our customers.’
