Packaging Solutions
The epitome of quality, family owned Hattingley Valley produces a range of English sparkling wines with grapes sourced from its own vineyard and a wide range of England’s regions.
Having won numerous awards for its sparkling wine, Hattingley Valley stands for premium value and luxury. Even so, it is playful, believing that making excellent wine should be just as fun as drinking it.
This marriage of fun and quality had to find its way into the packaging, showing off the quality for which the brand is known. The company has been working with Smurfit Kappa Gosport since 2013 to produce packaging, but recently, the teams started working together on something a little different.
Hattingley Valley is ‘Unapologetically British’, making a name for English sparkling wine around the world. This brand of cheeky patriotism doesn’t end in the vineyard however – Hattingley Valley created the official Team GB sparkling wine just in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
This limited edition bottle celebrates the athletes with a beautiful blue and gold logo – and delicious wine within, of course. The company also took to the skies and partnered with British Airways in 2019 to celebrate the airline’s centenary year. The promise of these partnerships meant that this packaging venture with Smurfit Kappa Gosport was even more special than usual.
Hattingley Valley wanted packaging that really told the story of the brand to entice new customers and increase awareness. It wanted to demonstrate to customers the quality of the wines inside the packaging whilst showing off the local origins.
A complete rebrand was in order – and Smurfit Kappa Gosport had a few suggestions that took the new boxes to a whole new level.
Gareth Maxwell, commercial director for Hattingley Valley, approached Smurfit Kappa Gosport in 2019. With him, he had a wine box brought back with him from a trip to Spain. It had high quality composition and print, and he wondered if Smurfit Kappa could emulate the style and update Hattingley Valley’s own packaging offering.
Without any details, the first challenge for Smurfit Kappa Gosport was to identify the grade of the sample with which Gareth had returned. Luckily, the packaging specialist always rise to challenges, and the box was sent to the quality and continuous improvement Manager to properly identify the composition of the papers.
That done, Smurfit Kappa’s own ‘Paper to Box’ software was used, which determines the optimal board grade to match box compression strength.
Sample identified, Smurfit Kappa Gosport wanted to offer an enhanced box to Hattingley Valley. It proposed a crash-lock box with integral dividers in the optimum cardboard grade. This design can be shipped to clients flat packed, which saves on shipping space and cost and subsequently benefits the environment as well. Further, it is easy to assemble, reducing labour costs. This was a key concern for Hattingley Valley, so the crash-lock design works well for its needs.
It also reduces the need for tape or other secondary packaging. This makes it much more likely that consumers will make the effort to recycle the packaging, making the brand eco friendlier.
Of course, this crash-lock design is also stable and sturdy: one of the challenges of premium drinks packaging is ensuring that the delicate products inside arrive in one piece.
Using a CAD table to show off the benefits of this design over a conventional outer box, Smurfit Kappa Gosport had Gareth convinced, and the project moved forward.
