Wild Radish: an elegant packaging solution
Packaging Solutions
Determined to deliver a sophisticated take on make at home recipe boxes, e-commerce brand Wild Radish pours a love of good food into everything it does.
Launched during the Covid lockdowns, the boxes are designed to bring a touch of luxury to the market, slowing down and emphasising the joy of cooking, not just eating.
Of course, from an e-commerce packaging perspective, that presents a problem. A more everyday brand can take a few dents in its boxes, or ingredients thrown together in transit. A customer of a higher end recipe box expects nothing less than perfection – even from the packaging.
Luckily, Smurfit Kappa is an expert in packaging solutions, and always sees problems as challenges to be met.
In August 2020, Wild Radish began talks with the Smurfit Kappa Beacon site, located in Aldershot explaining theirdilemma, and a productive partnership begun.
After some experimentation, Smurfit Kappa Beacon developed a bespoke z-shaped fitting that both protected the ingredients and ensured immaculate presentation on unboxing. This insert cleverly has the fluting going east to west – meaning it adds integrity and strength to the boxes’ structure as well as separating the contents.
Of course, transit protection isn’t the only aspect of a beautiful box design, and Wild Radish was keen that the box should be as elegant and polished as the contents inside.
The bespoke box is easy to open, meaning that there is no customer frustration when the package arrives.
Not only that, but, as an e-commerce brand, the company wanted to use every chance to build brand reputation. A strong logo and clear slogan meant that everyone who sees the box will know which company sent it – which can drive traffic to the business and boost sales.
Wild Radish and Smurfit Kappa Beacon agreed that they should keep their classy black on off-white branding. It was striking without being loud – an elegant evening wrapped up in a box.
Pale or white inks can be hard to saturate properly, and the effect is most impressive when there are no hints of the substrate underneath peeking through the colour.
To achieve this flawless result, a flood coat flexographic print, with an ultra sharp logo on top, was decided on. The flood coat would ensure that the boxes were all a uniform cream, while the black logo and tagline – ‘A chef’s table at your table’ – stood out strikingly against it.
Meanwhile, the inside of the boxes had a natural finish, helping to wordlessly convey Wild Radish’s sustainable, local philosophy.
To achieve all this, Smurfit Kappa Beacon had to print in a particular – and tricky – way. However, the desired result was accomplished and in September 2020, Wild Radish’s team visited the Smurfit Kappa Beacon factory for a print pass, and the first order was signed off.
One of Wild Radish’s core values is a belief that sustainability should be at the heart of everything we do. The team at Smurfit Kappa Beacon understand this well and was able to offer FSC certified materials that were fully recyclable on delivery to the customer.
For the box itself, Smurfit Kappa Beacon settled on a FEFCO 0201-style design in two sizes. This meant that each box could be appropriately sized for the recipes inside, rather than shipping extra air.
‘Launching a company amidst a global pandemic, we really appreciated the support, guidance and fast turnaround received. Thank you to every at Smurfit Kappa Beacon, we love our boxes and feel they truly deliver all that we wanted from our packaging,’ said James Bhardwaj, co-founder of Wild Radish.
