Packaging for Food & Drink

Ticking all of the boxes required by food packaging can be a challenge, and one that most food or drink producers will have faced at one time or another.

However, the integrated product offering of GWP Group, combined with tailored services such as a managed inventory that accurately predicts peaks in usage, can provide significant benefits to your business.

So whether you require shelf ready packaging, high quality retail packs, simple shippers to protect items in transit, Point of Sale (POS) units or even crates and totes for handling ingredients in your production facility, GWP can help.

GWP Packaging have a vast amount of knowledge and experience in providing eco friendly corrugated packaging for food and drink to both local and national producers of British food.

This is in addition to niche drinks manufacturers such as local breweries.

This includes the design and manufacture of primary or secondary packaging to protect products in transit. It includes retail packaging, shelf ready boxes and point of sale to boost in store sales. And it even covers re-usable packaging for supply chain and production applications.

These key areas are further enhanced through supplying a wide range of specialist printing, branding and coating options.

GWP can offer your business access to a team of award winning designers with specialist knowledge of the food and beverages industries. Besides providing packaging that both protects and aids sales of your products, it also allows for a full sampling service prior to production

Further benefits and services include holding stocks of your packaging and supplying on a “Just In Time” basis – saving you warehouse space and all associated costs.

The unique way in which GWP Packaging is setup, has resulted in partnerships with a wide range of breweries of varying sizes.

GWP have worked alongside large, multi-national companies with their shipping and POS requirements, but by offering a close knit support team and customer service has seen successful partnerships with many micro breweries too.

Further to this, you can benefit from short runs at very competitive prices, innovative designs including tamper proof cartons with no need for additional tapes, and printing to ensure your brand guidelines are followed exactly.

The additional complementary services provided to food manufacturing companies, including inventory management, Just In Time delivery & online ordering, are available to beverage manufacturers too.

Based in Wiltshire, Tracklements manufacture an award winning range of sauces, condiments and food products.

The hallmarks of the business are use of the finest, natural ingredients, used to make their products in small, handmade batches.

With a number of jars becoming broken during transit, Tracklements worked alongside GWP to come up with transit packaging that ensured the safe transit of products to the retail outlets where the products are stocked.

The success of this however has seen additional packaging lines added, including Point of Sale and counter top units, cell dividers for more efficient packing processes, and even shippers to send out samples and ecommerce orders.

Corrugated packaging has long been widespread and used for numerous applications in the food and drink industries. However, there is often a requirement for additional surface coatings to improve or enhance the properties of the material.

Working with leading brand owners, GWP have produced quality outer presentation boxes, as well as inner product protection covering many applications.

This included the creation of, or coating board in readiness for the manufacture of boxes, sleeves, cartons, trays, internal fittings and even POS materials.

Other specialist coatings, in particular Liquiguard, have also proved to be very popular in the food and drink industries. By adding an element of water and oil resistance, cardboard packaging boxes can also be used over many trips whilst remaining fully recyclable.

Liquiguard is also FSA approved for direct contact with food products.

This unique offering has seen GWP working both directly with large multinational organisations and smaller national food and drink producers, plus indirectly by supplying coated boards to converters that in turn supply companies within these sectors.

View a selection of the food and drink packaging products designed, manufactured and supplied by the different divisions of GWP Group. Please click the thumbnails for a larger view.

Besides the transit packaging to get food and drink products to the shops, and the retail packaging to aid sales when it is on shelves, an often overlooked area is handling during the production process.

Ingredients often need to be transported around the factory or workspace, efficiently and promptly in order to ensure smooth running of production lines.

As a result, Correx® trays, totes and other handling products are becoming increasingly popular.

Perfect for wet and oily produce in particular (unlike corrugated cardboard), Correx® can be easily cleaned and sterilised, whilst also containing any moisture or liquids. This has seen Correx® used widely as fresh fish boxes and crates.

The easy clean nature and durability of Correx® also means that it lasts over many trips. This is usually ideal for a busy production facility where ingredients and even finished products are continually being moved and stored.

Correx® is even being used more and frequently for takeaway delivery, with a great deal of success.

Surprisingly, even plastic cases are occasionally specified by the food industry. However, rather than being used to protect products, they are instead used to present samples or new products during sales pitches and presentations.

For example, one high profile brand of Pesto recently approached GWP looking for sample cases to present their latest range of sauces during pitches to supermarkets and large retailers.

The cases in question, when enhanced with custom foam inserts, provide a number of benefits.

Firstly, they allow for easy access and presentation during the sales meeting. Secondly, they project a professional and polished appearance. And thirdly, they also a level of protection during the journeys to and from the presentations.

The UK food industry has developed significantly since the end of rationing in the 1940’s. At this time, UK households grew almost double the amount of produce in their back gardens or allotments than they bought.

With more women gaining employment however, the need for convenience foods began to grow by the 1960’s. A decade later families were purchasing fridges and freezers. By the end of the 1970’s 95 percent of the UK’s households owned a fridge.

A surge of product development then transformed the way people eat and drink. As the first to introduce ready meals, frozen food and instant coffee to the market, the UK industry continues to invest in product research and development (R&D).

Today, this sees approximately 16,000 new products composed for consumer consumption each year. The five largest UK retailers (Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, Morrisons and the Co-Operative) will stock approximately 8,500 of these on their shelves.

With an overall turnover of £96 billion, the food industry is more substantial than both the automotive and aerospace industry combined. Convenience foods alone are expected to grow to a value of £46 billion by the year 2018.

Accounting for 18 percent of all manufacturing across the UK, the industry employs just over 3.8 million people – the equivalent to one in every seven jobs. These figures include 127,000 people who are employed by SME’s across 6,100 manufacturers.

The UK’s top private manufactures include 2 Sisters Food Group (who produce food for Goodfella’s and Fox’s Biscuits, amongst others), Iceland, and United Biscuits (owning brands such as Mcvitie’s, Jacob’s and Go Ahead).

GWP has worked with food and drink producers (including breweries) for more than 25 years.

Whilst working with some high profile, high volume manufacturers, the way in which GWP focuses on customer service has also seen exceptionally successful partnerships formed with smaller, independent food producers.

We have designed and manufactured corrugated delivery boxes for Abel & Cole which last over numerous trips. We have produced POS and shelf ready packs for Bendicks (including packaging which won a prestigious Starpack Award). We are the only UK company offering the FSA approved “waterproof” Liquiguard coating for cardboard. And we are perhaps the only genuine single source supplier of transit, retail POS and in plant handling packaging.

A dedicated design team and customer service manager will be allocated specifically to your business, with a focus on producing truly cost effective packaging that performs at the optimum level.

With an understanding that the fresh produce market in particular works to exceptionally tight deadlines, and can see massive spikes in demand, GWP has developed a fully managed inventory service.

By accurately monitoring stock and usage patterns, this ensures your packaging is delivered exactly when you need, whilst also reducing your stock holding and ensuring there is no stock shortages – even during peak times.

So whether you need to safely transport your products, boost sales in a retail environment, or even improve the efficiency and output of your production, GWP have the products, services and knowledge to help.

If you are launching a new product and need retail packaging and POS, need to improve your in-plant logistics, or even need to better present your samples, GWP can help.