Written by Emily Laughton-Hulatt | 11th February 2023

Luxury Gift Packaging For Drinks Industry Disruptors Seedlip

Just like many of our UK packaging sites Saxon Packaging, part of Smurfit Kappa and located in Lowestoft, relish the challenge of helping our customers find the perfect packaging solutions for their products. When Seedlip came to them with their latest luxury gift range, the Saxon Packaging team set to work on creating Seedlip, a bespoke packaging solution for their luxury gift product.

A seemingly simple project quickly posed some real challenges, so they had to get creative and call upon the experience and equipment of our litho printing specialist site, Smurfit Kappa Litho.

Seedlip have earned a reputation for successfully solving the problem of what to drink for those seeking alternatives to alcoholic drinks, and since launching in 2015 they quickly became a huge name in the non-alcoholic drinks industry.

Seedlip has now been taken over by drinks giant Diageo, but their family-run charm still stands. In the early days, Seedlip was focused on online orders and needed transit packaging for their products, but they soon realised the need for luxury gift packaging. The brand has been a customer of Saxon Packaging since 2015, and the team were more than happy to help with their high-end luxury gift boxes.

Bottle packaging for gift

Seedlip’s Ivana Walthorne approached Saxon Packaging in 2019 with the view to creating a distinctive packaging solution for their new 70cl single bottle gift products. Mike Impson, Sales Director at Saxon Packaging, was confident that the team would be able to exceed Seedlip’s expectations and create gift packs for three popular flavours: Grove 42 (Citrus), Garden 108 (Herbal), and Spice 94 (Aromatic).

The drinks packaging had an intricate design which required perfect high-end printing to truly encapsulate the luxury of the products inside. The Saxon team used a split print litho printing process and added additional luxury embellishments of foil blocking and soft touch laminate, to give the products the premium feel that was central to the brief.

The structural design was based on a variant of a FEFCO 0215 style box, and the finished packaging was printed on E Flute corrugated board.

The real challenge came with the delicate design of the packaging. The halo foil blocking which bordered the die-cut window was slightly too intricate for Saxon’s in-house flatbed die-cutter. Our Smurfit Kappa Litho site had the solutions thanks to their machines which give more accuracy over die cutting the foil blocking.

Matt Watts, General Manager at Smurfit Kappa Litho, was pleased to support this project and used their Bobst Visioncut Power Register machine to print and die cut the sheets for Seedlip’s premium gift packs. Seedlip’s Grove 42 (Citrus) gift box packaging went on to win Gold in the Harpers Design Awards in 2019, and this never would have been possible without collaborations between the different Smurfit Kappa sites.   

 

2000 initial packs of each design were produced, followed by several re-orders over the last couple of years. In addition to this award-winning packaging, Saxon also helped develop six 70cl outer packaging solutions for transporting the gift packs.

This collaboration between Seedlip, Saxon Packaging and Smurfit Kappa Litho is a good example of how, at Smurfit Kappa, we’re able to overcome obstacles and provide the level of luxury packaging clients are looking for from their packaging provider. 

If you are looking for luxury gift drinks packaging get in touch with our team using the contact form below.

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