Killer App: Saxon applies special brew to craft ale case for Beer Factory

Since 2014, The London Beer Factory has been brewing its premium craft beer in the heart of South East London. But with demand for premium brews increasing in recent years, differentiating from rivals has become key and the company was keen to make an impression with its latest pack.

What was produced?
London Beer Factory managing director Sim Cotton contacted Saxon Packaging, based in Lowestoft, Suffolk, upon a recommendation from one of its other brewery customers for a mail order beer pack.

The business required a sustainable pack that could be used to ship 12 bottles of premium craft beer from its London premises to customers across the UK. Saxon’s internal sales co-ordinator, Wayne Bennett, worked closely with Cotton to create a pack featuring a purple base with an electric marble layer that would be digitally printed both inside and outside.

As this mail order beer packaging would need to perform in varying conditions during transit, such as load, stacking and refrigeration, EB Flute from Smurfit Kappa Sheetfeeding was deemed the most suitable substrate for the requirement due to its strength and its mail order capabilities of offering more protection for the products inside.

The pack’s design was enhanced further with the inclusion of internal fittings, ensuring that the contents were protected.

What did the job entail?
Saxon Packaging sent swatch samples to the client for approval and, following this, an initial order of 365 boxes was digitally printed with Saxon’s approved supplier, Bradford-based HSG Packaging, using its Domino single-pass digital press.

The press runs at 3,000sqm/hr, which meant it took less than 30 minutes to print both sides. The pack was then die-cut in-house by Saxon on its Bobst Visioncut die-cutter and its internal divisions were die-cut on the same machine and then hand assembled by Saxon’s in-house team.

What was the feedback?
Cotton said: “As soon as we started speaking to Saxon and Wayne in particular, I knew that we were going to get what we wanted. The results speak for themselves. We’re really pleased with the final product and we’ve had great feedback from our customers.”

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