Food Packaging – Grazed Brownies’ recipe for success
Renee and Mark Thompson are the brains, hands and taste buds behind Grazed Brownies, an ambitious COVID start-up, now delivering luscious brownie gift boxes across the UK. The range is expanding, business is booming and TPH are delighted to have played a small part in such a tasty project.
Grazed Brownies was initially conceived as a way for the Thompson’s catering business to “get through lock down”. However, when the orders started flooding in, Renee and Mark quickly realised they had a successful business model and needed to focus on building the brand. “We were originally just using stickers on our boxes and wanted to improve the look and feel of our packaging. The gifting marketplace is really important to us, so presentation is key.”
Renee has already approached a few packaging suppliers and was finding the whole process pretty hard work and prohibitively expensive, “we were being quoted a pound a sleeve and we just didn’t have the margin to absorb that sort of cost. It was also important to us to source ethical packaging from a local supplier.” Luckily a Google search put Renee in touch with TPH Sales Manager - Pete Harrison.
After talking Renee through the process and options, Pete provided paper and box sleeve samples for Grazed to look at and created a design specification including crease and overlap wiggle room to pass on to their Graphic Designer. “We thought we knew what we wanted,” commented Renee “but seeing the samples really helped us visualise the full design potential of a branded box sleeve. The whole process was a lot easier than we expected, we thought we might be left to our own devices but TPH really worked with us to make sure we got a quality product and perfect fit.”
The Grazed Brownie box sleeve is printed on uncoated craft board, a great choice for this sort of hand-baked product, as it reflects the artisan element and has good eco-credentials. Pete Harrison, TPH Sales Manager, suggested a quite substantial, 350gsm uncoated, craft board and went on to explain that there are three types of paper finish – silk, gloss and uncoated. “Uncoated paper has undergone a renaissance in the design world because its porous nature and textured surface gives a more organic finish and tactile quality. By combining the uncoated board with an LED UV print process, the box sleeve had an exceptionally crisp graphic but retained a “natural” feel. This is because an LED UV printer uses light to instantly dry the ink, ensuring it doesn’t have time to sink into the substrate and lose some of its definition.”
TPH offers their customers a range of fulfilment options, for example, Grazed Brownies just wanted the basic box sleeve delivered with a roll of glue tape. “We were initially concerned about the time that would be added making up the box sleeves”, explained Renee, “but the great fit meant we could pre-assemble the sleeves and simply slip on for posting.” Some clients want something pre-taped and sealed by TPH which they can just slip over the food box and there is a third option of providing the packaging with the pre-applied glue strip for customers looking to balance cost and operational efficiency.
We’ll leave the last word to Renee, “We are so pleased with the quality and the print, this might sound a tad dramatic but I actually cried the first time I put them on the boxes and I don’t cry! It made me feel so proud of the business we have created and worked so hard for”. The last thing TPH want to do is leave our customers in tears but on this occasion, we’ll definitely make an exception.