DS Smith, FTSE100 and global fibre-based and sustainable packaging solutions company, announce their extended partnership with Zalando, one of the leading multi-brand shopping experiences for fashion and lifestyle.
The contract is inclusive of Zalando’s e-commerce and fibre-based corrugated cardboard packaging solutions for European products and will commence from April 2025. It is an extension of a long-term partnership with DS Smith, and the new agreement will allow for the two companies to continue to work together to innovate and implement quality bespoke and more sustainable packaging solutions for all Zalando customer order and delivery hubs across Europe, including Germany, Poland, France, Hungary, Sweden, Italy, UK, Spain, Estonia, Switzerland.
The collaboration between the two companies is anticipated to drive high-quality innovation in design and materials utilisation. The DS Smith design teams are well-known for their unique Circular Design Principles approach where they use no more materials than necessary, create for supply chain efficiency and recyclability, and use recycled materials wherever possible. The focus is on promoting a circular economy to reduce consumption, waste, and pollution by keeping products in use for longer, and on incorporating sustainability at the forefront of planning and strategy. The collaboration with Zalando is anticipated to provide a benchmark in excellence for the wider e-commerce sector.
Marc Chiron, Sales, Marketing and Innovation Director, Packaging Division, DS Smith:
“We are thrilled to be awarded this principal supplier contract with Zalando. This new agreement will enable us to build on our research and development to date and continue to create some outstanding packaging solutions for Zalando’s e-commerce product portfolio across Europe.
We are committed to ensuring that our packaging offering is best-in-class and as a company we are pioneering in our outlook and shared vision of Redefining Packaging for a Changing World. This is a tremendously exciting opportunity to take our knowledge of Zalando products, production, and supply chain processes to the next level.”
David Fischer, Director of Logistics Sustainability and Packaging, Zalando:
“DS Smith has proven to be a highly valued, inspiring, and dependable partner for Zalando, and we have worked incredibly well together over the last years. Our focus is on innovation and on leading the way with customer-centric and more sustainable solutions. We have a strong interest in developing high quality packaging solutions for e-commerce and as a leading player, our customers expect us to lead the way into a more sustainable future. We are very keen to set new standards for e-commerce and for Zalando in general.”
Zalando is building the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle ecommerce around two growth vectors: Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B). In B2C, Zalando offers an inspiring and quality multi-brand shopping experience for fashion and lifestyle products to about fifty million active customers in twenty-five markets. In B2B, Zalando is using its logistic infrastructure, software, and service capabilities to help brands and retailers run and scale their entire e-commerce business, on or off Zalando.
DS Smith is committed to a purpose of Redefining Packaging for a Changing World for future generations and consumers and to a companywide Now & Next sustainability strategy. The DS Smith Now & Next sustainability strategy outlines key commitments that are intended to prioritise circularity, accelerate the journey to Net Zero, and support people, communities, and nature. The packaging solutions company is dedicated to helping its customers in leading in a transition to a low carbon and circular economy for this generation and the next.