Alongside the high quality and uniqueness of the company’s products and its commitment to ethical sourcing, sustainability is another core value of Hotel Chocolat and by 2021 over 94% of the company’s packaging was recyclable or reusable. The new Hamper box meets both these criteria while still offering a high-impact appearance to maximise shelf standout.
Critical to this visual appeal is the embossed ecofoil finish that covers the lid of the box, and which is achieved by a plastic-free lamination. The lid is embossed in-house by Pollards with a wave texture and a simple black fluted Hotel Chocolat logo in the centre. All print features use vegetable-based inks.
The wave texture effect has been specially created by Pollards, as the stock embosses that were available did not achieve the look or feel that the design required. The Pollards design team was able to render a variety of options before committing to trial tooling. The result is a bespoke tool that has created the deepest full coverage embossing area the company has ever achieved. This feature on the lid helps to draw consumers’ eyes to the pack on-shelf and create excitement and anticipation around both the purchase and opening of the box with its tactile experience.
Equally important, these technical developments were shared with Hotel Chocolat’s carton supplier to ensure consistency of appearance across both the company’s rigid and carton packs.
Each Hotel Chocolat hamper contains a curated variety of products. The Pollards presentation box is produced in two sizes, providing the flexibility to handle the many different combinations.
“Achieving Hotel Chocolat’s luxurious yet distinctive visual ambition for packaging, whilst keeping sustainability at the core of our values is always a tremendous challenge. The solution that Pollards has delivered for our new hamper range is a technical accomplishment and has interpreted the amazing creative concept our Design team intended,” said Hotel Chocolat’s Packaging Technologist Millie Mathieson.
“Working with Pollards is a great collaborative experience. The company listens carefully to our requirements and then interprets these in the production of attractive and practical packaging that underlines their design and technical capabilities.”