Willie’s Cacao

The Solution:

FFP Packaging Solutions have over 50 years of experience in producing high quality flexible packaging that stands out on shelf and meets the needs of the product and the customer. They worked closely with Willie’s Cacao to develop a triple laminate, resealable, stand-up pouch that met their criteria. The substrate was a Matt OPP / MET PET / PE construction which achieved the light and oxygen barrier required and through intelligent colour management techniques brought the brand to life and delivered the colourful and creative pack design they envisaged.

The choice to use a pouch instead of a tub, was based on the desire to ensure packaging weight was kept to a minimum, supporting the company’s sustainable objectives. The stand-up pouch format also merchandises well on shelf and provides optimal exposure for branding. To address the requirement for a reseal function, a zip was added along with a tear notch for ease of opening. The pouches were produced by FFP in house on their own pouch making machines.

FFP’s in house originations team were heavily involved in the project from the start in order to create the unique and eye-catching design that Willie’s Cacao were aiming to achieve. The pouches were reverse printed on a matt substrate for a quality feel but areas of the design were to be highlighted in Gold creating a premium effect, enhancing the luxury look and feel the brand desired.

A significant challenge was keeping the light cream background ‘clean’ after lamination to the metallised substrate. Any show through from the metal would turn the light cream to a grey shade. To overcome this, FFP used a high opacity white ink behind the other colours, however this only created around 60% opacity, so the cream ink formulation needed to be adjusted. Ordinarily, with a light colour such as cream, the ink is formulated with a small percentage of yellow and red and a large proportion of the translucent medium. By replacing the transparent medium with a high opacity white in the ink recipe, the cream and the other overprinting colours were given extra light barrier from the metal substrate and this gave the pack the extra vibrancy that was desired.

The Willie’s Cacao signature Gold was actually achieved without using a gold ink. The areas that required gold were ‘reversed’ out of the white and cream and a transparent orange ink was used to create the luxury gold look when backed by the metallised substrate.

The product was launched in two sizes and has been extremely well received into the market, strengthening the brands position in the chocolate sector.

The Response:

Harriet Rhys Williams at Willie’s Cacao commented: