Luxury packaging award

National Flexible has been awarded a Luxury Starpack Award for its Tesco fudge and toffee range, which was produced by Confection By Design of Harrogate.

Tesco wanted to make sugar confectionery more appealing to a wider market as a ‘self-treat’ product. It was to be packed in flexible film on a vertical quad pack machine, which had to retain the key elements of the ‘Finest’ style of packaging; the silver hot foil logo and the window. This styling is commonplace in cartons but had never before been achieved with flexible packaging.

Not only can using this type of flexible packaging prove more cost effective than using cartons, but the weight of the packaging is greatly reduced. The ability to have more than one registered window in a paper laminate that can also be coupled with hot foiling opens up a revolutionary new range of possibilities for pack designers.

A Tesco spokesman says: “We have tried to do this before without success. It is pleasing to see what can happen when an innovative packaging supplier works together with an innovative packer.”

“We pride ourselves on successfully launching new packaging ideas and our technical team attend most relevant exhibitions to make sure we can offer proactive solutions to our customers and retailers,” says George Slack, managing director, National Flexible.

“Not only do we offer innovation in the visual aspects of packaging, but also on the huge range of films that launch every year. Our packaging audit team regularly spend a day in customer’s factories reviewing how their products are packed; from film to packaging lines to shelf life; even investing in machinery to allow our customers to make cost savings. It is amazing how much money we can save!”

Other new innovations for confectionery are a mineral oil barrier film that prevents migration from cartons made from recycled material, patterned metalisation in both gloss and matt formats and flat base pouches.