The Challenge
It's hard to read the words 'Hotel Chocolat' without your mouth immediately starting to water; this is a British chocolatier that has become synonymous with delicious chocolate of the highest quality, both for its taste and its presentation. A brand with an evocative back story, ever since Hotel Chocolat opened its first shop in the U.K. in 2004, it has established its presence on the high street with luxury products that are ethically produced and authentically sourced.
Hotel Chocolat, however, is far more than a chocolate shop. Their online chocolate tasting club has enjoyed phenomenal success, and the company has since gone on to diversify into cosmetics and homeware. Hotel Chocolat realised that their busy distribution centre needed highly efficient yet truly presentable packaging if it was to remain loyal to the aesthetic ideals for which it has become known.
The Problem
Enter Lil Packaging: Approached by Hotel Chocolate with a view to elevating their packaging from the standard cardboard boxes and packing tape traditionally used, to something much more reflective of its style and befitting of a chocolate emporium. They needed a combination of form and function - the packaging needed to be user-friendly, fast, efficient yet retain a premium look and feel.
The Solution
The Lil breezebox, supplied in five custom sizes, proved the ideal product for Hotel Chocolat; it could be designed to complement their most popular lines specifically and with its Crashlock base ensures high-speed assembly. Additionally, using Lil Packaging's patented self-adhesive breezepaper within the breezeboxes enables Hotel Chocolat to remove messy void fill, thus saving warehouse space, speeding up order fulfilment and improving customers' unboxing experiences.
The Outcome
Switching their packaging to Lil breezeboxes has brought with it a multitude of benefits; Hotel Chocolat has managed to reduce their packing times by over one minute per order. They have also been able to consolidate their large range of boxes into five key lines, giving them a more streamlined, manageable approach.
Aesthetic improvements have gone hand in hand with those in efficiency; now the packaging is as luxurious and as customised as the products it carries. Printed in rich black the packaging is made up of high quality kraft corrugated cardboard to achieve a premium look correlating with this premium brand.
Unfortunately, Lil Packaging can't help customers feel less guilty about eating chocolate, but they certainly don't have to feel bad about how it gets to them. Not only have the new breezeboxes reduced Hotel Chocolat's plastic consumption substantially, they are also 100% recyclable and printed with eco-friendly inks. In this case, the proof of the packaging really is in the sampling; since Hotel Chocolat has introduced Lil breezeboxes, there has been a marked increase on social media - most notably Instagram - of the sharing of the unboxing experience.
Life is indeed like a box of chocolates, but you should know what packaging you're going to get. And if you feel that Lil Packaging can help you show off your brand whilst staying true to the high ethical standards you set for it, then please contact us for a bespoke packaging quotation. If you're interested in seeing how we've helped other major brands around the world with their packaging needs, you can check out our other packaging case studies.