Smurfit Kappa has helped Jeremy Clarkson-backed beer brand Hawkstone get into online sales with a bespoke packaging solution.
Smurfit Kappa worked closely with Hawkstone to produce Amazon certified beer packaging which needed to excite customers and leave a lasting positive impression.
Hawkstone is a brand developed by Cotswold Brew Co, which has been a customer of Smurfit Kappa since November 2021. Owners Rick and Emma teamed up with broadcaster Jeremy Clarkson to create Hawkstone Lager.
Clarkson committed himself to cultivating his malting barley on his Cotswolds land, Diddly Squat Farm, and was determined that it should be put to good use. Rick and Emma were introduced to Clarkson through the landlord of their local pub, and they soon realised they all had a commitment to supporting local agriculture.
As well as supporting the same causes, Rick and Emma are talented brewers and created Hawkstone Lager — a brew of such impressive quality that Clarkson decided to invest.
The team at Smurfit Kappa Gosport have been working with Cotswold Brew Co since its brand launch last year. The brewer needed beer packaging for Hawkstone. They needed delivery boxes which could withstand the rigours of the national courier network and protect the Hawkstone lager during its journey to the customer.
Selling through Amazon is where problems arose, as the ecommerce giant has very strict requirements for packaging of products sold through its site. Hawkstone’s original packaging was an outer box with assembled dividers, and this was not suitable for Amazon sales.
Smurfit Kappa’s International Safe Transit Association (ISTA) lab redesigned the packaging. The new solution was made up of two inserts which suspended the beer bottles away from each other and the outer packaging while in transit.
The new packaging is also ‘Frustration Free Packaging’ compliant, which means it is recyclable and comes without excess packaging materials, providing customers a better unboxing experience and leaving them more likely to reorder.
