The brief from Nestlé was simple and initially driven by a product created by the Alexir Partnership.
The brand owners wanted to place their new product into a pack that not only stood out on shelf but was also completely unique in the marketplace. The team at Alexir investigated many different substrates and styles, including tins and spiral wound tubes, but none of these existing pack ideas met the brand manager’s expectations.
To meet the challenge, Alexir proposed a bespoke pack that would be manufactured on a machine specifically created to produce a crease-free oval carton. These custom-made cartons could also be filled and packed at speed to meet consumer and retailer demand whilst remaining premium and completely exclusive to Nestlé.
There were many challenges throughout the project and they tested every area of Alexir’s resource. A six-month timeline was set to meet the customer’s demands and potential store changes in the major retailers. Alexir Design embarked on the initial pack creation stage whilst the internal packaging division began working on the development and design of a machine that could manufacture the carton.
The packaging would be produced at the Edenbridge site and would involve specialist materials and techniques developed to work at speed on the packing machine. The bespoke machine itself would be installed at the Alexir contract-manufacturing site based in the UK. The final stage of the project involved developing a shelf-ready solution via the Alexir specialist outsourcing team.
The Azera product was delivered on time and in full to meet the client’s pre-agreed time scales. The pack itself is unique in the market and cannot be easily replicated, which presents barriers to other brand owners and copycat products. The whole project necessitated a close partnership between both the teams at Nestlé and Alexir.
This close collaboration, and the unique supply chain at Alexir, delivered a truly outstanding and unique offering from one of the world’s more recognised brands.
