Custom Packaging for Gourmet Food Retailers

Many of our customers at Morgan Chaney are retailers of gourmet candy, chocolate, baked goods, and other delectable delights. Custom packaging for gourmet food items requires extra attention and strategic thought; you want your packaging to accurately represent your brand and products while attracting customers. The packaging of food items can have a strong influence on customer’s perceptions of the products inside. Many companies design a collection or program of coordinating boxes, bags, labels, or tins for their products. Sometimes special inserts are needed to effectively hold the items without damage or movement. The Morgan Chaney team is well-versed in these types of projects, and they are some of the more creative and unique projects shown in our packaging portfolio. In this post we will highlight some of our best packaging products and ideas for gourmet food retailers!

Colorful Custom Candy Packaging

Senor Murphy, a gourmet candy company, excels at stand-out custom packaging. To match their bright southwestern logo, their packaging features a wide range of bright colors, patterns, and graphics to establish their eclectic brand image. All of their product lines have coordinating packaging to create a cohesive theme while still allowing for individuality among each product. Their custom designed packaging program includes a coordinated color scheme throughout and many design elements like stripes and southwestern or aztec prints. Their line of candy and gourmet food items requires several different boxes, tins, and bags. These packaging items are custom designed for each product including food safe interior lining when needed. They also utilize sticker labels for some of their products that don’t require full-custom packaging. The colorful theme fits perfectly with their Santa Fe location, while the packaging remains functional and stylish.

Elegant Custom Packaging

When you have a gourmet food product that is popular as a gift item, especially around the holidays, packaging becomes even more important to your overall brand image. Many gourmet food items make the perfect gift around holidays and special occasions, and when giving food items as a gift it is important for the packaging to be elegant, functional, and fit to the occasion. Fairytale Brownies sells various gift boxes that can be delivered to recipients, and the holidays are a busy time for selling gift boxes. Their individually wrapped products fit perfectly into their custom designed gift boxes. Subtle UV printed swirls can be found on these chocolate colored gift boxes, and the logo and product name remains front and center. The deep purple interior of the boxes reinforces one of the brand’s main colors which is present in their original logo. Since their products are individually wrapped, they do not have to worry about the boxes being food safe on the interior, which saves them the added costs. Custom printed and embossed boxes are an elegant and sophisticated choice for gourmet food retailers both in-store and online.

Although Macarons have always been a popular baked treat, their popularity has grown very quickly in recent years. Macaron packaging is unique because the visual aspect of the cookies is very important and it is essential to not only transport them safely, but show off their colors as well. Macaron boxes can be custom designed to hold the cookies flat or vertically in a plastic molded interior insert to show off the various colors and uniformity. These custom boxes for La Maison Du Macaron are an elegant example of a simple, branded box that looks as fancy as the product inside. The vibrant color mixed with subtle metallic details creates a very high-end look that customers will notice. Boxes can be lined with food-safe paper, liners, or plastic trays to hold the cookies in place and show off the variety of colors.

Unique and Eco-Friendly Food Packaging

These gourmet popcorn drawstring bags are a great example of custom reusable packaging for a gourmet food item. Creating a bag that is reusable can expand your marketing reach organically and provide more value to your customers. It may cost more money up front to implement custom reusable packaging, but it might be worth it if you analyze the potential benefits. When given as a gift, these reusable bags also encourage more customers to order or reorder your product which expands your marketing reach to more consumers. This type of custom packaging is more eco-friendly than disposable packaging because it usually has a longer life-span. There are many options available for reusable bags, pouches, and containers that can be made with a variety of materials and can be custom printed in several ways. Note that interior protective packaging is often required as a barrier for food items, as the exterior packaging is usually for decorative and marketing purposes.

Complete Custom Packaging Programs

The most effective way to utilize custom printed and branded packaging is to create a complete program for your business or line of products. Creating coordinating packaging allows you to be more creative and incorporate different colors, designs, and versions of your logo into your packaging. For gourmet food items, packaging programs usually include different packaging for product lines or items. For example, a bakery will likely use different sizes and shapes of bakery boxes to hold food items, as well as takeout bags and possibly even custom tissue paper and ribbon to accessorize. Many gourmet food retailers require different sizes of packaging with different labels to advertise their products effectively and accurately. You want all of your retail packaging to coordinate with a common theme in order to establish a brand image that is memorable and authentic.

Just Starting Out With Your Business?

Custom Packaging Solutions on a Budget

Sometimes the best packaging design strategy is to keep things simple, this is especially true when there’s a tight budget involved in your custom project. These in-stock natural kraft jewelry boxes have been adorned with a custom label for the company Fat Girl Fudge. The label makes the box look custom designed, and the red ribbon is an accessory that adds another inexpensive element of customization. This is a great example of creating memorable custom packaging on a budget, as the in-stock boxes and ribbon are relatively inexpensive compared to full custom boxes.

Many gourmet food retailers start out at farmer’s markets or local stores to try to gain popularity before expanding their business. When the budget is tight initially, there are many in-stock packaging options available that can be post-printed with your logo or simple graphics. At Morgan Chaney, our semi-custom packaging program allows you to print on in-stock products to create custom packaging at lower quantities. You can also create custom labels or tags to adhere to stock packaging for more flexibility. These methods can begin your unique branding process without breaking the bank. You can later transition towards full custom packaging to implement more unique features like color matched interiors, custom ribbon, or all over custom printing. Whatever type of gourmet food or retail business you need packaging for, Morgan Chaney has solutions to fit within your budget.