AN award-winning Highland chocolate company has praised two Scottish packaging firms for their part in its rise from being launched from a school computer to a £1 million turnover business with its own dedicated visitor centre.
Chocolates of Glenshiel worked with Inverkeithing-based ESC Packaging and Black House Creative, from Inverness, on the design and creation of the chocolatier’s new gift box range. Both companies are long-term partners of the brand. Founded in 2016 by a then 16-year-old Finlay Macdonald, the Glenshiel local used online guides to hone his craft, his parents’ kitchen to create the products, and a school computer to design the initial packaging.
Finlay would later meet ESC Packaging at a trade fair. ESC, alongside Black House Creative, revamped the original logo of the spectacular Five Sisters of Kintail mountain ridge on a black background to bespoke designs for each of the brand’s products.
“Our whole brand is focused around Scotland and Scottish flavours, ingredients, and sourcing everything as locally to home as we can,” Kim Monk, Chocolates of Glenshiel’s marketing manager, told Packaging Scotland. “We are extremely lucky to have such talented and knowledgeable experts so local to us.”
By 2020, Chocolates of Glenshiel had managed to completely eliminate plastic from the majority of its packaging and ensure it was fully recyclable, whilst also sourcing the paper used from nearby Aberdeen.
“ESC Packaging is really aligned with our goals (of) plastic-free and recyclable as possible,” Kim explained. “Our new boxes are completely plastic-free; they’re fully paper but rigid paper, so they’re not going to get bashed in the post. Instead, they’ll arrive as beautiful as when we sent them. That’s been a huge hurdle to jump over, but I feel we’ve gotten there with the new boxes.”
Currently, the brand’s chocolate bar packaging uses a plastic pouch, but ESC was able to source a recyclable variation. “We are in the process of moving them across to paper,” Kim added. “It definitely takes an expert to know how to make the packaging look nice as well as being environmentally friendly – and Carri (Walker, ESC Packaging MD) is fantastic at that.”
The packaging pays homage to locally-sourced ingredients featured in the products, with specific colour combinations used to signify and match the contents – ranging from Skye sea salt to Dundee marmalade.
“We use packaging to communicate our ingredients,” Kim explained. “The design on the front is a Celtic Triskele, which has various meaning – it’s all about working as one together and with the earth. Richard (Chyzy) at Black House Creative customised it for each box to have various Scottish ingredients growing off the Triskele – so when you pick up the box you can see what natural ingredients feature in the product.”
Double-sided printing was used on the wrappers to display a hand-drawn regional map – highlighting the location of Chocolates of Glenshiel’s visitor centre and workshop, as well as quirky illustrations of local visitor attractions.
The new premium boxes mark the 10-year anniversary of the brand. A sleek, elongated rectangular shape, they use heavy, premium paperboard with custom inserts to ensure the chocolates are held firmly in place. The exterior features a smooth, tactile matte texture over standard gloss – utilising two-tone colours to differentiate collections and printed narratives on the inside lid to tell of the heritage and local ingredients utilised.
The centre’s takeaway coffee cups feature a drawing of the Five Sisters of Kintail, which was drawn by Bethan White, a Chocolates of Glenshiel team member with a degree in illustration. The visitor centre has proved popular with locals as well as attracting a range of tourists who make their way through the Highlands. With many wishing to take Scottish produce back with them, Kim explained the bespoke Highland and Scotland-focused design makes a ‘huge difference’ in terms of experience for visitors.
Work will now focus on upgrading the brand’s chocolate bar packaging, in a bid to bring it in line with the rest of Chocolates of Glenshiel’s offering – both in terms of aesthetic and sustainability. A new flavour is also expected to launch, with Kim revealing some customers have heralded it as the ‘best one yet’ after sampling!
