Gressingham slashes carbon footprint with packaging overhaul

As the main supplier of duck in the UK, Gressingham Foods has put sustainability in the spotlight as it reveals new linerless packaging that makes huge strides in reducing environmental impact and saving manpower.

The renowned duck brand has teamed up with Coveris and Ravenwood, leaders in innovative and sustainable packaging solutions, to give its fresh duck portion products a new look that will reduce its carbon footprint and save over 24 tonnes of waste material per year.

“Working with Coveris and Ravenwood has been hugely successful, with both companies understanding our two-part vision to reduce our carbon footprint, whilst retaining our premium look and feel,” explains Rebecca Alderton, Brand Manager at Gressingham Foods.

“As one of the only independent brands in the meat, fish and poultry aisle, we needed the linerless labels to mimic the appearance of the sleeve packaging as much as possible in order to retain our brand recognition and shelf appeal, whilst proving that more eco-friendly packaging changes can be achieved in the sector,” adds Rebecca.

The new linerless labels from Coveris replace Gressingham’s previous labour-intensive and time-consuming three-tier packaging process, which involved Darfresh film on thermoformers on portions of fresh and raw duck and then hand-applying cardboard sleeves to every pack. A third stage was sometimes used to apply a promotional label. In terms of manpower it could involve up to six people.

With less weight, reduced waste and fewer reel changeovers required, the packaging refresh has streamlined operations for the brand and resulted in a huge carbon emissions saving of 3,400 CO2 in kg per year. Continues Rebecca, “This is a lightweight and sustainable packaging alternative that will save us 24 tonnes of material per year. In terms of carbon footprint, this will reduce by approx 3,400.96 CO2 in Kg per year. To put this into perspective the average person emits 12.7 tonnes of CO2e annually. You would need to drive 23,000 miles in the average car to emit 12.7 tonnes of CO2e (that’s once around the world).”

Comments Rob Court, Senior New Business Development Manager at Coveris, “This collaboration highlights the exciting possibilities for our new linerless labels. We are thrilled to have been able to help Gressingham enhance its packaging, and in addition to this, support the brand’s commitment to sustainability.”

Dave Gooding, Ravenwood’s Commercial Director, adds, “Gressingham opted for a Ravenwood Nobac 5000V linerless applicator, for applying C-wrap labels to its range of duck products, resulting in a reduction in manpower whilst dramatically reducing their carbon footprint.”

Adds Dave, “Switching to linerless has meant the sleeves are now automatically applied, with less waste and a reduced sleeve material weight. The result? Carbon emissions are massively reduced.”

The new packaging will roll out on shelves from this month, across all outlets.

Gressingham Foods produces a range of products including fresh duck and poultry, Aromatic Crispy Duck Kits and a Bistro range featuring a wide selection of delicious duck classics. Gressingham Duck® products are available in Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Morrisons and Ocado.

For more information on Gressingham Duck® please visit www.gressinghamduck.co.uk

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