Every single year we have the great privilege of working on an exciting and versatile portfolio of projects for our customers. We can’t possibly mention them all, so here is a selection of some of 2023’s top picks.
Mallard Point’s Product Packaging
Birch was brought on board to produce luxury, sustainable packaging for Mallard Point’s gin and wine, and help them to present their brand to the most important people to them, their customers. This project is a fine example of how we help to strengthen our customer’s brand identity through luxury printed packaging. Mallard Point is a family-run Single Estate Vineyard and Distillery located in Essendine, Rutland.
One of the most appealing characteristics of the packaging is that both the premium outer box and the inner protective shell are used to return the gin/wine once it has been drunk so it can be refilled. A folding box board is used for the outer box, with a rip strip for ease of opening, and double-sided tape for the return journey. The inner clam shell is printed on both sides of Kraft corrugate board and provides the protection necessary to house the gin and wine.
Brand consistency is vital, especially with the launch of a new, highly awaited product, so rigorous proofing and sampling were completed to ensure everything was spot on, ahead of full production. Mallard Point has extended their product range and we’re excited to be on board to print new packaging for them in 2024.
Marston’s Food Spec Manuals & Finance Packs
One of our largest annual projects is the print and production of Marston’s in-house food specification manuals included in the kitchen training procedure for all the restaurant sites. The success of this project is attributed to having an eagle-eyed focus on detail from a design and production perspective. Each food spec must contain accurate imagery and instructions all encased in a durable and solid training folder for use multiple times by staff members.
This project is a great all-rounder and keeps us busy, along with additional seasonal menus to keep us on our toes too! It’s a delight to be part of filtering the brand through to their internal teams, helping to support staff throughout their training.
2023 also saw us produce over 1200 H&S and Finance packs for Marston’s various types of pubs. Each pack contained a diverse set of printed elements, including several H&S manuals and logs, along with various envelopes and finance documents. The level of diligence from the Birch team was bang on point, ensuring that each different restaurant house type contained the correct number of printed elements in each pack before being dispatched. A great example of an expertly executed ‘bread and butter’ project for 2023.
STK Steakhouses’ Christmas Baubles
As part of a marketing campaign for STK Steakhouse, we were commissioned to produce a set of 60 branded Christmas decorations to decorate the Christmas trees in their flagship London restaurant. This project had a tight turnaround which required us to come up with some alternative solutions to suit the time frame. Our customer originally wanted a 3D bauble of their signature bull, but given the timeline, we offered some equally creative ideas. In the end, we used 5mm red Foamex to produce the flat, bull baubles that lit up STK’s festive display inside their flagship store brilliantly.
