FDBusiness.com

The coffee retailer, Costa Coffee, has recently unveiled its latest packaging redesign. The updated packaging, to be implemented across the Costa range is the one of the first food packaging designs to include the UK Government’s voluntary traffic light system, enabling consumers to see, at a glance, the nutritional value of the food product.

Other retail leviathans have taken up the voluntary scheme including the supermarket chain Asda, and other major brands such as PepsiCo and Premier Foods are expected to move over to the new packaging scheme from 2014.

Beyond the addition of the ‘traffic light system’ into the new packaging design, Costa are (for the first time) applying their ‘Costa Foundation’ logo to their packaging. The aim of the ‘Costa Foundation’ branding is to educate their customers about the “positive impact” of their purchase for global coffee growing communities.

Furthermore, Costa’s parent company, ‘Whitbread’, are making efforts to reduce resources for packaging across their portfolio. The new design embraces sustainability by working towards their ‘Good Together’ targets, using fewer resources per item than previous incarnations.

Packaging Designs Embrace Sustainability

Other industry giants have embraced the role of sustainability in consumer choices, as the customer becomes increasingly aware of the need for more ethical products, and more eco-friendly packaging.

Just last week, the packaging giant Tetra Pak released the details of it’s 5th bi-annual environment survey, showing that consumers are demonstrating a growing demand for both renewable resources in their packaging, and labelling which is conscious of the environment. Further to this, the survey revealed that consumers and stakeholders regard recycling as a fundamental expectation in the production and disposal of packaging.

This years survey has revealed that there has been a “significant rise” in consumer attitudes towards sustainability and recyclable materials.

According to Dennis Jonsonn, CEO and President of Tetra Pak, “The findings of this year’s report reinforce the importance of putting environment at the heart of our strategic agenda”.

Working towards a more sustainable packaging strategy, while also aiming to engage customer with clear and simple nutritional information, Costa appear to have addressed all the key points of a good packaging redesign, by meeting the anticipated needs of their customers, but only time will tell whether consumers embrace the redesign as part of Costa’s core branding strategy.