Supplying Food Packaging After The Pandemic

Supplying Food Packaging For Events After The Latest Lockdown Ends

The food packaging industry in the UK has gone from strength to strength in recent years with the demand for different coming from all main fast-food retailers and individuals wanting a standout brand look and feel whilst being 100% recyclable and easy to use and dispose of. In this article, we look at how packaging companies such as Wyatt & Ackerman plan to supply the UK food industry with state-of-the-art food and beverage packaging when the latest lockdown ends.

Food Packaging For Business During The Pandemic

 

During the past year and a half over 50% of this time food retail companies have found themselves either closed or severely restricted in what and how much of their product they can sell. For much of this time home deliveries, take-aways and eat-in options were all closed so there was a big decrease in demand for food packaging used in these sectors however as the pandemic started to ease last summer before making a vicious return in the Winter and we had the eat out to help out schemes last summer there were several diversions from the norm within the UK food packaging industry as restaurants demanded more covid safe ways of delivering food and beverages, paper napkins in individual packs along with your own salt and pepper packets, wooden recyclable cutlery to avoid any contamination from traditional eating implements. Your own recyclable menu rather than a shared one passed between multiple groups, again all geared to having individual items rather than shared items to restrict any possible transmission. 

The plan to come out of lockdown, particularly for events, where the packaging industry thrives involves test events with several thousand people to see if the virus spread can be kept under control and then, eventually, in the summer, with every one of my fingers and toes crossed, leading to the promised end of all restrictions and a possible return to normality should see the UK packaging industry and Wyatt & Ackerman bounce back with immediate effect.

Events such as the Euro’s that will take place in the UK, the Wimbledon tennis fortnight, Lords and the Oval hosting test and one-day cricket matches, tourism back into our great cities of London, Manchester and Edinburgh and our beaches packed with sun worshippers from Cornwall to Cleethorpes will no doubt see the return of the food and beverage industry to where it was before the dreadful pandemic hit our shores. Imagine music festivals going ahead again with thousands of people demanding to be fed and watered.

Fish And Chip Boxes

There was a time where take away food, fish and chips, fried chicken, greasy burgers were considered a cheap alternative to eating quite frankly but now that is not the case at all. A fish and chip supper can cost you a fortune, especially at an event, so the packaging that it comes in has to reflect the price you are paying for the overall experience. A good sturdy box with nice wooden forks and individual condiments can mean as much to most as an extra few chips, so the UK packaging industry must keep improving and innovating their products, creating user experiences that complement the food and in some cases actually make the food bearable to eat. With large queues at venues guaranteed the UK food and drink packaging industry must ensure that customers are able to carry multiple drinks and food boxes at once whilst also keeping transportation of these drinks holders to a minimum. They need to be completely foldable and strong when they are opened, easily capable in some cases of carrying up to 8 pints of liquid without spilling a drop. If you have queued for a long time the last thing you want to happen is for your drinks to be spilt on the way back to your group of friends, they might not be your friends for much longer otherwise. 

 

The packaging must not only suit the end-user at events after lockdown but must also suit the catering companies by being strong, easy to assemble, great looking, easy to store and, of course, not eat too much into their overall profit margins. 

The packaging must be innovative, it can be the difference between you getting the order or not. If your end-user catering company can supply a different better experience to their product then it allows for higher margins, more repeat business and a stronger reputation. By allowing Wyatt & Ackerman to brand your food packaging with your own individual logo and designs it will stand you out from the crowd of huge competition. 

UK Sustainable Packaging

The UK food and drink packaging marketplace have to consider the recyclability of the products combined with strength and cost to produce, they have to be easily disposed of, maybe even actively encouraged and or rewarded by some retailers for returning used packaging so it can be recycled and disposed of correctly. There is nothing worse I would imagine for a takeaway retailer than seeing all their packaging turn into mountains of litter at the end of an event, either in a field or on a beach or in the street this must be avoided. If your packaging is sturdy and innovative enough it has been proved that customers will actually take it home with them to use again which is the very best of both worlds. If your products are made from leakproof paper, then this will not only enhance the user experience but also encourage customers to return to your outlet rather than the competition. Putting vast amounts of vinegar in your chips only to see the bag rip underneath, the chips fall out and your clothes end up stinking of vinegar is not the best experience you can have no matter how good the chips taste.

Recyclable packaging after the lockdown has ended will include the following items, biodegradable sandwich packaging, 2-ply recyclable paper bags, flat paper bags and twisted handle paper bags. Biodegradable plastic bags and food boxes along with personalised material for the end-user, deli pots and salad containers will all be supplied by the UK food packaging industry when we come out of lockdown fully in the summer of 2021.

Wyatt & Ackerman make fish and chip boxes in the following sizes, who knew that there were so many options to choose from in their range. 

305mm x 150mm x 50mm

250mm x 195mm x 50mm

305mm x 125mm x 50mm

250mm x 170mm x 50mm

260mm x 125mm x 50mm

250mm x 170mm x 50mm

235mm x 125mm x 50mm

140mm x 125mm x 65mm

And that’s just fish and chip boxes!!! The decline of the newspaper industry has a lot to answer for when you think that only a few years ago yesterday’s newspaper would be the only product thinkable to hold your chips in. When you start to add in all the different drink cartons and holders that are on offer today within the UK food packaging industry it really opens your eyes to how important it is for fast food and drink outlets to choose the right look and feel for their business whilst also maintain a 100% commitment to recycling and trying our best to save the planet from the scourge of non-recyclable or single-use plastic.

Worryingly for the UK food packaging industry over 2.2 million tons of plastic food packaging enter the consumer market each year and the main focus of the whole industry must be to switch all this plastic, where possible, to paper or card which does not do hardly any harm to the environment compared to harmful non-recyclable plastics do.

High-Quality Food Packaging In The UK

We hope that this article on the UK food packaging industry has opened your eyes to the monumental shift in how your take-away food is presented to you both during, and more specifically after the current lockdown restrictions come to an end. We can’t wait for us all to experience the thrill again of watching a sporting event, a music festival, a beach party, a throbbing nightclub, air shows, pub beer gardens all heaving with people, having fun and enjoying food and drink to their heart’s content without a care in the world. The UK food industry is ready when you are and will be supporting the whole country when we are finally allowed to get back to normality in the UK and hopefully the World. Thanks very much for reading our article on supplying packaging for events after the latest lockdown ends in the UK.

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