Taking Spirit from Concept to Consumer

A unique 360 degrees service to the drinks industry by the Print and Supply Chain Solutions that hosted a whisky event at the beginning of March in Scotland for the growing industry.

On the 2nd March 2011, DS Smith welcomed attendees to a whisky event at the house of the prestigious Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The event welcomed Scotland’s biggest whisky manufacturers such as Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Glenmorangie, Bacardi, William Grant and just to name a few.

The event was an opportunity to optimise growing markets like China which have risen from a mere £1M in 2001 to £80M in 2009  This industry, which exports 90 percent of production worth an annual £3.13B to the Scottish economy, has invested £600M over the last three years. That investment has been in malt and grain distilleries, warehousing and bottling, and despite the downturn none of these expansion plans have been cancelled or delayed.

Approximately 60% of turnover was in the spirits market, so a total annual spend of around £25M. Although the market in Scotland has been set up for whisky, there are a lot of non whisky products produced alongside. For example Smirnoff vodka, Gordon’s gin, etc...  Of course, DS Smith wants to be part of the packaging solutions for these growing companies so they chose to host a unique event to show what they can offer.

Why Scotland?

Interestingly, there are laws in place that state that Whisky can only be called Scotch if it is distilled in Scotland. But the real long lasting legacy is that a mark of quality in Scotch is the statement, “Bottled in Scotland” on the label.

It is this that keeps the industry in Scotland and allows all the other products to be manufactured alongside the whisky.

The Offering

The event brought together key representatives from these manufacturers to show the 360° service that we can provide. 

The message for the day revolved around 6 key points of service.

Concept 

with the creative flair and expertise that comes from a dedicated team of 30 designers, they use their proven 4-steps design process to find the optimum balance between presentation and packaging performance. Since they already have a huge presence in the wines and spirits sectors, they are well placed to leverage their library of winning ideas from the champagne and cognac markets.

Components

they design, produce and source a full range of high performance packaging components.

Co-packing

A comprehensive and flexible service that can readily react to rapid up-scaling in meeting promotional and seasonal demand. They have real-time bar coded warehouse control.

Bonded warehouse

4,000 secure pallet locations means that DS Smith is able to manage the whole process from concept to delivery. Clients’ Products are vigilantly protected by CCTV, manned 24 hours a day, and 7 days a week.

Distribution

They regularly despatch to 45 global locations. It’s also worth noting that DS Smithalso has a plant in the Czech Republic – which gives them a further depth to their European footprint.

Full service print provision 

DS Smith is also a leading high quality print and marketing fulfilment supplier. They’re able to manage marketing campaigns from single brochures / tasting note booklets, to kitting of all products within a campaign, including CD replication. All credit to DS Smith for managing to deliver a seamless, multi-national offer for the drinks industry.

For more information on this event or future events, please contact:

Sophie Greff
sophie.greff@dssmith.com