The French know their desserts.
And while you could book the next flight abroad or even recreate some of the country’s best-known sweets in your own kitchen, Petit Pot gives you a taste of France from the comfort of your home with their adorable pots de crème. While their food philosophy is “dessert first,” the brand also emphasizes the environment (from the brand’s inception, they’ve used glass jars).
So when they underwent a packaging refresh, they wanted to deepen their commitment to sustainability through their pack designs.
“I joined Petit Pot about two years ago now, and one of the biggest asks when I joined was to see if we could refresh the look and feel of our packaging and all the digital and physical touchpoints to reflect where the brand is now versus where it was when it was founded,” said Eugene Lin, chief marketing officer at Petit Pot. “At that time, we also decided to spend a lot of the capital investments to install a new production line that was designed and actually built in France, which we transported to our Emeryville facility. So because of these various reasons, we had to relaunch our packaging from both the structure and look-and-feel standpoint.”
The team hit a snag, though—once they were ready to move forward with a new packaging design, the printer they wanted to use couldn’t meet the timeline they had outlined for phasing out the old packs and putting new ones on the shelf. They reached out to JP Graphics, a print shop they’ve worked with in the past, who connected them with Monadnock Paper Mills, who was able to work seamlessly with them in the short time frame.
“The other supplier had no machine time to produce product and allocation requirements,” explained Michelle Thornton, director of regional sales West Coast, Monadnock Paper Mills. “Due to our partnership with JP Graphics and in support of them and their stocking program with our product, we were able to get paper to them within six weeks.”
The shortened time frame didn’t allow for weeks and weeks of back-and-forth discussions; instead, the Petit Pot team came forward with the dieline they wanted to use and put their trust in JP Graphics and Monadnock to make the best choices for the design.
The revised Petit Pot look almost completely encloses the jars, save for a small cut-out on the side, and they wanted this refresh for a few different reasons. While incredibly rare, occasionally, a jar would slip out of the old packaging, so the previous design wasn’t the most effective. What’s more, the company assembled the packaging manually, and they wanted to save time and labor while utilizing the new production line.
“We also wanted people to see our jars,” Eugene said. “People love our products. It’s tasty, creamy, and organic, so they like to see what’s inside the jar. And they love that it’s glass because you can reuse or recycle it. So it was crucial for us, even with the new look and feel, to ensure our consumers can see it and know these are the same great desserts in glass jars that they always wanted before.”
Sustainability has always been a priority for Petit Pot, and even when faced with rising ingredient costs, they consciously chose not to switch to a cheaper material, like plastic, for each pot de crème serving. Monadnock further guided them in the redesign to an eco-friendly outer packaging option—Envi Performance Board, a coated 2-side 18pt board made of 100% post-consumer recycled fiber (PCRF).
“Petit Pot had been utilizing a different board, and together, we identified a more sustainable alternative,” Michelle said. “Through this collective exploration, we discovered that a reduction in board thickness was achievable, leading to significant fiber resource savings by using our board, which offered greater rigidity when compared to their previous choice. That allowed us to optimize the packaging while minimizing environmental impact.”
Remaining eco-friendly also had to go hand-in-hand with the high-quality Petit Pot and its customers expect. But with such a time crunch, this proved one of the project’s biggest challenges. The brand couldn’t sacrifice one or the other, so they needed Monadnock to deliver on both counts.
“Collaborating with a regional print partner, one that had our product readily available on their floor, proved to be a pivotal move,” explained Michelle. “This not only strengthened the alignment between our teams but also streamlined communication and minimized potential delays. Having a local partner who shared our commitment to the project’s success made a world of difference.
“The benefits of nearshoring became evident as this partnership allowed for agile problem-solving, quick decision-making, and efficient resource allocation. In essence, it transformed what could have been a daunting timeline constraint into a manageable obstacle.”
The redesign may be a new and improved version of Petit Pot, but it’s also recognizable as the same brand consumers adore, which is a fine line to walk. They’ve stayed true to their values while retaining their loyal fanbase and attracting new customers.
“If you look at our social channels, we continue to see a great increase in followership as well as super strong engagement,” Eugene said. “Not just from fans who bought us before we had the new packaging, but also from a bunch of new people who had never heard of Petit Pot. I think that’s just one of the testaments of how successful this brand refresh was.”
If you would like a free sample of Monadnock Paper Mills’ Envi Performance Board, the same material used in Petit Pot’s packaging, go here!