The challenge
Coop Trading is a supply company for the largest cooperative retailers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Its core business is sourcing food and daily non-food products, sourcing and supplying branded products at competitive prices and developing and maintaining a diverse range of competitive private label products.
In other words, there are tens of thousands of products that need new packaging, refreshing those existing or current changes related to legalization, certification or product reformulation.
There is no room for an error in this cooperation which could lead to withdrawal of a whole batch of product due to an error on the packaging.
In this cooperation a great deal of trust, professionalism and responsibility is needed, namely a perfectly matched partnership.
Our role is to be an integral part of the client team located in Denmark, despite the distance separating us.
Our tasks include:
- Packaging design for newly products launched on the market.
- Designing packaging compatible with the existing product line for products being its extension.
- Implementation of the leading graphic concept developed by the client for individual products.
- Modification of existing packaging due to a change of supplier: die cutter change, text change.
- Preparation of assumptions and coordination of photo shoots for use in packaging designs.
- Quality control for design and content (Quality assurance).
Solution
To provide the client with 100% confidence in the quality and correctness of the designs prepared in our studio, we have developed an original process for each design, from brief to final file check before sending it to the printing house.
We have implemented design management (Jira) and electronic proofreading (Webproof) tools.
We have adapted our way of working to the client's standards and methodology, so that both teams can almost breathe at the same rhythm and perform the same functions.
The support team dedicated to the client consists of graphic designers trained in each brand owned by the client (the so-called brand keepers) and project managers coordinating the entire process.
To ensure consistency with the standards and certification of EU member states and non-EU countries, we also follow and apply the guidelines introduced.
Conclusion
Thanks to a thorough understanding of the client's needs and finding an adequate answer day by day, we have built lasting trust, which resulted in almost 4 years of uninterrupted cooperation. Sympathy and mutual respect prevail among the members of our teams despite social and cultural differences.
The client appreciates our work every year and increases the volume of work commissioned to us. At the moment, hundreds of files run through our studio every month.
The cooperation with the client is a partnership, we solve problems and face challenges together. Together we organize training sessions during which we learn about the client's expectations concerning development, changes and implementation of novelties. Together we develop and build the highest quality, which is appreciated by consumers in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.
