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“Behind every successful woman is substantial amount of coffee.” This is a funny quote by Stephanie Piro extracted from GH, which partly reveals the role of coffee in our daily life.
That’s true, to a certain extent, for lots of us, coffee is what we start our day with and how we make it through the day.
For coffee roasteries and coffee business owners, coffee bean packaging is one of the significant aspects that they would never overlook, as packaging does impact coffee freshness, overall cost, selling prices and brand positioning. On the market, the most common tried-and-true coffee packaging are all kinds of bags and pouches with degassing valves like stand-up pouches, flat-bottom pouches, side gusset bags etc. Some high-end brands also opt for PET jars for coffee packaging.
Is there another packaging option worth consideration? i.e. paper tubes… The established Bird Rock Coffee Roasters have started to introduce their coffee in custom paper tube packaging.
As a coin has two sides, cardboard cylinder packaging box has both advantages and disadvantages as well. Is this packaging format right for your coffee business alike?
Today let’s go thru the pros and cons of custom paper tubes for roasted coffee bean packaging, so that you may have a more clear idea to make informed decisions when selecting your coffee bean packaging.
Imagine you work so hard to make perfect roasted coffee beans but they get smashed instead due to improper handling during shipping. I can easily imagine how frustrated you would be. This do possibly happen if the coffee beans are packed in soft foil coffee bags.
Compared to pouches and bags, rigid paper tubes provide better protection without concerns of coffee beans getting crushed during transportation and store handling. Whether the round paper tubes serve as primary packaging or secondary packaging, they do a fair job in preventing the breakage of coffee beans and safeguarding them thru to store ends and customers’ cups.
How do you pack the coffee? If you, like many of the start-ups, manually pack the coffee beans, packaging really affects the filling process – making it faster or slowing it down.
Thanks to the wider opening of the tube, roast operators will be able to easily fill the coffee beans into the tube quicker, making the entire operations faster and more efficient.
Every coffee brand needs to set itself apart from competitors. One of the best ways to achieve differentiation is to create distinct packaging that will grab customers’ eyes. When the majority of coffee packaging are pouches with zipper, PET containers, a paperboard tube coffee package may easily stand out on shelf. At the same time, if artwork design is attractive enough, customers are more likely to buy yours instead of your competitors’.
Are you tired of standard coffee bags with simple labeling? Labels are basically necessary, especially in the specialty coffee industry, to communicate info like country of origins, processing methods, roast date, varietals, and more of the coffee beans. Aside from labels, however, there is much more to do on packaging. Cardboard cylinder package features endless customization possibilities, including but not limited to personalized graphics design, printing methods and finish options etc. The customization helps elevate selling price, add value to brand image and offer flexibility for marketing at desired packaging budget.
More customers are paying attention to environmental protection and start to practice sustainability throughout their daily life, including buying behaviors.
Compared to other coffee packaging, like multiple-layer bags and pouch, PET jars, metal cans, paper tubes are earth-friendly, recyclable and biodegradable. As consumers’ environmental awareness grows, its worth looking into more eco-friendly coffee packaging options so that your customers are able to enjoy gourmet brew in a sustainable way. Better yet, with a “green” brand image, you have more chances to win in the competition and have more repeat customers.
Coffee is sensitive to oxygen and moisture. Paper tube packaging could be customized by adding a waterproof liner to the exterior or interior of the package. By doing so, the coffee beans in the tube will not be affected by the damaging effects of oxygen and moisture. Consequently, the coffee will stay fresher for longer.
After discussions on a couple of advantages, you may ask: what is the downside then? Lets move on to next part and see what is not so good about paper tubes in coffee packaging?
Maybe you are a start-up in the coffee business or need to test out a new coffee product line. Probably your packaging budget is limited and the required quantity for packages will be small at the very beginning.
In this case, custom paper tubes are not the right choice. Why?
As a rule of thumb, the minimum order quantity (MOQ) to custom paper tube packaging is 5,00 pieces or normally 1,000 pieces. Otherwise the unit packaging cost will be too high to afford. Therefore, paper tubes may not be suitable for start-ups or those who are just stepping into the coffee business.
Compared to zipper pouches and bags, unit packaging cost of paperboard tube package is much higher, regardless of the quantity ordered. As such, whether or not to go with paper tubes really depends on how the coffee brand is positioned. If your coffee beans are targeting high-end markets with higher selling price, you may afford this packaging price point. On the contrary, if the coffee beans are lower-priced for mass markets, the cylinder coffee package is definitely not the right way to go.
If you buy paper tube packaging from China or other places outside your country, shipping cost is one important aspect worthy of attention. Unlike coffee pouches or bags that could be flattened for shipping, cardboard cylinder tubes occupy much more space in shipping. Especially for air shipping, more space means much much more money. If the tube is big and shipped by air, shipping cost could be way too high. For large order quantity, do purchasing plan earlier and have them ship by sea. This could save a lot of cost in shipping.
With additional liners and food grade raw material applied, paperboard tubes can serve as primary packaging for coffee beans, its airtight quality is not as good as pouches with zippers. With zipper pouches, customers can easily push all the air out of the bag before re-closing to create a airtight seal.
However, it is not as good to do so with a cardboard cylinder package, especially when the tube is with paper end closure. A metal end closure may help provide a better airtight seal but the MOQ for the metal caps is a lot higher. As such, the best practice would be using paper tubes as a secondary packaging for roasted coffee beans to ensure premium airtightness.
Above is the analysis on the two sides of coin. Every packaging format has its own pros and cons. The most important thing is to do research and compare so that you could have a clear idea for wise-decision making.
Always, take into account your packaging budget, business status, brand positioning, target audience, product quality when deciding a packaging for coffee business.
