Things are happening at GMS?! Carrefour asked Gault & Frémont, a manufacturer of paper and cardboard packaging for artisan bakers and pastry chefs, to find another solution to crystal plastic boxes for its pastries.
Since January 11th, the croissants from one of the French company's stores have been presented in a cardboard box. This real-life test on five references should last 15 days, which corresponds to putting 2,500 boxes on the shelves.
Offset printing, cutting, finishing, everything was done in-house, in industrial condition, by the company of 180 people located in Saint-Pierre-des-Corps, in Indre-et-Loire. Gault et Frémont ensured that this new packaging did not require any logistical changes. "We patented this all-cardboard pastry box in 2016, recalls Frédéric Leduc, Sales, Marketing and Development Director of Gault et Frémont. But no distributor was convinced at the time: we were probably a bit too much on avance?! We've been sensing a very significant paradigm shift in recent times with regard to plastic packaging." .
The major stake of this test: the acceptance or not of the client
In this in-store test, neither the production nor the technical and logistical aspects of the packaging are put to the test. "The main difficulty is to take our client through this very important change" says Bertrand Swiderski, the Carrefour Group's CSR Director who initiated this project.
The major question vis-à-vis the consumer comes from the fact that he can no longer see the product through the packaging.
To counter this possible rejection, the brand worked on two axes: communication around this new packaging with posters explaining Carrefour's zero plastic approach and the graphics of the packaging itself. The crescent has been highlighted on the cardboard support, which should reassure the customer and evoke the appetite for the fresh product.
"It's very interesting to work with a brand that dares and goes all the way on a fresh product" says Frédéric Leduc. And if this test is not conclusive enough, Gault et Frémont already has another solution to offer, a box with a cut-out that will give a glimpse of the product.
