Biodegradable vineyard clips now sold in pails

It is a rapidly growing success story in a global niche market: French Compagnie des Agrafes has developed a 100% biodegradable vineyard clip to support vertical growth. The clips now come in SuperCube® pails with both product and pack attracting rave reviews.

It is a tiny component but nonetheless valuable, the biodegradable vineyard clip, developed and sold by the family owned French Compagnie des Agrafes. The clip helps to keep vines attached to wire trellising so that they grow in the desired direction: upwards. Now, picture a vineyard and you will appreciate that massive amounts of clips are needed and that they involve quite a lot of labour. As such, fully biodegradable clips made of starch are an important innovation saving endless hours of gathering - in fact up to 10 hours per hectare.

Wanted: new type of packaging
For this powerful vineyard product, Chloé Gautherot, Assistant Manager of Compagnie des Agrafes, wanted a new type of packaging instead of the usual plastic bags in cardboard boxes:

“It was clear to us that we wanted to sell our new clips in plastic pails, but we were not more specific than that. During our packaging market search, the RPC Superfos website caught our attention and we got in touch. It was a sound decision and we are perfectly pleased to cooperate with this dynamic and attentive packaging provider. Together, we found the ideal solution for the biodegradable clips – a 5.5 litre SuperCube® pail.

“We appreciate that RPC Superfos gave us the opportunity to test various pail options. We finally opted for the square SuperCube® solution because it hits the spot in terms of aesthetic aspects, re-usability, dimensions and logistics,” she adds.

Plant-based clips and a re-usable pail are a great match
According to Chloé Gautherot, the vineyard farmers feel that the practical pail adds value to the clips. This is because they can now avoid moving the clips from thin plastic bags to pails which are needed, in any event, for vineyard trellising. In addition, Compagnie des Agrafes appreciates that the pail can be used over and over again. Its sustainable qualities are a great match for the plant-based clips.

Everything was feasible
Chloé Gautherot prepared the artwork design of the pails herself and is pleased with the final results:

“The layout and drawings have been precisely transferred to the pail without any wearisome discussion – everything was feasible thanks to the advanced In-Mould Labelling technique. The SuperCube® pail looks exactly as we wanted it to be. It is eye-catching, has great colours and is impossible to miss at the outlets selling our clips made of starch.”

Since the market introduction, the sales figures of the biodegradable clips from Compagnies des Agrafes are on an upward curve proving that both product and packaging meet market requirements. The vineyard clip company exports its products to wine producing countries all over the world – from New Zealand and South America to Europe.