Butter tub receives Norwegian design award

The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture has presented ‘Award for Design Excellence’ to the Norwegian food product company, TINE, for its bespoke butter tub made by RPC Superfos. Since the launch of the pack, sales of the butter products have increased 65%.

A bespoke thin wall packaging solution, developed and produced by RPC Superfos, has received a prestigious award from the Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture. ‘Award for Design Excellence’ was presented to the leading provider of branded food products, TINE, their subsidiary Fjordland and the design agency EGGS. The re-designed packaging is used for a range of spreadable butter and margarine - TineSmør, Brelett and Bremykt.

The design award jury acknowledges recyclability
The jury not only highlights the design itself, but also the recycling aspect:

“The re-design of the spreadable butter and margarine pack from TINE and Fjordland is an example ripe for imitation. It is very easy to open the pack – the pack comes with an ergonomic tap in the lid. The packaging meets all requirements for over-all design. The lid is the same for all product varieties which entails efficient production with only a few changeovers. TINE and Fjordland deserve praise for making recycling easier. The pack no longer consists of cardboard, aluminium and plastic - a combination which makes recycling complicated - but now purely of recyclable plastic. TINE has received good feedback from customers and competitors who have developed similar packaging. An impressive achievement.”

Major increase in sales figures
In fact, the customers have embraced the pack. Since the first launch in 2011, the turnover for TINE’s spreadable butter and margarine - TineSmør, Bremykt and Brelett in the bespoke pack from RPC Superfos - has increased by 65%. Morten Aas, Leader of the R&D Department for Packaging and Design at TINE is obviously delighted with this development and with the design award:

”Functional and contemporary packaging takes part of the credit for our commercial success and we are pleased with the design award. Our choice of packaging was based on user surveys which revealed that people are more inclined to recycle packaging when they can avoid sorting the various types of material – cardboard, aluminium foil and plastic. As such, we found it essential to use a single-material pack and we are satisfied to have opted for the solution from RPC Superfos.”

Great strength yet light weight and light barrier
Besides being fully recyclable, the special features of the bespoke pack are its light weight and a protective light barrier. Light exposure may cause reactions that mean damage to flavour and vitamin content, so the light barrier safeguards the quality of the TINE butter products. The tub is a thin wall packaging (TWP) which means great strength yet light weight.