Planet Catering

Situated in the heart of busy Birchwood Shopping Centre, The Planet Coffee House and Grill provides shoppers with high quality food and drink, as well as offering external catering services for corporate events and special occasions.

Voted Warrington’s best Cafe in 2011, Planet Catering regard disposable food and drink packaging as an important part of their business, and therefore felt Dart Products Europe were the natural choice when procuring paper hot cups and lids that would let them stand out from the crowd.

In the past, Planet Coffee House has used double walled cups printed with their coffee supplier’s brand which are a standard stock item; after meeting with their Dart Products Europe Sales Manager and discussing several options, they decided on a white Solo paper hot cup coupled with the Reclosable Optima lid, for a classic yet modern style.

Jamie, Owner, has received positive feedback from his customers and said, “The Optima lid is by far the best lid on the market, the only truly re-closable lid which stops spills and prevents customer complaints. The design of the lid makes drinking from it very comfortable with the recessed cut out and comfort contour. Your lips seal around the drinking hole without rough edges, unlike some lids on the market. This switch was a win for us and our customers”

Fresh Bites

Fresh Bites is a small and friendly café establishment in Carmarthenshire, offering fresh and tasty food and drink options to their customers. With a range of healthy eating alternatives, Fresh bites’ menu features a selection of takeaway options from filled baguettes to homemade meals.

Fresh bites have recently celebrated their sixth birthday and, in order to further their company branding, coupled with well-established coffee brand ‘Caffé Eto’. Serving their customers a variety of both classic and seasonal flavoured coffees; Fresh Bites looked to Dart Products Europe to provide them with high quality printed paper hot cups in a bright and eye catching design across a range of sizes.

The ‘aesthetically pleasing’ cups have been a welcomed addition by customers, who have taken to social media to like, share and tweet their enthusiasm; which in turn has allowed Fresh Bites to stand out from their competitors.

Ben Davies, Owner and Manager of Fresh Bites said, “As a business, we couldn’t be more pleased with the cups; upon receiving our order we were impressed with the quality, appearance and branding of the product, which has been great advertisement for our company. By co-branding the cups with coffee brand 'Caffe Eto' people are now associating our company with a premium coffee name, this should in turn increase our sales.”

Dart Products Europe offer the Brand Builder service to accommodate small businesses similar to Fresh Bites, which allow them to have bespoke professional packaging in quantities as small as 5,000.

Fresh Bites are looking to utilise Dart Products Europe’s services even further, by introducing customised coloured Traveler lids to pair with their printed hot cups, taking their branding that extra step forward.

Muffin Break

Retail brand Muffin Break is a trending concept that has seen strong recent growth and has a pipeline of new store openings planned.  This global brand, which originated in Australia, now features the UK, with 52 stores, as its number two world-wide location and has big plans for further expanding its franchise network.

The concept is simple - fresh, tasty food and fantastic quality coffee and beverages.  Despite the name, the brand is about more than muffins, - , over a third of sales are coffee with strong trading in other food items, particularly signature mini tartlets and savoury lunch items.  But, although the brand is growing fast, the brand collateral needed refreshing to engage further with a younger audience in keeping with their new look store.  In fact marketing manager Gemma Sandells identified a huge opportunity through   re-aligning the business with its core customers and set about implementing a new market strategy.

This has included a new website, new brand identity and most importantly, re-working the offering to appeal to a wider range of customers.  Says Gemma: "We found that Mums were bringing their children in and having a coffee but not eating anything - so we re-developed the menu to include offering items that would tempt them as well as their children.  Therefore alongside our classic offering of muffins and tartlets we developed a fantastic range of salads, fruit salads, yoghurts and granola and fruit smoothies as well as extending our existing wrap varieties."

To achieve the menu change Gemma needed the products to look fantastic on the shelf and offer a practical solution in store.  They also needed to be elegant and enable the customer to have control over the product - for example with the amount of dressing added to the salad.  To achieve the desired results Muffin Break chose to work with Solo Cup Europe to supply single use containers, particularly the Olivine® plus press&dress® cold food containers and UltraClear plus press&dress® tumblers for smoothies and fruit salads.  Adds Gemma: "The key feature for us is the press & dress function which keep wet and dry components separate until the moment of consumption - no soggy oats in our granola!  We're delighted to have found an innovative packaging partner who really understands our needs - this is vital for the future of the business."

Muffin Break's long term strategy is to attract a younger audience and has also re-designed its website and point of sale material to attract a younger profile customer.  Explains Gemma: "Our coffee is of fantastic quality made from premium Arabica beans and roasted in the UK.  All our products are freshly baked on site and have a one day shelf life to ensure complete freshness at all times.  We're working hard to build our loyal customer base and grow the business in new segments.  Our products have to look good on the plate as well as be suitable to take-away which is a big ask.  We've found that working with Solo Cup Europe has helped us tick the boxes and helped us deliver our product innovation." 

Alliance Disposables

Having fast, reliable access to non-food items is essential for all hospitality businesses and Alliance, the leading non-food distributor, prides itself on putting the customer first and delivering fantastic quality products and first class customer service.  In order to achieve this, it also needs great working relationships with its suppliers, especially as it works across twelve distribution centres from which it services its UK clients.

Alliance and Solo Cup Europe have worked together since the business was created and the management at Alliance value the loyalty and support Solo has shown them over the years.  Richard Buley, Sales Manager for Alliance says: "Our business is growing fast and Solo is benefiting from the long term relationship it has had with us.  Account Manager Julie Parry is very supportive and we find her and the team easy to deal with."

"we like long term business relationships where we can develop mutual trust and we certainly have that with Solo Cup Europe.  We find that when we have an opportunity , they are always ready to go and their catalogue is well presented and easy to use." 

Tanpopo

Tanpopo has been manufacturing sushi and noodle products for wholesale distribution for more than 18 years from its Staines, near London, headquarters. 

Tanpopo supplies high quality fresh sushi to a variety of customers including retailers, contract caterers, hotels, event companies and airlines. The family run business keeps authentic flavour and quality at the heart of everything it does, whilst also embracing innovative ideas to excite existing customers and attract new ones.

It was these exacting standards that led it to develop a printed heavy-duty container for its   fresh ramen noodle products.   Traditionally, Tanpopo had used blank pots with labels, but they felt there was potential to create a really professional pot that would appeal to customers in foodservice, retail and also online via Ocado.

The 16oz pots were sourced from Dart Products Europe (previously Solo Cup Europe) and are brightly coloured, vibrant pre-printed containers for the instant, fresh ramen noodle range of products. 

Andrew Woods, Marketing and Sales Manager for Tanpopo said: “With the vibrant colours and our Japanese branding, we have been able to create a product that really stands out on the shelf and online, whilst reflecting the fresh ingredients and authentic flavours perfectly.  The clear printed instructions on the back further increased the product flexibility, as it means the product can be used by the consumer directly or in out-of-hours vending areas.   Since trialling the pots with three flavours we have developed three more and would definitely consider further additions.”