Halifax-produced Quality Street is introducing recyclable FSC-certified paper packaging for its famous twist-wrapped sweets globally.
The landmark move gives the brand a dramatic new look, as well as removing almost 2.5 billion individual pieces of packaging material from its supply chain globally.
The new packaging was designed by Nestlé’s Confectionery Research and Development Center in York, and the Swiss-based Nestlé Institute of Packaging Sciences, and the transition to paper required extensive development in the engineering of new materials, coating technologies, printing techniques and the adaptation of existing equipment.
Two flavours, Orange Crunch and the Green Triangle, will not be getting a new paper wrapper, instead reataining their existing foil wrappers which can already be recycled. The move to new paper packaging for the other nine twist-wrapped Christmas favourite will take a few months to fully implement, so customers can expand to find a mix of old and new wrappers in their cartons, pouches, tubs and tins for now.
Louise Barrett, head of the Nestlé Confectionery Product Technology Centre in York, said: “With nine different sweets to consider, the transition has been a huge undertaking. Each of our existing machines need to be adapted to run paper and then rigorously tested by our packaging experts to ensure we’re still delivering the same quality consumers expect when they open a box of Quality Street.
The change marks the end of 86 years of the brand’s iconic twist-wrapped plastic packaging and follows in the footsteps of other household favourites from the Nestle stable including Smarties, which introduced recyclable paper packaging for all its products globally in 2021. Nestlé says it aims to reach 100 per cent recyclable packaging across its range by 2025.
