A product never achieved before presented in a packaging system never thought of before. No wonder Gourmet Garden has triumphed at the checkout and at this year’s packaging awards.
Its squeezable herb stir-in pastes made the name Gourmet Garden known in Australia. But when five years of customer and consumer research resulted in its lightly dried herbs presented in a packaging system designed specifically for the fridge door, everything changed for the company.
On top of rapid sales increases and international expansion program, Gourmet Garden has collected a prodigious haul of awards.
At the Packaging Council of Australia’s 2014 Australian Packaging Design Awards, Gourmet Garden won Gold for Consumer Experience, Bronze for Accessibility and Gold for the Overall Food Category.
From the World Packaging Organisation it won a World Star Award, tasking the top spot above 265 entries from 37 countries. Gourmet Garden will receive its 2015 World Star Award in Milan, Italy in May 2015.
Early this year, Gourmet Garden’s herb and spice system also won a Good Design Australia award for packaging and graphics.
Jacqui Wilson-Smith, head of innovation & marketing at Gourmet Garden, commented on why Gourmet Garden received so much applause, “A challenge we discovered was busy cooks’ latent demand for organised storage of herbs in the fridge. There were storage solutions, in the form of spice racks, for dried herbs and spices however no options for refrigerated herbs and spices, including our existing range of squeezable tubes. This demand was addressed by the development of the herb storage caddy. The caddy has been designed to store and organise both the squeezable tubes and pinch pouches conveniently in the busy cooks’ fridge door. The caddy footprint has been modeled off the base of a milk carton so that busy cooks could easily store in the fridge door, where the herb and spice system is front of mind and won’t get lost.”
Gourmet garden’s Lightly Dried herbs and spices are notable for both their product and packaging innovations. Within 12 hours of harvesting, the herbs are washed, chopped and packed capturing the essential oils for fresh flavour, colour and aroma without adding artificial flavours or preservatives. This has never been achieved before. They come in both clickable, stackable pots and resealable pinch pouches. The pots, pouches and the existing stir-in paste range have been graphically designed with flavour matched and colour coded name tabs allowing busy cooks to easily identify the variety they need. The fridge-door friendly herb caddy stores and organises both pouches and tubes allowing consumers to bring to their kitchen bench for ‘a herb garden at your fingertips'.
The system was made possible with the support of Outerspace Design Packaging Division, Blue Marlin, Creative Concepts, QDesign Enterprises, Sealed Air, Combi-Pack and The Le Mac Australia Group.
Early this year, Gourmet Garden’s herb and spice system also won a Good Design Australia award for packaging and graphics.
