English Provender Company (EPC) manufactures and supplies chutneys, sauces and condiments. While much of its produce ends up in retailer own-brand ranges, it also has its own ranges, branded under its own name.

It was for the latter that the company employed Berkshire Labels. “We have repositioned our brand to focus on our all-natural ingredients,” explains Karen Fowler, Marketing Manager at EPC. “As part of that positioning, we wanted all the collateral to reflect that. So we had the idea of a completely see-through label so you can see the product. It was then we approached Berkshire and asked what was possible and how it would look.”

Berkshire produced several trial ideas on its HP Indigo WS6000 before the final label was settled on: a clear label with simple messaging that appeared to be scrawled onto the jar in a ‘homemade’ style. “In terms of the text, it is chalk-board type writing and it stands out very well because of the method we used to print it,” says Berkshire Labels Sales Director Grant Picking. “We put down two whites and a cream spot colour, and then a varnish over the top. It had to be quite dense, and so another hit of the white was something we found we needed in the testing process. EPC were delighted with the results”.

“We call it the naked look,” says Fowler. “Our aim was to stand out on shelf and we seem to be achieving that as sales, completely unsupported and off promotion, are 148% up on last year. I’ll let the packaging take some credit for that as people do buy packaging and so this is a great result for the rebrand, alongside the great product within.”