Ben’s Cookies case study: printed packaging since 2023

Open a Ben’s Cookies box and the inside of the lid reads “Beaucoup plus qu’un cookie…”. Bas Packaging has made the printed packaging for the Ben’s Cookies shops in France since 2023: that box, the bag it goes into, the paper the cookie is wrapped in, the cup for the coffee and the cup for the ice cream, eight product types in all and around 500,000 printed packs a year. Everything ships from Turkey to one address, the STEF Logistique Nord logistics centre at Saint-Laurent-Blangy in northern France, and the shops are supplied from there.

If you buy packaging for a café or bakery chain, the useful part of this case study is not the logo but the arrangement: one artwork family across eight items, one delivery point, and lead times you can plan around.

What printed packaging do we make for Ben’s Cookies?

The range runs from the cookie to the espresso:

• Twisted-handle paper bags, 22 × 14 × 26 cm and 30 × 18 × 33 cm
• Cookie boxes, 255 × 175 × 95 mm, 175 × 127 × 75 mm and 175 × 125 × 95 mm
• Flat bags for cookies, 18 × 18 cm
• Paper cups: 4 oz single-wall, 8 oz and 12 oz double-wall
• Ice cream cups, 100, 200, 300 and 400 ml
• Two-ply napkins, 25 × 25 cm
• Wrapping paper, 45 × 17.5 cm
• PP labels, 25 × 60 mm

The brand runs through all of it: the white line-drawn figure and lettering on red for the boxes, cups and bags, and the same logo in red on white for the napkins and flat bags. The wrapping paper carries a pattern of small red kitchen icons, a whisk, a mixing bowl, eggs, a cookie box. Alongside the red boxes there is a white one, with the line “Beaucoup plus qu’un cookie…” printed inside the lid. Seen together, the eight items are printed to the same colour reference, even though cup board, bag paper and tissue napkin go through different print processes. That is the practical reason to have one manufacturer supply the range: the colour reference and artwork are set once, and each item is approved against them on its own material.

The cups also differ in construction, not only in capacity. The 4 oz cup for espresso is single-wall; the 8 oz and 12 oz cups are double-wall, so a hot coffee can be held without a sleeve. Our standard specification is on the page for custom printed paper cups.

How does the packaging get from Turkey to the shops?

It goes through one logistics centre. We deliver to STEF Logistique Nord, a STEF Group site at Saint-Laurent-Blangy, and the Ben’s Cookies shops are supplied from there. No shop orders from us; each shop is supplied from Saint-Laurent-Blangy. Bas Packaging coordinates production and the international shipment to the depot.

For the chain this means the packaging arrives in one place, and a single order can cover several items at once, from carrier bag to label, because everything comes from one manufacturer. How a packaging standard is held together across many sites is the subject of our guide to a multi-site packaging standard.

What does the packaging have to meet besides the logo?

First, food contact: cookie, ice cream and coffee touch the packaging directly, so for each product group we choose material and production method according to its use, with a declaration of conformity for food contact to match. Second, the French marking rules: on the relevant items the Triman logo and the Info-tri sorting information are part of the artwork and are printed with it.

For a buyer outside France the point is a general one: the destination market’s mandatory marks belong in the print file before the first run. A chain that sells in several countries needs to settle this market by market.

What lead times does the project run on?

Standard production for Ben’s Cookies orders takes 20 working days, and transit to France averages 8 working days. Orders therefore need to be placed with a combined lead time of around 28 working days in mind.

The model has limits worth stating. Production of 20 working days plus 8 working days in transit is not a short reorder cycle, and a new item, say an extra cup size, needs artwork approval and tooling on top. Where a shorter reaction time is needed, the usual tools are warehouse stock or call-offs under a framework agreement; see our guide to a framework agreement for printed packaging. Which costs sit inside and outside an ex-works price is covered in the EXW, FCA or DAP article.

What can a chain with a similar range take from this?

Three points. Fix the colour reference and logo once and have every item approved against them, so there are no separate colour approvals at two suppliers. Deliver to the logistics centre that supplies the shops. And settle the destination market’s marking rules before the first run. For Ben’s Cookies these three points have been in place since 2023.