BRP Box Shop is making their debut at the Fancy Food Show to not only showcase their cake boxes, cookie boxes, and macaron boxes. Their representative box makers are flying from the Midwest to New York City (for the first time) to listen.
Customer Service Manager, Connie Davis “Nobody knows what specialty food businesses need like the people actually working in those businesses. We are excited to not only be among the thousands of people getting the word out about their products and businesses at the Fancy Food Show, we are eager to hear what people want from their packaging. A big part of the success our shop enjoys has come from intently listening to the needs of customers and then working with our box making family to produce the absolute best product possible. Even conventional structures get the BRP treatment and are polished and updated to give the buyers of our packaging something extra. I’m confident that people who visit our booth will see the obsessive care and attention to detail we put into our products. We are not a gigantic packaging corporation. There are some advantages to being a large corporation, and most of our employees have worked for large packaging companies, but there are advantages in being an attentive, nimble, and personable Box Shop too, especially when it comes to giving our customers unconventional value.”
The quest to capitalize on being a smaller and more responsive packaging company started when BRP Box Shop fired up their box making machines in 2005. Shortly after, the small business did an experiment to see if people would be interested in buying their unique packaging designs over the web. The halls of their Box Shop were filled with excitement when, after a couple of weeks selling their obsessively-designed boxes, they reached $500 in online sales. Eleven years later they have served well over 100,000 unique customers and the fun and professional satisfaction of catering to the food market has only grown.
Ann Hill, Social Media Marketing Manager, “Something special happens when a group of people who care about one another work together doing something they love. This is amplified when the customers they are working for are a pleasure to serve. We love our customers! The positive relationships internally and externally leads to more collaboration, more listening, more creativity, and an overall better product and experience.”
Fast, free shipping to the Lower 48 States has been a big part of the BRP Box Shop customer experience from the beginning. Box makers working in their shop along the banks of the Mississippi River, scramble to get orders out the door. Orders placed by noon Central time on a business day, go out that same day. Fast shipping is viewed as another opportunity to not only please the customer, but set the centrally-located company apart from competitors. Looking and listening for such opportunities is part of the Box Shop personality.
BRP Box Shop President, Bob Simpson “We want to be the one-stop shop for bakers when it comes to buying their packaging. Customers have asked us to carry things like shopping bags, grease-proof cookie sheets, macaron trays, chocolate covered OREO inserts, and cake boards. Even though we do not make these packaging elements ourselves, these products from our premium partners have allowed us to be a better resource for bakers.”
It is the items they do make themselves that have allowed BRP to stand out. Their cake pop box with handle and removable lid for easy access to treats, took the company over two years to develop. The design landed BRP Box Shop its first patent and the structure has become the go-to solution to protect, transport, and display these delicious treats on a stick. The online business has since expanded their line for cake pops by developing other boxes for this market segment. While the patented design of the bigger cake pop box can hold up to 18 pops, the box makers have developed a comparatively tiny box to hold a single solitary pop. This was not the first single cake pop box on the market but it is the first to have three relatively large windows to show off the artistry of cake poppers who use them on birthday desert tables, as wedding favors, or even as little gifts.
John Huling, BRP Vice President, “Manufacturing these little boxes with three windows is difficult. Because our designers and talented machine operators occupy the same building and have a great working relationship, we can tackle the hard stuff. Not only does this give our small box factory an advantage over bigger companies that may not have the best communication, it also means we get to enjoy, on a personal level, the photos our customers send us of their beautiful creations finding a home in the packaging we worked so hard to make special.”
One of the hard things BRP Box Shop does is use plant-based window film instead of petroleum-based plastic to keep their products eco-friendly. The material takes a greater deal of skill and time to run through the machines but the windows are crystal clear and allow the packaging to be fully biodegradable and recyclable. The line of Natural Kraft boxes use paperboard made from the wood scraps at saw mills and comes from trees grown as part of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. The shop’s own box scrap is collected and recycled. The warm appearance and feel of these sturdy natural boxes can be found in every packaging category the company offers, and this modest factory in Iowa – they offer a lot.
BRP Box Shop will be displaying a portion of their comprehensive packaging catalog at booth 1572. Nearly all of the products being displayed by BRP at the Fancy Food Show, from the candy apple boxes, to the wide range of colors they print themselves, are available as stock items because customers made a request. If you have a packaging idea, make sure to stop by the BRP booth to talk with Connie Davis and Kip Simpson. If they do not already make what you need, there is a good chance their Box Shop can take your idea from concept to reality.
Connie Davis
Customer Service Manager
BRP Box Shop
Big River Packaging
563-243-5210