Liza Gridelli and her brother Tommie are half-Swedish and half-Italian. They grew up in Gothenburg but spent summers in Italy. From the vivid memories of those summer visits to their grandparents’ house, an idea to make a living out of Italian food was born.
“We started with a small deli and concept store in the middle of Gothenburg,” says Liza. “We served coffee, breakfast and lunch, and sold Italian foodstuffs, including olive oil that friends in Italy made. It was lots of fun and when we saw how the people in Gothenburg were so attracted to high-quality Italian food items, we decided to build our own family of products.”
The Gridelli range currently comprises 16 products, including olive oil, balsamic vinegar, pistachio cream and bergamot marmalade. “Things we really like,” says Liza. “And we carefully select the items from the best producers in Italy. Fifteen of our products are organic, and the choice of raw materials is very important to us. That also applies to the packaging, which is why we use glass for our bottles and paper for our boxes. We don’t work with plastic.”
Gridelli uses Holmen Board and Paper’s Invercote G paperboard for their balsamic vinegar boxes, which, like all their packaging and labels, were designed by Gothenburg-based designer Mikael Selin. But unusually, Selin and Gridelli decided to use the uncoated side of Invercote.
“We stayed far away from glossy products, except for the gold foil.”
“We developed a design based on Gridelli’s Italian heritage and expertise,” says Selin. “We stayed far away from glossy products, except for the gold foil used to highlight and frame premium details of the design, and we really liked how the uncoated side of Invercote interacted with the design itself. And how it felt when you had it in your hand. We wanted the outside packaging to represent the products inside in terms of craft and quality.”
“The texture and feel of the packaging are very important to us,” adds Liza. “We wanted a paperboard that has a structure and an uncoated feel. Invercote G also gave us the best possible result in terms of the creases and the embossing. We wanted our logo to look good.”
“The Gridelli packaging required a complex hot stamping with multilevel foil areas and blind embossing,” says Jesper Hammarstrand, CEO at printer Ink n Art. “Invercote allowed us to get the best finish for the embossing and smooth foil areas. It is a super nice material to work with, both for printing and post-press. We tend to use Invercote on many of our more demanding clients' packaging.”
A high-quality brand
Selin says that the Gridellis are as meticulous about their designs as they are about their products, a factor that should help them sell the tens of thousands of products a year they are targeting. “In the food world, you are your packaging and product,” Selin explains. “You can strengthen your brand by trying to create something people want to display in their homes, feel proud to have purchased and give as a gift. We want Gridelli’s products to be a natural part of any home and kitchen.”
“We have a high-quality brand,” adds Liza. “We have the best ingredients inside the bottles, and it is very important for us to replicate that on the outside. That is why we work with this very high-quality paperboard. Invercote gives the extra dimension of premium quality. It is not the cheapest way, but we believe in this. We want our brand to symbolise what we feel about it. And we want our customers to fall in love with our packaging and experience that what’s inside is as good as the outside.”
This story is from Inspire Magazine 72 >>
Created 22 August, 2024.