Going for Gold

Liberty of London and Farrow & Ball commission wins Metal Pack of the Year for P Wilkinson Containers and William Say at the UK Packaging Awards 2022

We are delighted to have won in the Metal Pack of the Year – Promotional, Decorative & General Line category for the limited-edition Liberty of London collaboration with Farrow & Ball, at the UK Packaging Awards 2022 at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.

British paint specialists Farrow & Ball have been a client of P Wilkinson Containers and William Say for over 25. We produced the first printed tins for retail and have produced every sample pot that has ever been made in the history of the company. In 2021 – the same year the brand celebrated 75 years – they commissioned a range of limited-edition tin designs to celebrate its partnership with iconic London department store Liberty of London.

Each of the sample pots, which were available to buy from farrow-ball.com, Farrow & Ball showrooms, selected stockists, and Liberty of London, feature one of Liberty’s iconic heritage interior prints.

P Wilkinson Containers and William Say’s London factory produced a set of unique metal miniature lever lid tins, which are 57mm in diameter (100ml) and made at its Bermondsey factory.

As this special packaging commission looked to blend the heritage of two great British brands, Liberty of London and Farrow & Ball, we also required state-of-the-art technology to create the intricate coloured designs on the tins with detailed precision and accurate colour matching. The tins were digitally printed using Fujifilm Acuity B1 by Tinmasters at their plant in Swansea.

Only digital printing would have made it possible for William Say to replicate the precise colours of Liberty interior fabric prints. Traditional offset printing would not have been able to pin-point the exact colour match and it would have been too complex to set up. Ultimately, traditional offset printing would also have been too costly.

The winning Farrow & Ball tins – curated by Liberty of London – showcase a distinct Liberty fabric pattern which is fully randomised, so any shade from the edit of 15 paint colours will highlight a different Liberty interior fabric print.

On each tinplate sheet alternate patterns were lined up to be printed, ensuring the final tins were truly randomised when finished. This is another feature only made possible by using digital printing.  In total, there are six Liberty interior fabric patterns to collect.

“William Say’s ability to create intricately printed, colour perfect packaging has been central to the success of this iconic collaboration,” explains Stuart Wilkinson, P Wilkinson Containers & William Say Ltd, Sales and Marketing Director.

“This isn’t the first time that William Say has pioneered digital printing technology for an iconic British brand. We have had experience on pervious commissions, including Fortnum & Mason’s request to produce a short run of giant hot chocolate tins across four coloured designs – and we were thrilled to be invited to create these visually striking sample tins for Farrow & Ball and Liberty of London.

“This commission has been a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase our ability to produce such high-quality and beautiful packaging products for our clients. The response from the client and consumers has been extremely positive, and now we have been recognised at the UK Packaging Awards. I am very proud of the team at P Wilkinsons and William Say for their vision and exceptional skills in bringing this product to life so successfully.”

Each tin is produced at the P Wilkinson Containers and William Say factory in Bermondsey using solar power generated from the rooftop solar farm, one of the largest in central London – another aspect that appealed to F&B.