The Company

St Anne’s is a specialist packaging consultancy with years of experience and the highest levels of expertise in a technically demanding sector. Whilst the services associated with generating quality branded packaging form the core of what they do, St Anne's have developed new services centred around the management of packaging assets.

The question for those individuals who have the responsibility for controlling their packaging is this. How do I ensure consistency of my brand when it appears on the shelves in shops and supermarkets? Frankly, it can be complicated when you may be working across different print suppliers in different countries. Then you need to factor in the range of different presses, processes, papers, substrates and inks. How can you even begin to ensure that what is printed reflects the true content, colours and quality that the customers require? This is where St Anne's comes in.

Creating Brand Consistency

St Anne’s is an independent business with its roots in packaging print and which, since 1994, has developed a unique and specialist range of skills tackling these issues. Martyn Pring is their Studio Manager, and he explains that getting the highest levels of quality in packaging print is crucial. “We really take to heart the need to provide the best quality final product. We work with a wide range of organisations including some large multinational businesses.” These include a global leader in the manufacture, marketing and distribution of spices, seasonings and flavours to the food industry, a well known brand leader in organic children's food and the largest producer of wine in the world with a wide range of wine and beer brands. “For these companies, brand consistency is paramount.”

St Anne's have invested heavily over the years in the latest technologies but part of the reason that they have been successful is down to the direct way in which they work with their clients. “When you talk to us it will be straight to the people who will be working on your particular project” explains Martyn. “There is no go-between so you can have direct contact with the specialist knowledge that you need. Client’s appreciate this as it saves them time and they get a lot of confidence knowing that they are dealing with someone who understands their problems.”

Flowmation - Solving the Approval Problem

There was one area in the process that had become an ongoing issue. As Martyn says “Getting approval on packaging was an issue. We used to use email to do this but trying to control all the emails across each job was difficult and time consuming. Bear in mind that each job might contain a number of different items and each of these might contain a number of different versions.” Having recognised the problem they looked to invest in a solution. “When we saw Flowmation we realised straight away that there was a better way to do this. In Flowmation you have a structured, efficient approval system and it’s made a big impact. In some instances our customer approvals have gone down from two months typically to just two weeks. And it’s certainly less stressful.”

Flowmation and Digital Asset Management

As St Anne’s business is centred around packaging design management, Flowmation has helped in another significant way. Flowmation has a digital asset management library section where the final completed PDF and other image assets can be made available to the client. Over time this builds up into an invaluable resource for clients who can access all this artwork. As Martyn points out, “Clients really appreciate being able to search, locate and download all of this 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world. When you are working with organisations that span the globe, having this available really makes an impact.”

Opening New Doors

With one of their large accounts, Flowmation has helped open new doors. Martyn explains. “Whilst we were working mainly with one department, Flowmation has helped us to push into new areas within the business. It’s great when our people go into meet new contacts as we can demonstrate our commitment to working in a modern efficient way and clients can see straight away that it is so logical and easy to use.”

Having St Anne’s as the packaging hub means brand owners get the flexibility that they require from their design and print providers. Passing everything through the St Anne’s hub, consistency and quality can always be maintained. St Anne’s investment in technology and their commitment to service mean that they are going from strength to strength. Flowmation has complemented this perfectly providing their clients with an improved approval process, visibility on their projects as they are progressed and access to a digital asset management library.