TinPlate

Custom tin packaging for Willie’s Cacao / Source: Tinplate

AsiaBeautyEuropeFood & BeveragePackagingTin

WHAT WE SAY:

As the adage goes: everything old is new again.

We all remember a well-loved biscuit tin at grandma’s, or dad’s tools thrown in an old steel pot, but as single-use plastic became the material of choice, the practice of storing and reusing tins fell out of favour. Now, with sustainability at the forefront of consumers’ minds, Tinplate is bringing tin containers back in vogue with exciting, creative designs they will want to treasure. With tinplate recycling at an all time high – 84% of the material was recycled in Europe in 2019 – these keepsake tins get the seal of approval from us.

A Fortnum & Mason tea tin / Source: Tinplate

ABOUT TINPLATE

Founded in 1990, family business Tinplate supplies premium, bespoke Tin packaging for the food and beverage, entertainment, and beauty industries. The tins are creatively shaped and printed to encourage consumers to keep and reuse them.
The company’s stock tins include candle tins, polish tins and hinged lid tins, while further styles for development include key chain tins, tubes, flat containers, animal silhouettes, seasoning shakers and stackable designs.
Tinplate also offers bespoke designs, with an integrated consultancy service, working with brands, such as Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, Penhaligon’s, Asda and Tesco on custom shapes, closures, and prints.
Headquartered in Wiltshire, UK, the company’s manufacturing facilities are located in China. Tinplate says its facilities are put through “ethical and technical assessments” on a regular basis, although details on these assessments are unknown.
In 2020, the company finalised a purpose built factory in the UK. The new facility allows Tinplate to offer contract packing services alongside packaging manufacturing, delivering a retail-ready product. Tamper seals and laser jet best-before-dates can be applied where required.
The addition of the new facility doubled Tinplate’s output capacity. In August 2020, the company packed 1.8 million tea envelopes into gift packs, while maintaining existing manufacturing services.
The minimum order quantity for bespoke tins is between 3,000-5,000 units.
The company limits the use of single-use bags and materials in its manufacturing facilities, and recycles all Paper, cardboard and tin.
Tinplate’s China facility is BRC Packaging-certified for food safety, Sedex-certified for high standards of labour, health and safety, and environmental and business ethics, and ISO 9001 and ISO 22000-accredited.
Its UK factory is Soil Association-certified and Food Safety-certified.
The company acquired Soil Association accreditation in 2016, a requirement for working with organic brand Pukka. The two brands continue to work collaboratively and Tinplate has upheld the accreditation throughout the six-year working relationship. It has produced 70,000 tins for Pukka.
The company has accumulated a string of awards over the years from Dieline, Gold Design Week Awards, DBA Awards, the UK Packaging Awards and Best in Metal Awards.