Colectivo Coffee Roasters did not start in a boardroom. It began in a Walker’s Point warehouse in 1993, where the founders bonded over vinyl records and a vintage Probat roaster. Over the last 30 years, the brand has grown from a single kiosk to a staple of the specialty coffee movement across Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago.
Director of Coffee, Cody Kinart, attributes this longevity to a few core pillars:
“Consistency, quality, affordability and trust. We’ve spent over 30 years building trust from our coffee farmers and customers alike.”
The Challenge: The Limitations of “One Bag Fits All”
Before partnering with ePac, Colectivo used tin-tie bags with labels. This old-school approach created several bottlenecks for the growing company. Cody describes the previous packaging as having “high labor costs, high product cost, crooked labels and packaging that came across the ocean that just ended up in landfills.”
The manual process was simply too slow for their mission. The biggest limitations were “long lead times, having to print and apply front and back labels and expensive, wasteful packaging.”
The Tipping Point: Design and Seasonality
Colectivo is a design-heavy brand that values its aesthetic as much as its beans. Because they buy fresh coffees from all origins every harvest, they needed packaging that could keep up with a “seasonally-fresh” coffee program.
As a design-heavy brand we were looking to design packaging that looked good all around. With a coffee program as seasonally-fresh as ours, quick turnaround is imperative. We buy fresh coffees from all origins every harvest and things change!
The Solution: A Partner in Transition
Colectivo needed a partner to guide them through the move to fully printed pouches while remaining responsive to their fast-moving needs.
By switching to ePac, they moved away from the “one bag fits all” model and utilized digital printing to create custom-sized bags that maximized their shelf presence. This transition allowed them to “pivot, update and celebrate with minimum lead times.”
Before Using ePac
After Using ePac
The Results: Beautiful Prints and Consumer Impact
The shift to fully printed pouches provided an immediate visual and operational upgrade.
For other specialty roasters who have outgrown the label-and-bag approach, Cody’s advice is direct: “The cost savings in labor and overall packaging is worth it.”
The impact extended beyond just the look and operational efficiencies of the bag:
- Brand Perception: “Colors pop and print quality is consistent.”
- Shelf Appeal: “We’ve been able to size our bags to fit more coffee on the shelf, all while looking incredible.”
- Sustainability: “The sustainability part made a major impact on our consumers!”
Cody describes the new packaging as “strikingly beautiful, high quality prints that our customers adore.”
