As the name suggests Ancestry Pet Food has a long-standing heritage in the US pet food market. Law Print was tasked with the end to end packaging management for the relaunch of the core Ancestry Dry Dog Food and Cat Food ranges.

“We met the Ancestry team at Global Pet Expo back in March 2017. As our portfolio continues to grow in the US market the show was a great opportunity to catch up with existing customers and meet with some interesting US based brands.

Ancestry approached us with their desire to move from paper to plastic and it was immediately clear that Law Print was perfectly positioned to help guide them through the process.”

What did we do?

Plastic is able to provide the necessary barrier protection for perishable foods, like dog and cat food, especially when exporting the product. Although plastics have received some negative press in recent months the lighter weight material used for flexible packaging can dramatically reduce production and transportation emissions, as well as total packaging waste.

Switching to plastic also allows the company to take advantage of rotogravure print technology which vastly improves print quality and finishes in comparison with flexography, traditionally used for paper packaging. However, the ability to use up to 10 colours also poses some problems when it comes to artwork creation, as the number of colours used directly impacts the set-up cost.

Working with Ancestry’s graphic designer, we were able to offer suggestions for reducing the number of printing cylinders, making the set-up costs far more cost-effective without impairing print quality.

Our team were also on hand to ensure the most suitable formats were chosen for the different volumes across the range, with quad seal bags used for the larger 25lbs and 30lbs bags and the more compact flat bottom bags for 4lbs and 12lbs sizes.

As the ancestry brand is focussed on ‘hearty nutrition’ it was important for them to include health claims on the packaging that communicates quickly to the owner the great benefits of the food.

 “Although we’ve noticed some health focussed pet food brands adopting ‘calorie counting’ to their packaging this is the first project we’ve brought to market with this as a key message on the front of the pack.

The growing humanisation of pet food is continually pushing innovation in the industry. As food transparency becomes ever more important in this sector the introduction of human-like labelling cues has been interesting to see from Ancestry and definitely something we feel will be adopted by other brands in the future.

The full range is available now online and across retailers in the US.