Hunter Luxury balances design and sustainability in premium packaging

Hunter Luxury has partnered with The Glendronach Distillery, owned by Brown-Forman, to deliver the packaging for its 30 and 40-Year-Old Single Malt Scotch Whisky. We speak to Paul Hamilton, head of sales and marketing at Hunter Luxury, about how the new packaging design balances quality and recyclability.

“Quality and sustainability do not have to be viewed as trade-offs. And sustainability should not be oversimplified into buzzwords, ” Hamilton tells Packaging Insights.

“To design luxury packaging that delivers the ‘wow’ moments that consumers expect, it’s important to take a holistic view of the project’s entire lifecycle. Recyclability and sustainable sourcing are hugely important, but they are just two parts of a much bigger picture.”

The new packaging design aims to demonstrate surface continuity, while the selected colors aim to match the tone of the whisky itself.

The veneer was selected to reduce environmental impact while eliminating the need for protected hardwoods. Working in collaboration with Brown-Forman’s design team, Hunter also developed a bespoke plinth to achieve the “optimal balance between visual presence and structural stability.”

The presentation cases are engineered for long-term durability.“Often, ultra-premium packaging is intended to be kept as a keepsake long after its contents are gone. In that case, it is never designed to end up as waste at all, so using premium materials and structural designs that are built to last are key to minimizing a product’s impact on the environment,” shares Hamilton.

Pairing automation with hand-crafting

The design for the Glendronach 30-Year-Old demands technical precision and understanding of material behavior to ensure its integrity in volume production. Hunter Luxury developed a Pantone-matched stain to improve the wood’s natural grain and give clarity to the engraved chevron motif.

For the Glendronach 40-Year-Old, Hunter Luxury employed a technique using real wood veneer, laser-engraved and hand-filled with a gold resin inlay. The pattern spans all four structure planes, including the hinged front door. It is enhanced by a real metal transcript, encased in a satin varnish to create depth and a refined tactile finish.

“We combined new technology with skilled craftsmanship to create a pack that has a bespoke feeling despite being produced on a global scale. For example, we used carefully-selected crotch-cut veneers and a Pantone-matched stain to ensure the wood grain pattern on each box was similar without being perfectly uniform — each product is unique,” says Hamilton.

“The design is laser engraved before being filled with gold resin by hand, pairing the precision of machine automation with the soul and warmth of hand crafting in a single efficient process. Accomplishing this required some highly technical architectural work during the design phase, which was matched with a stringent quality control process that ensured all elements were within the tightest tolerances.”