Styrofoam or cardboard for direct shipments?

Wines & Vines, Sept, 2006 by Larry Walker

One overlooked area of wine packaging is direct-to-consumer shipments. These can come straight from the winery, through a shipping service or from a retailer, either online or bricks and mortar. Often, packaging decisions are made based on getting the customer to step up and buy the product. But the first duty of the direct-to-consumer package, commonly called a "shipper," is that the wine arrives safely. Second, it should also look good, with no scuffed labels.

The choice of shipper has become an increasingly important decision as direct-to-consumer sales soar, increasing 26% in 2005 according to a survey by VinterActive LLC. So what's the best way to go? There are two basic choices, Styrofoam--either solid or "beads"--and some sort of cardboard, either pulped or corrugated. There are a few other niche products, but they play a small role. Wines & Vines asked several wineries and shipping companies which they preferred.

Miner Family Winery in Napa ships about 10,000 packages per year to wine club members and others, including promotional samples to the media. Steve Gage, sales director at the winery, said Miner had used a shipping service until about two years ago, when it brought the shipments in house.

"We had a 'water cooler' discussion and decided we could do a better job," he told Wines & Vines. Miner Family has two wine clubs. Club M members receive two bottles and the Oracle Club receives four bottles, including cellar collectible. Packages are shipped in alternate months to each club, meaning that packages go out on a monthly basis.

Gage said Miner Family designed its own shipping boxes to make a good presentation, including the Miner Family logo on the package. "We were shipping Styrofoam at one point, but switched to pulp packaging made of recycled cardboard."

He said there is almost zero breakage, and recalled only three broken bottles in the past year, unless a package "falls off the truck or gets wet, splitting the seams."

Most wine shipping fulfillment houses Wines & Vines spoke to use whatever shipping package their clients specify. Scott Mangelson, director of sales and marketing at New Vine Logistics in Napa (newvinelogistics.com), said that if the bottle weight is less than four pounds, the molded pulp packaging is recommended. "It's recyclable," he said, adding, "There is a misconception that Styrofoam protects wine from heat because of its insulating qualities, but if the wine does get hot, the Styrofoam also holds the heat in longer." He said New Vine did some experiments, sending out packages with monitoring time and temperature thermometers, and found that the pulp works better, but care must be taken about when wines are shipped.

He said that there is little difference in breakage between the Styrofoam packages and molded pulped cardboard, unless the bottles are really heavy.

New Vine also uses a new package made of corrugated cardboard. "The cardboard is formed into a square with the neck sticking up above the neck of the bottle. The cardboard is then crimped over the neck so the bottle can't move. That method can take a somewhat heavier bottle. The downside is that the package weighs more," Mangelson said.

New Vine has developed a package enabling direct-to-consumer shipment of wooden boxes in a cardboard container. "Bottles tend to rattle around inside wooden boxes, so we developed a Mylar frame that holds the bottles firmly," Mangelson said. The Mylar is spread across what looks like a picture frame at the bottom of the box. Wine is then laid on the Mylar and a second Mylar frame is put on top of the wine, holding the bottles firmly in place. Since the Mylar is clear, when the customer opens the shipping package, the wine is on display.

New Vine ships more than a million bottles of wine a year, and also handle compliance issues.

Winebuys.com, based near San Francisco, was launched in September of 2003 to sell wine from its own inventory direct to consumers. Mike Daniel, operations manager, said the company uses both pulp packaging and Styrofoam, although it is leaning more toward pulp for environmental reasons and because the cost of Styrofoam has been increasing due to rising oil prices.

Among direct-to-consumer shippers that ship large format or oversized 750ml bottles, the preference is for Styrofoam. Vali Ferrell at Spring Mountain Winery in Napa said, "Our Pinot Noir bottles won't fit into the pulped cardboard packages." Spring Mountain ships a relatively small amount of wine--two or four bottles four times a year to about 320 wine club members. The winery had been handling the job in-house. but Ferrell said it would start using a wine shipment fulfillment company.

Napa-based WW Shipping Solutions (wwshippingsolutions.com) ships in both molded pulp and Styrofoam. James Inbach, accounts manager, said he can see advantages and disadvantages for both. "I don't see any difference in breakage or leakage," he said. "We'll go either way."

Most shippers rely on standards developed by major shipping companies such as FedEx and UPS on issues of box strength. The major shippers have a testing service which is available to shippers. Check with your local shipping agent.