Chippindale Free Rangers Eggs

Elmwood creates vintage-inspired packaging for Chippindale Free Rangers eggs

Global brand design consultancy Elmwood, has worked with Chippindale Foods on a new packaging design for its Free Rangers brand. Inspired by posters from the 1940’s and 1950’s, the new design aims to capture the proud British heritage of the brand and the premium welfare standards behind the product.

Chippindale Foods are a third generation British family of egg farmers based on a former World War II cold store near Knaresborough, North Yorkshire. Despite being a major supplier of eggs to retailers, Chippindale found that its Free Rangers brand of premium, ethically sourced free-range eggs was misunderstood, resulting in challenging on-shelf locations and limited facings.

Eggs are a commodity purchase, so customers do not spend much time at the fixture, instead grabbing what they recognise or can reach easily. Chippindale wanted to encourage customers to trade up from cheaper, lesser quality eggs to Free Rangers, giving the brand more share of voice in the egg category, increasing visibility and awareness, and opening doors to additional retailers.

Nick and Lorna Chippindale called on Elmwood to lead a re-design of the packaging for Free Rangers. The brief was to communicate the higher welfare standards of the hens producing the eggs, and capture some of the British, family spirit of the company. This would allow them to justify the middle-premium price points of the product, and appeal to customers who value high quality produce and food provenance.

Elmwood set about creating something British, revolutionary and contemporary, without being too serious. Starting with creating the new strapline “The pick of our farms, the pride of our nation” to position the brand, Elmwood conceived a new visual identity for Free Rangers, which draws inspiration from vintage adverts and posters from the 1940’s and 1950’s.

The image of the three hens waving a flag in a proud and revolutionary manner plays on the World War II ‘rallying the home guard’ posters. Emulating the style of the era, they also combined an off-white background with a muted colour palette for an authentic feel.

Caroline Dilloway, Client Service Director at Elmwood said: “The Free Rangers eggs brand brief was a real blessing – a British third generation farming family, located in the grounds of a former World War II cold store, with state of the art manufacturing and a super tight supply chain of higher welfare hens and high quality eggs – it doesn’t get much more authentic than that. We built on the brand’s authenticity by creating a concept that was proud and revolutionary, putting the hens in control and enjoying their freedom.”

Nick Chippindale at Chippindale Foods said: “We’re fiercely proud of our heritage and top quality produce, and Elmwood’s new design for Free Rangers has really brought this to life. The new packaging shouts to customers about the excellence of our free-range eggs, and perfectly captures the spirit of the company. We are delighted with the results and excited at seeing them on supermarket shelves.”