Look Who’s Turning 10

On Friday 25th May we invited our valued customers and suppliers to celebrate 10 years in business with us over lunch and drinks.

Everyone had a great time and it was a great opportunity for our suppliers and customers to meet up and share stories and a laugh.

Below are some of the pictures from the event. Vi Packaging would like to thank everyone who attended and helped make the day a special event.

Following are the lucky winners of the raffle prizes:

• First prize: Container Bar – Torbreck Wines
• Second Prize: Pink Tickets – Amorim
• Third Prize: VI Packaging catered BBQ – Guala Closures (kindly donated to Boars Rock)

A look back over the last 10 years

It is hard to believe that it has been 10 years on 28th May since the inception of the Vi Packaging division at Vinpac International. To celebrate this milestone we held an exclusive party to celebrate with our valued customers and suppliers on Friday 25th May. We thought this would be a great opportunity to take the time to look back on how Vi Packaging has evolved into the business it is today.

Vi Packaging was the brain child of David Hutton, General Manager at Vinpac who recognised that there was a market for complete packaging solutions for wineries and contract bottlers. Vinpac International had developed strong relationships with their suppliers and knew that this could be further enhanced by suppling to customers who did not bottle at Vinpac.

Ally Eygenraam who was the Manager for Purchasing at Vinpac at the time, took the reins of Vi Packaging with Account Manager Jo Baker and with the support of the Vinpac Purchasing team. Vi Packaging had three loyal contract customers and word soon spread that Vi Packaging was structured to help any size winery or bottlers, whether it be a mum and dad doing their annual bottling or a large scale operation.

As Vi Packaging started to grow it was recognised that it needed to be it is own division, rather than a part of Vinpac Purchasing. Lisa Ashby came back to Vinpac in late 2008 to manage VI Packaging.

Vi Packaging continued to grow and in 2010 a Sales Support role was developed when Kirstie Morgan joined the team with Lisa and Jo. Throughout this time Vi Packaging was involved in some exciting new products. Vi Packaging lead the way with proprietary bottles and along with Orora and the Eden Valley Winemakers the Eden Valley Riesling bottle was developed. Not long after came the Barossa bottle and Barossa cap and the 31.5mm premium O-I bottle initiative. Vi Packaging became the exclusive supplier of the SPK sparking resealable closure and was known in the marketplace for developing exciting new innovations.

As Jo and Kirstie went on maternity leave in 2011 Kate Salway was welcomed as Account Manager. Over this time Lisa and Kate, with sales support staff Julie, Craig, Kym and Raechel continued to develop Vi Packaging growing the customer base and supplying into WA and the Eastern states.

Last year it was decided that Vi Packaging needed rebranding as Vi Packaging is often seen as being a division of Vinpac International rather than its own entity. A branding strategy was developed to make a cohesive marketing plan for Vi Packaging moving forward. This included a new logo, new website, new brochure, revamped Facebook page, Linkedin and Instagram page and promotional items.

“We are excited about the new direction we are heading in with the Vi Packaging branding” said Jo Baker, Digital Design and Marketing Manager for Vi Packaging. We have just revamped our website and introduced a new Blog and Product Catalogue. The website Product Catalogue will make ordering so much easier for our customers. We have loaded pictures of all the products we sell so our customers can quickly and easily choose the product they need. It even recommends what cartons, dividers and closures fit with which bottles.

Our Vi Packaging team today has collectively over 120 years experience in the wine packaging industry and is focused on working with customers to exceed their expectations, offering reliable and professional service.

Lisa, Kate and Jo are still part of the Vi Packaging team but the team has now expanded to included two dedicated customers service coordinators Dan Bauer & Deb Noack and Account Manager Peter Reed. With the expansion of the team it means we can work collectively together as a team to ensure the best outcome for our customers.

Lisa Ashby, National Sales and Supply Manager – “We are extremely excited about what the future will hold for Vi Packaging as we are continuously looking at exciting new innovations.”

Make sure you watch this space….