Here’s one of mine that split open during transport. It wasn’t even that big of an order, just a few bags of savoury and some bars. Luckily DPD resealed it and the contents were undamaged.
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My boxes are always damaged and I live 15 miles from the distribution centre in Wellingborough where they come from! I would say Huel you aren’t using the strongest boxes available - the ones you use are single ply boxes. There are plenty of double or triple ply boxes available - how about not bothering to have your name printed on them to reduce the cost? Huel costs a fortune the least you can do is give us a sturdy box! 7 boxes delivered to me last time and all of them wide open for the contents to fall out or be tampered with!
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Great feedback! Sorry to bump an old thread but it’s worth sharing. I’ve ordered in both the UK and in Europe and the boxes are always pretty beat up. As others have said above, often resealed by the delivery company (both small and large boxes but predominantly large) and a few times a year a bag will be leaking. It’s no massive deal but based on the breadth of feedback from different regions I would say it’s a box vs a courier issue. Couriers are always going to throw your boxes around, so you need a plan B. It’s a frustrating position to be in - environment vs costs vs getting products to consumers safely (I work in FMCG myself) but there are some really smart eco-packaging solutions available now and you seem to even have a packaging expert in @Phil_C!
like I mentioned Luke - my parcels get delivered from UK to Malaysia - thats 2 days travel and 4 flight changes with clearance handling at each stop - and never had one beaten up or bust with Fedex - had it once with DHL but not for a long time. They are the same single wall boxes as others have posted pics of.
But as Tim mentioned - they are already trialling new box alternatives.
My box was also badly damaged, the boxes are too thin. Not only do they need reinforced they also could do with internal packaging. The rest of the huel experience is very good. But the box and packaging is very lacking.
I noticed that too. I got six bags delivered yesterday and the box was pretty much bashed. The Huel was still intact, no damage at all to the bags but I did feel the outside box was not the sturdiest I’ve seen. I certainly wouldn’t want to complain about the courier. I can’t speak more highly about DPD. In my opinion, DPD are the best courier firm in the UK. But, as some others have mentioned, maybe the current boxes are too weak for the weight of the contents.
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the weight isn’t the issue otherwise the bottom would not hold (burst strength) - all the pictures I have seen people post of the larger boxes indicate the vertical crush strength has been compromised which means they’ve either had a lot of weight piled unevenly on top of them or been placed on their side and had other items stacked on top of them. Weight would also not be an issue for the smaller black boxes so they are clearly being damaged another way.
I can’t agree. I have had packages of similar weight come to me from Germany to Ireland and they are in great shape. They used stronger boxes and packaged everything tightly. From England to Ireland I shouldn’t be receiving a bashed box. It simply needs a stronger box and packaging.
Adding my experience to the thread hoping we can get a better solution worked out or at least change that awful tape that always breaks.
The last couple of deliveries i’ve had from Huel has mostly had broken boxes and missing and/or broke off tape like the image below
While a package from Amazon looks great (and intact)
Thanks for sharing those images. Your Huel box certainly looks like it’s has a tough journey. Was everything inside alright?
Out of interest, what was the weight difference (if any) in the amazon box and the Huel box. Huel weighs a lot, so naturally will suffer more, but agree there’s more we can do. My amazon boxes come in good condition too, but often are huge boxes, with not much inside other than paper buffer to protect it.
While I think DPD are generally efficient I quite often receive boxes that are badly damaged from various suppliers. They do seem quite heavy handed. One DPD driver actually dropped a box right in front of me, which was quite embarrassing for him.
UPS seem to handle stuff more carefully…although that could be asking for trouble as I am expecting deliveries from them today and tomorrow.
Yeah fortunately all was fine (albeit the bars got jammed a bit). I was worried though that something was missing or teared up since you could open the box quite a bit due to the missing tape.
When I order it’s usually 5-6 huel bags + 2-4 packages of bars so there is some weight ofc but the tape shouldn’t fail that bad every time. The Amazon boxes have had both lightweight and heavy stuff and was never busted as badly but their tape is noticeably stronger as well which you notice when cutting the box up.
My suggestion would be to swap out the current bad tape which should solve most current issues and then when there’s larger (and heavier) packages, use some of those “self adhesive angle boards” which Phil_C mentioned earlier in the thread or some alternative solution.
Additional: My guess is that the tape used for the Huel boxes gets damaged pretty easily when the boxes (and the tape) is sliding back n forth across the floor while in transport due to it being the most exposed part and having a slightly different composition than the Amazon tape which doesn’t have what looks like loose fibers in the tape that acts as sandpaper (if that makes sense?).
Also might need to tape it harder/tighter around the box so that the tape sinks into the box a bit which should protect it a bit more when the sides of the box takes the most weight instead of the middle part where the tape is.
Agree, I really miss when UPS delivered my Huel. Never any issues but somehow others had plenty? Postnord in Sweden is often terrible in comparison both in communication and the handling of packages.
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Are you interested in photos of beaten up Huel boxes where the contents are fine? My boxes always arrive with noticeable damage, but I only send the photos when the Huel bags are torn.
I recently ordered 5 packs of Huel in the UK. Two of the packs were broken with the inevitable nightmare of powder in the box to clean up.
In the past, for smaller orders, Huel has used a sturdier box. This order was sent in the weak type of box which provides no exterior support for the product. I don’t know if this is a change of policy, if so, it’s a big mistake. I get that you guys will refund the broken items, but that doesn’t help with the mess and inconvenience for the customer.
Please take a look at sending your product out in a more professional way. Reading the forums it seems like you guys talk a good game but you don’t really act on customer feedback as the box complaints have been around a long time.
Chris.
We’re so sorry to hear that Chris, we agree that isn’t acceptable and the clean-up job of Huel powder is no small task.
This is definitely a discussion that is being had internally to drive improvement and something I have passed on to the operations team at Huel. We understand it may seem this way but I promise you that improvement and customer feedback is something we take incredibly seriously at Huel.
If you could, it would be really helpful for improvement if you could send an email over to team@huel.com with pictures and videos including the order number to ensure action is taken.
I just received my delivery of five BE bags and the box does seem quite flimsy for the weight of the contents. The BE bags are quite strong so while the box was distressed, the contents were just fine, so I have no complaints.
Just to add to this, I’ve had two deliveries now from Huel in the last couple of weeks.
The first was in a brown cardboard box. This box was cheap, flimsy and not fit for purpose. It was battered to hell and hadn’t even been taped closed properly. Also might explain why one of my bags of Huel arrived with a hole in it.
The second order came in a black Huel-branded box. This was much more robust.
In short - please stop cheaping out on the brown boxes and use decent quality, sturdy boxes.
Stop cheaping out 
Glad you like the cool black Huel box though. We’re doing exactly that at the moment, we reviewed some new boxes last week and will be changing the size, board grade and layout for an all round better box. I don’t have a time frame for you but we’re on it. Sorry for any battered boxes you’re receiving, thank you for ordering so much Huel that the boxes aren’t up to the task!
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Hi @Tim_Huel - Thanks for the reply and I’m glad to hear this is something that is being addressed. At the end of the day, product can be and is being damaged as a result of poor quality boxes. From my perspective as a customer, it primarily comes down to an issue of board grade. The brown boxes, which you seem to be using when an order size exceeds the capacity of the substantial board grade black branded boxes, are by that very basis carrying significant weight, so need to be an even more robust board grade than the black boxes. Probably twice as robust as the black boxes as a rough estimate.