We’ve done extensive drop tests on a number of pouches very similar to this. Paper is not strong enough to hold 1.75kg of Huel. If we switched to something like this, please consider the implications:
You’ve spent £40 or more on your Huel and you find it burst I expect, like most, you would email customer service and request a replacement, refund and/or throw away the burst pouch. Which wastes possibly 28,000kcal of food, and increases carbon footprint from extra delivery. From our side this is bad financially too. This is what it looks like when a pouch bursts:
Now as you can see this already happens very occasionally with our current, extremely strong pouches. This effect would be multiplied 10x I expect if we switched to a fully biodegradable pouch with what we’ve looked at. Here’s why:
Currently we can get a 1.5kg biodegradable pouch, but it would only work if the pouch was basically handheld the entire journey it just isn’t suitable for ecom. Packages get dropped, thrown and damaged between us and the consumer. No one that sells powdered products has tried this with the 1.5kg pouch. The only people that have tried it are dog food companies, it works for them because biscuits, when dropped, disperse their pressure evenly focusing the pressure everywhere. Powder’s weight is all through the bottom of the pouch on the seams and means the bottom falls out/seams at bottom break. There isn’t currently a glue that is strong enough to prevent this.
We could do a ‘recyclable’ pouch. The problem then is the infrastructure, yes it could be ‘recycled’ but if not many places recycles it then what’s the point? It’s an empty gesture which has marketing spin all over it.
We’re going to do it once and we’re going to do it right.
There is a timeline, we have a plan and possible solutions. This industry is slow, I can only apologise.