Howling success: zooplus’ own brand ‘Wolf of Wilderness’ introduces recyclable packaging delivered by Mondi

Mondi, a global leader in packaging and paper, is supplying a sustainable mono-material, recyclable packaging for zooplus AG, the leading European pet food online retailer. The sustainable packaging is used for a new dry dog food product line for their own top brand ‘Wolf of Wilderness’.

Mondi is supplying zooplus with a pre-made FlexiBag Recyclable and BarrierPack Recyclable form-fill-and-seal (FFS) reel material, which are both certified recyclable by the Institute cyclos HTP which specialises in the classification, assessment and certification of recyclability of packaging.

In order to meet growing consumer demand for sustainable packaging, zooplus is using the new material for ‘Wolf of Wilderness’, their flagship brand in their own brand portfolio. A recent June 2020 survey by Mintel shows that German consumers remain mindful of the environment and that increasing the circularity of packaging can benefit brands. Alongside this demand for sustainable products, the pet care market overall has grown steadily over the last few years in Europe (from 25 billion Euro in 2015 to around 30 billion Euro in 2019) and especially e-commerce has recently been accelerated by the COVID 19 crisis.

While seeking greater recyclability for its packaging, the online retailer was not willing to compromise on any performance properties, including barrier protection, or aesthetics. Mondi’s materials provide all the necessary barrier properties to protect against the unwanted transmission of moisture, oxygen and odours with a high premium look and feel.

Mondi’s expertise made it possible to maintain the desired aesthetics on the packaging, so that the previously metallised highlights on the label and in the eyes of the wolf are also recyclable.

“The success of ‘Wolf of Wilderness’ shows that we have our finger on the pulse for species-appropriate, convenient and high-quality food that dogs love. That is why Mera Tiernahrung, who has been contributing to our success for years, manufactures the dog food. As a consequence, we only considered a sustainable and high-quality solution to package the new flavours,” noted Dominik Mayer, Senior Product Manager for ‘Wolf of Wilderness’ at zooplus.

“Mondi leverages its customer-centric EcoSolutions approach to create sustainable packaging by design without compromising on quality. By applying our extensive materials knowledge we were able to replicate the look without the use of any metallic substances to produce recyclable packaging,” said Thomas Kahl, Project Manager EcoSolutions for Mondi.

The products are now available at zooplus