“We had to stop scrapping one in twelve boxes. The math just didn’t work,” recalls the operations director at North Shore Naturals, a mid-size e‑commerce skincare brand shipping 25–30k orders weekly across three DCs. In their words, the corrugated program had become the bottleneck: missed ship windows, color drift, and too many setup delays. They needed a plan that a lean crew could actually run.
Based on insights from ecoenclose projects we’d seen in adjacent categories, the team decided to combine Flexographic Printing for standard mailers with Digital Printing for short seasonal runs—keeping Water-based Ink and FSC-certified corrugated as non-negotiables. It wasn’t a silver bullet, but it reframed the constraints in a way that production could own.
Company Overview and History
North Shore Naturals started as a small DTC line in 2017 and outgrew plain shippers fast. By 2023, three core SKUs accounted for 70% of volume, with a rolling mix of seasonal kits and collaborations driving the rest. Their packaging brief evolved: brand-forward kraft mailers for the long tail, tighter color control on icons, and a more repeatable workflow for quick-turn promotions. Their western Canadian node, a 3PL in Langley, BC, was a test bed—ironically where they’d once leaned on generic moving cartons just to keep orders flowing.
The procurement team trialed sample kits from several converters. One of the early tests came via an ecoenclose coupon on a small pilot order—useful for risk-free trials, even if coupons don’t make a long-term procurement strategy. What mattered was proof that recycled kraft plus water-based systems could hold color and survive parcel networks without heavy coatings.
We still get side questions during onboarding—like “does walmart have moving boxes?” Sure, many stores carry them, and for a local move that can work. But for branded e‑commerce packaging with ΔE targets, box strength specs, and die-cut tolerances, the path is different. The Langley team even asked about moving boxes langley bc as a stopgap; understandable, but not a match for the brand’s print and structural needs.
Quality and Consistency Issues
Baseline metrics told the story. Scrap hovered around 7–9% across two converting partners, with FPY% in the mid-80s. Color drift on kraft (especially greens and skin tones) pushed ΔE variances to 4–6 on some weeks. Changeovers for seasonal art tied up the line for 45–60 minutes, and operators avoided certain recycled lots because of rub-resistance headaches. Throughput ranged 9–10k shippers per shift, but spikes in demand forced overtime and rushed setups—usually when promos hit.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The brand’s switch to more recycled content improved sustainability optics but added variability in substrate porosity. Water-based Ink was the right call for handling and regulatory comfort, yet drying margins shrank on cooler, high-RH days. A few early runs showed edge-cracking near scores; preheater settings and die anvil wear turned out to be the culprits. None of this was catastrophic; it just eroded predictability shift by shift.
Fast forward to a tense November: a promotional kit ran with two art versions, but only one plate set was live. Operators tried to improvise a make-ready mid-shift—never a great plan. That was the moment the team committed to a hybrid approach and better preflight controls, rather than trying to force every SKU through the same flexo setup window.
Solution Design and Configuration
The playbook had three legs. First, move core mailers to Flexographic Printing on kraft corrugated board with G7 calibration and tighter anilox management. We standardized anilox volume near 3.5–4.0 bcm for solids and 2.0–2.5 bcm for linework, then capped press speed to 110–130 m/min when RH trended high to maintain water-based drying windows. Second, shift seasonal and variable art to Digital Printing—Short-Run and On-Demand runs that keep changeovers minimal. Third, polish post-press: dial in die-cutting pressure and varnishing passes to balance scuff resistance without overcoating the natural look.
Substrate and InkSystem choices stayed conservative: FSC-certified kraft liners, recycled medium, and Water-based Ink with low-VOC profiles. We set ΔE acceptance bands to 2–3 for brand elements on both flexo and digital. Finishing included light Varnishing in high-abrasion zones and a small Window Patching on one gift kit sleeve. Structural tweaks (score depth and slot tolerances) stabilized folding and Gluing at scale. On the workflow side, Variable Data files for limited editions moved exclusively to digital, freeing flexo crews to run at steady conditions.
The brand partnered with ecoenclose packaging for design-for-manufacture checks and sustainable material qualifiers. Let me back up for a moment: the initial digital trials ran warm tones nicely, but cool neutrals on recycled kraft needed profiles tuned against press ICCs. That calibration loop—four target iterations over two weeks—paid off. Operators also adopted a simple color bar check every 2k sheets, nudging FPY% without adding complex inspection systems. It’s not perfect; recycled lots still vary, and seasonal humidity can slow the line. But now it’s a controlled trade-off instead of a surprise.
Quantitative Results and Metrics
Within two quarters, FPY% on flexo mailers pipeline moved from 84–86% to 92–94%, with ΔE on brand-critical colors landing in the 2–3 range. Scrap moved from 7–9% to about 4–5%, equating to 1.2–1.5 fewer tons of monthly waste at current volumes. Changeover time for seasonal work dropped into the 25–35 minute band by offloading variants to digital. Throughput settled near 11–12k shippers per shift, depending on art coverage and humidity. Cost per box stopped whipsawing, staying within ±2–3% quarter to quarter.
Payback on the hybrid approach (tooling, training, and workflow tweaks) penciled out in roughly 9–11 months. The team logged fewer press stops related to ink rub—down by 30–40 events per month compared with the prior average—after dialing in varnish zones and preheater settings. Compliance and sustainability boxes are checked, too: FSC inputs confirmed, Water-based Ink in use, and documentation aligned to internal QA processes. We still see edge cases—thick art coverage on certain recycled lots will slow press speed—but the variability now shows up in forecasted windows, not as last-minute fire drills.
As for side questions we still hear—like “where can you get moving boxes for free?”—there are community sources and retailers that help for residential moves. For branded corrugated under print control, it’s a different track entirely. The takeaway for our ops peers: use flexo for the steady runners, digital for the changeable work, and keep your profiles honest. That mix has kept ecoenclose projects on our desk practical to run—and practical is what gets orders out the door.
