310 corporate gifts later
We had a pretty busy summer this year! In August, we spent the month packing 310 corporate gift boxes filled with local, Canadian products from women owned businesses. Rewind a bit, the products were gifted in reusable golf shoe bags for clients at an annual charity golf tournament at Angus Glen Golf Course in Markham, Ontario.
More on the bags below...
This was our biggest order to date and it was pretty exciting to be able to work with our client on this unique project. Instead of our usual recyclable kraft gift boxes, the client requested to use branded golf shoe bags to elevate the unboxing experience and tie in the golf theme to the take away gift that each attendee would receive. This was definitely unique to us, but we were up for the challenge and pleased with the reusability of the bag.
How It Went | Planning
Planning began all the way back in the spring. This is definitely not an over night process: It takes time for us to coordinate everything with the client, research products & packaging, confirm availability & pricing, propose a few different options with information & photos, wait for the client to accept & pay a deposit, order & wait for products to ship, send off any designs to the printer for insert cards such as a thank you note, deal with any damages (things got pretty sticky over here with some broken maple syrup), build a sample gift and then begin packing each gift with care.
We're pretty much a one stop shop over here at The Kind Curator Co., with you every step of the way.
The Local, Canadian Made Products
Our business is built on supporting other local, small businesses that make truly exceptional products using carefully selected ingredients and materials while keeping the environment in mind.
If a client shares the same values, then it's an easy match. Our client wanted only local products from woman owned businesses in Canada to be included in the gift bag + a box of branded Fitleist golf balls to keep things on theme.
With a few great small businesses in mind, we went to work researching & connecting with each business. We're really pleased & grateful for each of the amazing woman owned businesses that were included.
Here's the 7 products we chose:
- Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix - from Braydough & Co., a woman founded business in Sudbury, Ontario. The mixes are inspired by their Nana's recipes.
- Traditional Maple Syrup - from Wabanaki Maple in New Brunswick, Canada. Wabanaki is an Indigenous female founded business located on Neqotkuk (Tobique First Nation).
- Coffee (Costa Rica) - from Road Coffee Co. in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Road Coffee Co. is a female founded company that follows the BeyondFair® program with their farmers where they bring micro-loans directly to partnering farmers. Fair prices allow them and their employees to make a living wage and gain financial freedom for their families and communities.
- Premium Tea In Compostable Tea Bags - from Pluck Tea in Toronto, Ontario. A woman founded company specializing in premium teas, blended and packed in Canada. At Pluck they source tea ingredients from sustainable gardens, local growers, artisan producers and blend in small batches.
- Crème Brûlée Raw Organic Creamed Honey - from Chandler Honey in Toronto, Ontario. This is a pure organic creamed raw honey, meaning it is unpasteurized so all of the good for you benefits are still in tact! A woman founded company specializing in unique flavoured creamed honey. All honey is sourced from the founder, Tique's, family farm in Canada, and creamed for 48 hours for a smooth, buttery texture that is shelf stable.
- Juniper Bud Soy Wax Candle - from East City Candles in the Kawartha Lakes, Ontario. A female founded company specializing in hand poured, non-toxic candles made with plant-based soy or coconut wax, lead free cotton wicks and a mix of essential oils & phthalate-free fragrances.
- Nature Spa Natural French Soap - from La Marcotterie in Gatineau, Quebec. Female founded company specializing in French inspired minimalist skincare made with all natural ingredients. Each bar of soap contains moisturizing plant butters and oils, essential oils and botanical extracts.
*we've linked a few of the products that are currently available in the shop if you'd like to try
The Packaging
We were tasked with figuring out how to make a golf shoe bag look like a luxe gift, while also keeping everything inside secure (almost every product is in a glass container).
After speaking with the amazing team over at Wolfpak Packaging in Newmarket, Ontario we decided on a custom cardboard tray insert to add shape and sturdiness to the bag to keep items from sagging at the bottom. With the tray inside, we then added some void fill (recycled kraft paper & crinkle paper) to keep the products from shifting and to make everything look presentable.
In each bag, there was also two insert cards printed on recycled paper included - a thank you note from the client & team, as well as information about each product in the bundle.
The unboxing experience for the attendee was still important! We elevated each gift with a few sprigs of local English lavender from Prince Edward County & Creemore, Ontario. Who doesn't love the scent of dreamy lavender?
Keeping Things Eco-Friendly
As a company that is concerned about our impact on the environment, we're always striving to select the best eco-friendly options available to us when selecting products & packaging.
Inside the reusable golf shoe bag, each product included was in recyclable/ reusable glass or recyclable packaging (mostly paper based). Unfortunately, the coffee was the only product that came in packaging that was not recyclable or reusable in any way; something to improve on. All additional paper packaging materials were made from recycled post consumer waste.
With ordering so many products, we were left with TONS of cardboard shipping boxes and packing paper. We saved and reused as many boxes as possible, reused all the paper to pack the gift bags and recycled anything extra that we couldn't salvage.
Tree Planting To Offset Carbon
In case you aren't already familiar with our tree planting partnership, at The Kind Curator Co. we plant a tree for every gift box or order placed through our Shopify store with TreeEra in Calgary, Alberta. We've been doing this since our launch in 2020.
For this project, the client was very adamant about increasing that amount per gift box to offset their carbon footprint from running this event.
They chose to plant 10 trees per gift bag, which was absolutely amazing. That's 3100 trees just from this event alone! These trees will have the potential to sequester approximately 573,500 lbs of carbon from our atmosphere.
How It Ended | Delivery & Happy Clients
On September 8th we packed all of the precious cargo into a UHAUL truck and hand delivered the gift bags to the client's office. Depending on the project, we use local couriers & at times make the delivery ourselves to ensure a smooth transition.
"I fell upon Miya's company through googling ideas for a work charity event, and I am so glad I clicked on that link. I reached out to Miya and she was AMAZING!!! She was super accommodating and helped me through the whole process. Miya helped incorporate many particular items that we wanted included in the box, including some very specific items that had to be specially sourced and she worked hard to ensure these items were included. The boxes were beautiful, smelt delicious and were very well received. Would highly recommend Miya for your next purchase." - Michelle S.
Do you need help with corporate gifts this holiday season?
You've been assigned the task of organizing the employee and client holiday gifts at the company you work for this year, *sigh*. You really don't have the time to try and put this all together yourself, even though it could be a fun task, you've got other time sensitive projects to get through for the boss. Your boss wants them to be eco-friendly, but also stand out and look and feel luxe. They've also noted that they'd like to support local as much as possible.
After a quick google search, maybe a social peruse, you come across The Kind Curator Co. You're reading this exact blog post and realizing that you don't have to do it all yourself. They'll take care of the thoughtful gifts and all of the little details right up to delivery, *sighs of relief!*.
Ready to get started on your corporate gifting plan?
Email us at hello@thekindcurator.ca to see how we can work together this season!
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