News

Online office products and stationery supplier Viking Direct has been cautioned under the Packaging Regulations 2003 for sending out boxes less than 1% full.

Northamptonshire County Council's trading standards received an initial complaint against the business from an Earls Barton business in September 2007.

The business had received four correction rollers in a box that was 500 times the size of the items, which left the box only 0.16% full.

A second company then complained about Viking Direct to the trading standards in the London borough of Kingston-upon-Thames about the delivery of coding labels in a box that was only 0.4% full.

Leicester-based Office Deport International, owner of Viking Direct, has since signed a caution under the Packaging Regulations (Essential Requirements).

Viking Direct general manager Richard Carvell said that the company's box fill is on average "well over 80%" with many cartons dispatched without outer packaging.

He said: "We take our obligations under the Packaging Regulations 2003 very seriously and we regret that, on this occasion, incorrect data for a single product led us to use an outer box that was out of proportion to the contents."

Carvell added that the company is currently sending more items in lightweight plastic bags opposed to cardboard boxes.