Packs and Closures

It’s rare to come across a magazine that does not carry some sort of sample-sized freebie within its pages. Whether it is shampoo, shaving gel or even perfume, there is generally something to pull from the pages and test. And at the forefront of this sampling industry is a family-run firm in Haywards Heath.

Now in its 20th year, Sampling Innovations does not manufacture products itself, but rather project manages the design and production of sample-sized products.

Founder and chairman Derek Lockyer started the company in 1987 after spending nearly a decade as European sales manager with US printer Webcraft. Each month he eagerly anticipated the arrival of sample packs, showing the business’s evolving printing capabilities.

“On one occasion what fell out was a fragrance strip. They were the first ones I’d seen,” says Lockyer. “They utilised Webcraft technology perfectly.” The fragrance strip, used in publications to promote perfumes, was to become a major hit for the company in the US.

Recognising the potential for this technology, Lockyer initially sold the fragrance strips to the French domestic market before leaving Webcraft and acquiring the UK rights for the perfume strips from Arcade. In addition to the fragrance technology, Lockyer gained the right to reproduce sachets for Socoplan in the UK.

Lift off
“It was a rocky start,” recalls Lockyer. “We nearly went out of business in the first six months.” However, an order for fragranced notepaper and a sizeable advance from Elida Gibbs, now part of Unilever, saved the company from financial ruin. “That kept the wolf from the door and we went on from that,” says Lockyer.

“From my point of view the company is now light years away from those early days,” notes Lockyer. Whereas previously he had to convince a company sampling was a good thing to do, now companies can trawl through endless product choices to find the right option for them. “It’s not a question anymore of ‘should I do sampling?’,” he says, “but how to do sampling and what gets the best results.”

Distribution routes have opened up considerably since the advent of the internet. Reaching your target audience is now much easier and so sample lines can be reduced, while their effectiveness is maximised. This has meant that sampling is now within the financial reach of niche brands that were not able to afford to do it before.

Lockyer says the ongoing challenge for brands is to target their product correctly. “I believe that to get people to switch allegiance now requires a sample in some shape or form,” he says.

Other markets
And so the firm has taken matters into its own hands. It is developing retail items for the Christmas gifts market that combine a selection of unit-dose items with one premium retail item.

To do this the company is following the model of its Easy4men travel pack, launched last month. Each three-day pack contains three 15ml sachets of shaving cream, three 3ml doses of aftershave balm, and three 15ml sachets of bodywash, totalling 99ml in volume in line with the 100ml limit for liquids in aircraft hand luggage.

Sampling Innovations came up with the concept, product and packaging for the travel pack before landing it on Easyjet owner Stelios Haji-Ioannou’s desk. The pack is now sold in Boots and there are talks to extend this. “We are now much more than a supplier, we are a business partner,” says Lockyer.

The next generation of Lockyers is also involved (see box). His sons Keith and Mark joined in 1999 and 2002 respectively as sales account managers, and Mark is now sales director, while Keith is managing director.

“There was no expectation that either of them would join, but I’m very proud that the two of them can work together,” says Derek.