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Lightweight Butter Tub

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Lightweight Butter Tub

Butter producers operate in a highly competitive, high-volume environment where packaging must balance efficiency, cost control, and shelf impact. As product ranges expand across multiple formats, there is increasing demand for packaging solutions that simplify operations, perform reliably on high-speed filling lines, and support sustainability goals through material reduction and recyclability.

Polypropylene remains the material of choice for butter tubs, offering excellent rigidity, barrier performance, and compatibility with in-mould labelling. When combined with intelligent design and manufacturing precision, it enables lightweight packaging solutions that meet both operational and branding requirements.

The Brief

What the client was looking for

The project brief called for the development of 400g and 500g butter tubs that could share identical cut sizes, allowing both formats to use a single lid. This was intended to reduce complexity across production, stockholding, and supply chains while supporting efficient multi-product packing operations.

Lightweight polypropylene tubs were specified, finished with PP in-mould labels to create a fully recyclable mono-material solution. Additional requirements focused on improved performance on high-speed filling lines, enhanced denesting, fast turnaround times, strong technical support, and low origination costs, ensuring the solution was commercially viable for large-scale, global butter producers.

The Solution

What did we provide?

Innavisions delivered a lightweight butter tub range by coordinating design and production through its specialist manufacturing partner, THRACE. A 500g Eurotub measuring 142 × 92 × 67mm was developed, weighing just 14g and using 15.7% less material than its predecessor. A redesigned clip-on lid weighs 6.4g, reduced from 8.7g, with both the 400g and 500g formats sharing a single lid to simplify production and stockholding.

Precision-engineered tooling ensures consistent wall thickness and reliable performance on high-speed filling lines, while enhanced denesting features improve line efficiency. The tubs are manufactured in polypropylene and finished with PP in-mould labels, creating a fully recyclable mono-material solution. Five-sided IML decoration provides strong shelf impact and brand recognition, delivering a scalable, cost-effective packaging solution for butter producers operating in competitive retail markets.

Key Features of the Final Product

  • Lightweight Design
Uses 15.7% less material than its predecessor.
  • Improved Line Efficiency
Enhanced denesting features optimise efficiency on the line.

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