Saint Louis Sucre: when a “bec verseur” is the secret of a product’s success

The added value of a successful brand.

Saint Louis Sucre is a leader on the French sugar market, and the company’s origins date back to 1831, when the first Roye refinery was established. From that day to this, Saint Louis Sucre has made its name as the first choice for a multitude of consumers who without hesitation know exactly which sugar they’re going to choose from amongst the many brands on the shelves of their local supermarket. The secret of this success is somewhat hidden… in the bec verseur classique.

But let’s start from the beginning.

In 1964 Saint Louis asked us to help improve the consumer’s user experience with their cartons. The rest is history: in just a short time we presented the customer with machines they could use to insert the Pac Spout dosing systems in their cartons.
Et voilà… les jeux sont faites!
Soon Saint Louis Sucre was crowned the leading French sugar brand thanks to the company's far-sightedness and the intelligent decision taken to restyle the packaging; they literally took the market by storm, acquiring a huge number of new, loyal customers thanks to the practical packaging.

The bec verseur became the protagonist of the packaging world and the champion of success of this major, famous brand. They were our first French customer, and set the example that almost every other French sugar brand followed, and in turn these other brands also became our customers.

When consumers simply fall in love with a dosing system

But just like all the best stories, things happen and things change.
For Tacom and Saint Louis Sucre this change occurred in 2010 when the customer contacted us to say they intended to stop collaborating as they wanted to start using another dosing solution, one derived entirely from folded paperboard: an integrated spout.

Based on our experience we knew this kind of dosing system wouldn’t guarantee a good seal when closing the carton and it would easily bend out of shape after it had been used a few times. What’s more, the product could quickly spoil if damp got into the pack due to the poor seal.
For the consumer this would mean lumps in their sugar, grains of sugar spilt everywhere and it would be problematic to dose the desired amount.
We warned our customer of these factors that might possibly, if not probably, lead to a drop in sales.

Unfortunately the choice to use an integrated spout, as we expected, resulted in a drastic drop in sales for Saint Louis Sucre, and that’s not all!
Consumers began, without mincing words, what one might call a real rebellion with a campaign of scalding reviews on the company’s products. The reason? Obviously, they were missing their bec verseur!
There were many reviews in which consumers complained about how unpractical the carton was to use now and how the product was wasted; to them it just didn’t make sense.
Many people in fact, after the company made this disastrous choice, switched to competitor brands like Beghin Say, another of our customers and a great fan of having our spout on its box.

After the storm of bad reviews, and last but not least Carrefour threatening to take Saint Louis products off its shelves, the Customer contacted us to start collaborating again, to add the bec verseur to its packs once more. To make its intensions clear to all, Saint Louis Sucre decided to announce the return of the original “Bec Verseur Classique!” by printing exactly that on its packs.

It just goes to show how dosing is a detail that makes the difference between any old brand’s product and a great brand’s product.