Ztwo brand recipe for the Bakin’ Boys

Cake and snack bar brand The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys is launching three new products with packaging design by Ztwo Design, Design Week can exclusively reveal.

They are the first examples of Ztwo Design’s work for the brand as its sole retained group, in what is believed to be a relationship worth fees of £125 000-£150 000 over the course of this year.

The work is due to embrace both a new product development programme and an overhaul of The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys 60-strong packaging portfolio. It will also involve posters, corporate literature, display and point-of-sale material.

The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys general manager Tom Russell describes the brand as ‘the challenger brand of the cake industry’ and claims bigger companies such as McVitie’s and Kipling copy its packaging style.

He says design has always been crucial to the brand’s success and the investment with Ztwo Design is concerned with staying ahead of the competition.

Ztwo Design director Nicki Scott says the consultancy has no written brief and its approach is emerging in partnership with the client. ‘We didn’t suggest a major radical redesign, but looked to draw out the brand’s original quirky spirit. The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys attitude had been relegated to the back of the pack and we’ve brought it back to the front, while developing a family look for the product range so all the packaging works synergistically,’ she says.

The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys previously worked with the consultancy FLB for five years, winning a Design Business Association Design Effectiveness Award for corporate identity in 1998, and making a change was a big decision, says Russell.

Ztwo Design was appointed in January after a five-way pitch held in November 2001. Scott hopes the retainer will last for at least three years, the duration of The Fabulous Bakin’ Boys’ current new product development programme.

The three new products, a new Eccles cake and two muesli bars will be on shelf this weekend.