New packaging group thinks big

A new full-service design consultancy pledging to revolutionise the way clients think has been set up by former MPL senior account director John Watts.

Mainline Partners is part of the Omnipack group. It will focus on packaging, offering “vertical project management”, to ensure that every stage from design to print is controlled and managed, says managing director Watts.

“I intend to… create a conduit through which everything can flow and get things on shelf quicker and more reliably,” he adds.

Watts already has three designers on board and expects to have expanded to a team of nine by the end of the year. He has been working as a consultant for the last year, since he left MPL.

“Everything we do has a consistency to it. Design consultancies tend to wave goodbye to artwork then problems start to set in,” he says.

Based at London Bridge, the consultancy is working on a number of confidential projects, the first of which will appear in about six weeks’ time.