Woolworths packaging and artwork requirements: the complete guide

How Woolworths enforces packaging: VQC

Woolworths states its mandatory packaging and barcode requirements in a single document, the Woolworths Packaging and Barcode Specifications, and measures each trade partner against it through a Vendor Quality Compliance system at its distribution centres. Deliveries are checked, non-conformances are logged against the supplier, and repeated problems lead to charges and, ultimately, refused deliveries.

That is the practical difference from Coles. Both retailers publish similar rules and share the Common Delivery Guidelines. Woolworths is the one with a scoring system attached, so the same mistake costs more.

The documents

Woolworths asks that these are read alongside the laws they sit under: trade measurement legislation for pre-packaged articles, the Food Standards Code, the Therapeutic Goods Act for anything therapeutic, Australian Standard AS 4068 for pallets and the GS1 barcode standards. If you supply Endeavour Group (BWS, Dan Murphy's), the same Partner Hub material applies with Endeavour read for Woolworths.

Barcodes: the non-negotiables

This is the section to get right. Woolworths publishes these as examples of mandatory requirements, and they are the ones VQC catches most often.

• A GTIN is required on all outer cartons, both order multiples and vendor packs.
• The symbology must be correct for the level: EAN-13 on the consumer unit, ITF-14 on the carton, GS1-128 on logistics labels.
• UPC-12, UPC-A and UPC-E will not scan in Woolworths DCs. Imported products carrying a North American UPC need an Australian GTIN on the carton.
• Every carton barcode needs a barcode verification report, submitted to Woolworths before ranging and re-verified every twelve months.
• Two GS1-128 pallet labels are required on every pallet delivered to a Woolworths DC, carrying the human-readable and barcode information to Woolworths and GS1 specification. A pallet without them causes handling delays and may be rejected.
• Pallet label capability is verified up front by the Vendor Capability team, including a verification report, before a new supplier delivers.

For the consumer unit, follow GS1 Australia's rules on magnification, quiet zones and contrast. Woolworths' scanner expectations on where the barcode sits relative to the seal edge are, in our experience, slightly more prescriptive than Coles'. A pack designed to Woolworths' barcode placement will pass Coles; the reverse is not guaranteed.

Safe packaging compliance

Woolworths frames its carton and pallet rules as safety requirements, which is how they are enforced. The published essentials:

• Robust cartons within the nominated safe weight lifting range, easy to open, and following the principles of the National Packaging Covenant.
• Secured pallet loads that fit within the confines of the Australian standard pallet. No overhang.
• Pallets in good condition: no loose boards, no protruding nails.

The Vendor Capability team will help a new supplier get this right. Use them before the first delivery rather than after the first non-conformance.

The consumer unit

Woolworths does not add labelling law of its own. The pack has to meet the Food Standards Code, country of origin labelling, trade measurement, and the Therapeutic Goods regulations where relevant, exactly as it does for Coles. Our Coles guide sets out the mandatory elements in full and the same list applies here. What Woolworths adds is process:

• Product data and images are lodged through the Woolworths supplier systems. Images for Woolworths online are square, high resolution and on a white background; the current specification is in the Partner Hub.
• Woolworths Own Brand (Woolworths, Macro, Essentials and the rest) runs through the Own Brand team with its own design system and approval chain, as at Coles.
• Health Star Rating has been applied across Woolworths Own Brand for years. Expect to be asked about it on national brands too as the mandate process moves.

Shelf-ready packaging at Woolworths

Woolworths adopted shelf-ready packaging early and uses the same five easies framework as Coles: easy to identify, open, shelve, shop and dispose. The specifics of tray height, front lip and perforation are in the Packaging and Barcode Specifications and in the category's planogram. Two points that differ from a generic SRP brief:

• The tray must present the product correctly in the planogram orientation for that category. Ask the buyer for the planogram before the tray is engineered.
• Sustainability considerations for secondary packaging are documented. Woolworths wants trays that are mono-material, recyclable in the store waste stream and not over-engineered.

Sustainability documentation

Woolworths is an APCO signatory and publishes its own Secondary and Tertiary Packaging, Sustainability Considerations document for suppliers. It covers material choice, recyclability of cartons and wrap, reduction of packaging, and the expectation that suppliers report against the National Packaging Targets. On the consumer unit, the Australasian Recycling Label is expected on Own Brand and increasingly on national brands. Use the APCO PREP tool to generate the correct artwork.

Getting ranged: the packaging timeline

Woolworths ranges new products at category reviews, on a calendar the buyer holds. From a packaging point of view the sequence is: pitch with near-final packs, win the slot, lodge product data and images, submit barcode verification, lock artwork, print, deliver to the DC against the supply standards. Each step has a lead time and they do not overlap much. Six months from first design to first delivery is realistic for a new brand; longer for a range.

What gets held at the DC

• Cartons with no GTIN, or a UPC instead of an Australian GTIN.
• Wrong symbology: an EAN-13 on the carton, or an ITF-14 printed too small to scan.
• Pallets without two GS1-128 labels, or with labels the scanner cannot read.
• Cartons over the safe lifting weight, or that need a knife to open.
• Pallet overhang, loose boards, unstable loads.
• Barcode verification report missing or expired.

None of these is a design problem in the usual sense. All of them are the designer's problem if nobody else on the project owns the outer.

Written by

Morice Kastoun, Founder & Creative Director

Morice Kastoun is the founder and creative director of Morice&Co., an independent Melbourne branding and packaging studio. His packaging has shipped through the compliance processes of Coles, Woolworths, Chemist Warehouse, Priceline, Petbarn, Big W, Myer and Sephora US.