For decades, Burger Specialty Foods has been a trusted name in specialty meats, with a portfolio of beloved brands – including Burgers’ Smokehouse, Clifty Farm, Hobe’s Country Ham and Edwards. 

The company has earned praise for its high-quality, traditionally cured products. The family-owned business has remained steadfast in preserving time-honored techniques such as dry-curing, brining and natural wood smoking. Now led by its third and fourth generations, Burger Specialty Foods continues to honor its heritage while embracing modern advancements to enhance its brand and better serve retailers and foodservice operators.

One such evolution for the company came in the form of a crucial packaging overhaul for their Hobe’s Country Ham brand – a transformation that would ultimately highlight the power of digital printing in redefining brand identity and market presence.

Bringing the brand to the 21st century

Hobe’s old-fashioned recipes were still a rousing success, but its old-fashioned branding was showing its age, leaving questions about whether it was still resonating with modern consumers. Consistency was another concern, as the brand’s various product lines had been presented through differing methods incorporated over the years. Some sported stickers, others labels, still others direct print. In all, Hobe’s hodgepodge yielded a fragmented brand presentation and an inefficient, costly production process.

Additionally, the existing artwork had remained largely unchanged for years, and struggled to attract younger consumers while making it difficult to convey the brand’s premium quality and authenticity.

Simply put, the brand deserved better. Jessica Blankenship, marketing manager for Burger Specialty Foods, recognized that modernizing the brand was a necessity. 

“It was time to bring the company into the 21st century,” she said. “To reach an expanded, younger market, we needed to convey our core strengths – homestyle, nostalgia, and most of all, quality – through our packaging and displays.”

Beyond aesthetics, the company’s existing lithographic printing process was proving inefficient and expensive. Printing plates, artwork adjustments, and long changeover times made updates cumbersome and costly, limiting Hobe’s ability to quickly adapt to market trends and seasonal promotions.

Determined to enhance brand consistency, reduce costs and elevate visual appeal, Hobe’s turned to Complete Design & Packaging (CDP) for a fresh approach. 

Digital print makeover

Enter digital printing — which provided the flexibility, efficiency and quality Hobe’s and Clifty needed to make its products look as terrific as they taste. Unlike traditional lithographic printing, which requires costly plates, dies, and lengthy setup times, digital printing brought rapid turnaround windows, minimal setup time and simpler changeover, paving the way for more frequent, opportunistic design changes and versioning. 

Leveraging CDP’s direct-to-corrugated digital printing technology, Hobe’s shifted its packaging entirely to digital. The switch helped ensure a cohesive brand identity across all product lines while reducing production costs and increasing agility in design updates. The company revamped its packaging — including gift boxes, large and small dump bins — and created eye-catching in-store displays to drive sales.

With digital printing, the brand was no longer constrained by high costs for printing plates and artwork changes or long lead times. Hobe’s could update packaging as needed, responding quickly to market shifts and seasonal trends.

Enhanced branding, increased sales

The packaging transformation had an immediate and tangible impact on Hobe’s sales and retailer engagement. Previously, gift boxes featured simple kraft designs with full or spot labels. The introduction of fully printed digital designs dramatically increased brand visibility without inflating costs. Retailers took notice, placing replenishment orders and recognizing the improved shelf appeal.

“The quality of the printed graphics exceeded expectations across the full range of products,” Blankenship said. “The results weren’t just fantastic for digital printing — they were fantastic, period.”

The shift to digital also paved the way for new product launches, including a country ham jerky line. With packaging that seamlessly aligned with the refreshed brand identity, the new jerky bins became an instant success, catching the attention of brokers and retail buyers. Within just three weeks of hitting store shelves, the displays had sold out, validating the effectiveness of the new packaging in capturing consumer interest.

Among the most significant results of the transition to digital printing was its impact on Hobe’s seasonal marketing efforts. Traditionally, holiday bins were produced using lithographic labeling, making limited-run packaging financially prohibitive. Digital printing, however, eliminated these constraints, allowing Hobe’s to produce smaller batches with high-quality graphics at a fraction of the cost. This newfound flexibility made seasonal promotions more viable and profitable, enabling Hobe’s to capitalize on market opportunities that were previously out of reach.

A legacy reinvented

The transition to digital printing proved to be more than just a packaging update - it was a strategic investment in the future of Hobe’s Country Ham. By embracing modern printing technology, the company successfully revitalized its brand while maintaining the cost-efficiency necessary for long-term growth.

With a stronger market presence, increased retailer engagement, and the ability to adapt quickly to changing consumer preferences, Hobe’s is now positioned for sustained success. This transformation underscores an essential lesson: even a company deeply rooted in tradition can benefit from the innovations of today’s digital era.