Vegums is a UK-based company founded by two vegan pharmacists in 2018, specialising in gummy vitamins that support vegan and family-friendly nutrition. The company prides itself on being a provider of clean-label, responsibly-produced plant-based products, offering a range that includes essential vitamins and supplements like vegan B12, D, fish-free omega-3, folic acid, and iron gummies, all made with natural fruit flavourings and colourings.
A key aspect of Vegums’ brand is its commitment to sustainability. Its products are designed to offer a healthier option for both consumers and the environment, and this ethos extends to the sustainable packaging used by Vegums. Through its collaboration with Parkside, the company is proud to offer a packaging portfolio that is fully home-compostable and designed for a minimal environmental impact.
The challenge
Creating packaging suitable for Vegums’ requirements presented a specific series of requirements. The company’s existing solution comprised a flow wrap inside a rigid carboard tube, and the new pouch needed to deliver robust protection while being fully home compostable. This constrained the choice of materials as many barrier films and coatings that protect against moisture, oxygen, and oils are traditionally plastic-based and do not degrade effectively in home composting environments. Another challenge emerged in ensuring the packaging could break down within specified timeframes (e.g., within 26 weeks for home composting certification) while leaving no toxic residues that could affect soil or plant health.
Achieving the required barrier properties with compostable materials is technically difficult. Flexible packaging for products like vegan vitamin gummies must prevent oxygen ingress and moisture penetration to maintain freshness and extend shelf life. Traditional multilayer plastic films achieve this well but are not compostable. Compostable alternatives often have reduced barrier performance, so innovative solutions such as water-based barrier coatings on plant-based films must be developed to balance biodegradability with functionality.
The Parkside solution
Parkside’s solution for Vegums is a flexible pouch using film supplied by Futamura, which is TÜV certified as home compostable. This certification guarantees that the packaging breaks down completely within 26 weeks in a domestic compost heap and even faster (within 12 weeks) in industrial composting facilities. The film is plant-based and designed to degrade safely into biomass, water, and carbon dioxide without leaving harmful residues, fully aligning with Vegums’ sustainability ethos.
The pouch itself is a flexible, lightweight solution that combines environmental credentials with mechanical robustness to withstand packaging processes and handling. This material architecture balances the competing demands of performance requirements, consumer experience, and rigorous sustainability standards.
A core innovation in the solution is the application of an advanced water-based barrier coating on the compostable film. This coating provides crucial protection against moisture, oils, grease, and oxygen ingress, which could compromise the freshness and quality of Vegums’ vitamin gummies. Achieving high barrier performance without traditional plastic layers or chemicals was essential to maintain the product’s shelf life and consumer appeal while ensuring the whole packaging remained compostable.
The results
The partnership between Vegums and Parkside has yielded significant positive results for Vegums in terms of sustainability, material use reduction, and consumer experience. By adopting Parkside’s compostable flexible pouch solution, Vegums was able to replace its previous packaging system with a much lighter and more sustainable alternative. This change led to a significant reduction in the amount of packaging material used, aligning perfectly with Vegums’ mission to minimise environmental impact.
Vegums’ leadership recognised that working with Parkside’s knowledgeable and responsive team enabled them to achieve a balance of sustainability, functionality, and quality while significantly cutting down material use. Additionally, this packaging innovation supports Vegums’ subscription and e-commerce business models by providing a secure, lightweight, and visually appealing packaging solution that meets consumer demand for eco-conscious products without sacrificing performance.
In summary
As a brand built around family-friendly nutrition, Vegums continues to lead the way in plant-powered wellness. Its range of vegan vitamins and plant-based supplements, including vegan multivitamins, fish-free omega-3, vegan B12, and iron gummies, are designed to make nutrition simple and accessible for all ages.
In choosing Parkside’s home compostable packaging, Vegums demonstrates that sustainable supplement packaging can deliver the same performance and shelf appeal as plastic alternatives. The move to plastic-free, compostable pouches supports the brand’s zero-waste ambitions and reinforces its position as one of the leading names in eco-friendly vitamin packaging in the UK.
The last word
“Working with Parkside on this project has been fantastic – their experience in compostable packaging has helped us dramatically cut down on material use without sacrificing quality or customer experience. The collaboration enabled us to achieve a sustainable packaging solution that aligns perfectly with our mission to provide plant-based, more sustainable nutrition. The Parkside team has been a great partner throughout the process, showing repeatedly that they are responsive, knowledgeable, and genuinely invested in helping us advance our sustainability goals”
John Rushton, Co-Founder and CEO of Vegums
