Artisanal incense cones in premium wooden packaging.

About the unique collaboration between Waldweihrauch and Krepel

One of the best things about our work is that we get to collaborate with all kinds of special companies from all over Europe. For example, we are proud of the unique collaboration we recently started with Austrian company Waldweihrauch. Florian and Angelika Gruber produce artisan incense cones with homegrown herbs. The special-edition cones needed premium packaging and this is where we came in. We talk to Florian about his company and the collaboration with Krepel. 

How did you come up with the idea for Waldweihrauch? 

“We started Waldweihrauch in January 2020. At that time, we had already been producing incense cones for several years. We made our first incense cones on our small organic farm. The company was founded because we had to separate farming and the production of incense cones. This is because in Austria, farms mainly produce ‘Urprodukte’ which are unprocessed goods like the dried herbs we grow on our farm.”

What makes Waldweihrauch’s incense cones unique?

“Our artisanal incense cones do not contain synthetic essential oils and we don’t use artificial additives such as saltpetre. We mainly use herbs from our farm and resin from our own black pines. All cones are made according to local Austrian recipes. We also make incense cones that contain special types of incense: this is our ‘Premier Cru’ line. Cones with six kinds of boswellia incense, for example. And third, we went through old books to recreate scents from past times. From this, we created cones with six different scents from nineteenth-century France.”

Why did you decide to ask Krepel to produce the wooden packaging for part of your range?

“When we were just starting out, we packed three of our cones together with four matches in a cardboard matchbox. This way of packaging not only provides protection, but you can also use the packaging to light the cones. So two birds with one stone. But when we heard from some customers that they found the matchboxes a little too simple for our premium cones, we decided to start using wooden boxes for our special-edition cones. I started looking for the boxes that appealed to me and came across cigar boxes from De Olifant. I contacted them and learned that Krepel made the boxes. After that, contact with Krepel was quickly established.”

How did you decide on the design of the boxes? 

“I used the dimensions of De Olifant’s cigar box, because it was very suitable for shipping seven cones. We developed the larger box, which fits six different types of cones, ourselves.”

How do you describe your collaboration with Krepel?

“We experience it as very good and productive. Antoon Pelgrim is always helpful and has good suggestions on how best to implement our ideas. I would definitely recommend Krepel to other companies that need premium wood packaging!”