McCormick Spices Up the Baking Aisle with an Award-Winning Holiday Display

Creating An Innovative, Sustainable Display in Record Time to Secure Retail Placement and Drive Holiday Sales for McCormick.

McCormick partnered with Smurfit Westrock to develop an award-winning pallet display that set a new benchmark for holiday merchandising—all within a demanding five-week timeline. This innovative solution not only captured shoppers’ attention and earned industry recognition for its sustainability, striking design and functionality, but also demonstrated the critical importance of brands working with a nimble and reliable partner to secure vital retailer placements. The collaboration highlighted how responsive engineering and creative branding, backed by a flexible team, can deliver exceptional results under tight deadlines.

McCormicks holiday display design process

The Challenge

McCormick spices and products have been kitchen must-haves since 1889. When the brand won a sought-after placement at a major retailer to feature their holiday spices, McCormick challenged Smurfit Westrock to engineer a sustainable full pallet with an aggressive timeline. To gain the retail customer approval, Smurfit needed to provide a fully engineered comped sample in 5 weeks!

The Approach

McCormick turned to Smurfit Westrock to design, engineer and manufacture a space-efficient display that blended high-impact visuals with four-side shoppability while using sustainable, paper-based materials. Bold holiday graphics, festive tones and an intuitive product layout turned our solution into a one-stop destination for holiday bakers. Our structural engineers expertly adapted the conceptual design to ensure safe delivery of the pallet holding 1,700 spice units, while our printing and graphics experts used CMYK printing to achieve rich gold tones and McCormick’s signature red, by flood coating the side panels, helping to deliver brand recognition. The finished displays were delivered preassembled with products, which helped to streamline retailer setup.

The Result

Successfully met an ambitious 5-week approval deadline. 
Seamlessly engineered a display using recyclable materials without compromising quality or visual impact. 
Due to its success, the retailer committed to rerunning the display the following year. 
McCormick expanded the festive Holiday design to additional retailers.

Award Winning Design

Bronze winner at the Shop! OMA Awards 2025

Products used by this client

Pallet Displays

Elevate your retail presence with a durable and customizable pallet display expertly designed to showcase products efficiently, enhance brand visibility, and captivate customers.

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