The Rankings
The 5 Best Packaging & CPG Branding Agencies
Making the world's best-known brands feel distinctive again
📍 London, New York, Shanghai, Singapore | Est. 1990 | Budget: Not published
Best for: Iconic consumer brands, global masterbrand programs, food and beverage, restaurant and retail brands
Clients: Burger King, Heinz, Budweiser, Jet-Puffed
Jones Knowles Ritchie's 2021 Burger King rebrand became one of the most celebrated identity projects of its decade. It returned the brand to a flatter, bun-shaped logo inspired by its 1970s to 1990s heritage, introduced a custom typeface called Flame Sans that echoes the shapes of food, and carried the new look across packaging, uniforms, menus, and restaurants. The work won Best of Show and Rebrand of the Year at the Dieline Awards, where JKR was also named Studio of the Year. For Heinz, the agency created the first global masterbrand, uniting a portfolio across more than 20 product categories around the brand's iconic keystone shape.
JKR is at its best with brands that already have strong heritage to rediscover. Small startups will find the scale of its process more than they need.
Skip if: You're launching a first product on a limited budget.
Premium brands and pack innovation that change how a product is used
📍 London, New York | Est. 1992 | Budget: Not published
Best for: Premium food and drink, beauty and personal care, structural packaging innovation, restaurant and takeaway brands
Clients: Lurpak, wagamama, Cadbury, Stonyfield
Pearlfisher is strongest when the answer to a brief is a new format, not just a new label. Its Lurpak Slow Churned project combined premium brand design with structural innovation, creating a butter meant to sit on the table rather than hide in the fridge, and won Grand Prix recognition at the FAB Awards. Its takeaway packaging for wagamama earned a D&AD Pencil. The studio also works on brand identity for classic brands such as Cadbury Dairy Milk, and its futures practice studies where categories like health and wellness are heading, which helps clients design packs that won't look dated in two years.
It's a premium, strategy-heavy partner, better suited to established brands than to first-time founders.
Skip if: You need fast, low-cost design for a first product run.
Challenger branding for food, drink, and wellness brands that have to shout
📍 Leeds, UK | Est. 2009 | Budget: $30,000+
Best for: Challenger food and drink brands, wellness and functional products, startups entering crowded grocery aisles
Clients: Pip & Nut, Deliciously Ella, Moju
When a small brand sits next to a category giant on the shelf, polite design disappears. Robot Food builds packaging with the confidence to compete in those moments: bold typography, personality-led illustration, and clear messages that tell shoppers what the product is and why it's different. Its work for brands like Pip & Nut, Deliciously Ella, and Moju shows how a challenger can look premium and approachable at the same time. For many of its clients, the pack is the entire marketing budget, and the studio designs with that in mind.
It's less suited to large corporate portfolios with many stakeholders and markets.
Skip if: You're managing a global portfolio of dozens of products.
Research-driven redesigns for brands that shoppers already know
📍 London, New York | Est. 2007 | Budget: $60,000+
Best for: Supermarket staples, heritage food brands, household goods, brands losing share to newer competitors
Clients: Weetabix, Birds Eye, Britvic
Redesigning a brand that millions of people buy weekly is risky: change too much and loyal shoppers can't find it, change too little and newer competitors keep winning. BrandOpus manages that risk through research into how shoppers actually find products in a category — what they recognize from a distance, and what drives the final choice both in store and in online baskets. Its work for long-established brands such as Weetabix, Birds Eye, and Britvic shows a firm comfortable modernizing familiar packs without losing the cues people rely on.
It's a practical, evidence-led choice; brands seeking a dramatic creative reinvention may want a bolder partner.
Skip if: You want a radical new look regardless of existing shopper habits.
Packaging systems that stay consistent across dozens of products and markets
📍 Leeds, New York, Singapore | Est. 1989 | Budget: $50,000+
Best for: Large CPG portfolios, multi-market rollouts, food, beverage, and retail brands operating in several regions
Clients: Yorkshire Tea, Nestlé, Kellogg's
Designing one beautiful pack is the easy part. Keeping a brand consistent across hundreds of products, sizes, languages, and retail channels is where many programs fail. Elmwood has built its reputation on that operational side, with studios across Europe, North America, and Asia that let it adapt a brand for different markets without losing coherence. Its work for brands such as Yorkshire Tea shows it can also give a well-loved brand real personality on pack, not just consistency.
It's a strong partner for big portfolios; single-product startups will likely find a smaller studio more agile.
Skip if: You're launching one product in one market.
