Hi, we're Lil Packaging :-)

lil packaging team members

…and we're working hard for a greener future

We innovate, so you can mail happy!

Here at Lil Packaging, pioneering innovation is in our blood. You might say we’re eco-packaging geeks. But we see ourselves as the guys who tick all your boxes. Here’s a Lil statement of what we do, and why:

“At Lil Packaging it is our mission to provide internet & mail-order businesses with a greatly improved, cost-efficient fulfilment operation so that they can ‘mail happy’."

"We will achieve this by delivering uniquely engineered paper-based and sustainable solutions that reinvent their view of packaging, through the application of unmatched expertise in packaging design and world-class manufacturing.”

Plastic Free, Ocean Friendly

We're SUPER proud to announce that we're phasing out single use plastics from both our product range and operations. This includes removing all mailbags, bubble mailers, plastic ecommerce tape and reformulating inks and glues to be more eco-friendly and sustainable going forwards.

It is our dream to one day be known as the company that removed single-use plastics from ecommerce - and for us to become synonymous with plastic-free and ocean-friendly packaging.

To that end, we've been working tirelessly with the internet's biggest retailers, helping them make the switch to plastic free packaging. So far we've played a part in preventing 1000's of tonnes of single-use plastics from ending up in landfill and our oceans. On top of all that, we've recently switched Europe's largest internet retailer over to our entirely plastic-free Lil envelopes, produced using 100% biodegradable recycled fibre board.

As a packaging company that makes products with a short lifespan, we realise just how important it is that we do our bit to protect our environment. It’s our hope that our commitment to eradicating plastics from ecommerce will be the catalyst for much bigger industry-wide change.

Design and manufacture runs in the family

We don’t just innovate. We design and manufacture every last mailer envelope, cardboard box and book wrap ourselves, and we keep the whole range in stock.

Owned by brothers Barry and Fred Lill, we gave our name to the company, and we’ve built a brilliant team around us. We’re still a family-run British packaging manufacturer, still independent, and we still love what we do.

The Lil Difference

  • Sustainably Sourced, always
  • Plastic Free & Biodegradable
  • Seriously fast to use
  • Researched sizes to fit your needs
  • Maximum protection, always
  • Consistent supply

Lil, known as Mainline Flatpacks in the past…

Established by our dad, Roger Lill, in 1983, Mainline was a leading British packaging manufacturer, initially focused on the supply of packaging to photo processors. It grew from supplying Kodak enlargement envelopes to being Europe’s largest manufacturer of cardboard envelopes and the foremost specialist in packaging.

The definitive Lil tick box

  • Plastic Free and Recyclable (where possible)
  • Inventing sustainable alternatives to plastic
  • Sustainably sourced FSC certified
  • Low Carbon Footprint (all processes carried out in-house)
  • Sizes are extensively researched so you get the snuggest fit – and
  • lowest cost mailing tariff
  • Fastest to hand-pack
  • Europe's most protective range of cardboard postal packaging
  • Reduced return rates by up to 63% (independent stat from a global online retailer)
  • Minimised damage and reduced postage costs
  • Hot melt adhesive peel and seal closure provides the best seal – at least twice the strength of standard double-sided tape
  • Frustration-free tear-strip opening on most items
  • Greenest brand of packaging in the market
  • Vast quantities of stock holding
  • Everything we do is tried, tested and perfected through extensive research with the world’s largest online retailers. It’s the reason we’ve the most operationally cost-effective range of eco-friendly cardboard postal packaging on the market.

In house capability

Design, Pre-Press Artworking, 5 Colour Offset Lithographic, High Speed Flexographic, Short-run Digital Printing, B1 Print, Cut and Crease. Window Patch, Foiling, Metallics, Gluing, Specialist Finishing and Coatings. Warehouse capacity of 2,500 pallets with in-house distribution.

  • Number of employees: 100+
  • Company Status: Privately owned family company Est. 1983
  • Head Quarters: 55,000sqft (5,100sqm) operation in Huntingdon, England
  • Accreditations: ISO9001 (quality), ISO14001 and FSC (environmental)
  • Investment Programme: £1.2m (1.5m) invested over three years in latest, most efficient technology
plastic free eco friendly packaging manufacturer