Boxmore Promotes Special Beer PET Bottles

May 2011 | Food & Beverage Reporter

The previous generation of PET beer bottles in SA were no more than standard CSD (carbonated soft drinks) bottles, with round shoulders, straight bodies and short necks. Boxmore says its new PET beer bottles are the first PET specifically designed for beer on the SA market. Boxmore does not believe that premium beers will always be bottled in glass because of supposed "image of quality" it says its research indicates that "it is more the colour of the packaging than the material that determines the perception that a beer is premium".

The PET industry has long seen beer as the next great challenge and opportunity. Having already converted most of the soft drinks market away from the more traditional glass and can formats, the next major drinks category to conquer is beer. As a first step Boxmore Plastics, one of SA's leading PET producers, recently launched the first bottle range designed specifically for beer. 500ml and 1-litre beer bottles are already on the shelves.

Although use of PET for "mainstream" beer has been limited to events and promotions, like the Budweiser bottle sold at World Cup stadiums last year, there is growing acceptance of it within SA's emerging microbrewer industry, Boxmore says. It believes that in time, microbrewers will build the acceptance of PET as a format and create opportunities in the mainstream market.

Zea Oosthuizen, key account manager for Boxmore, says: "PET is the ideal format for artisanal beer and the emerging brewer. One of the biggest 'traditional' barriers to using PET for beer is that most mainstream beer is pasteurised after filling, and although this is possible with specially-made PET bottles, pasteurisation before filling is difficult and costly. Artisanal beer, on the other hand, is generally and is not pasteurised.

"Also, from an equipment viewpoint, for many emerging microbreweries, starting out and growing in PET is much easier and cheaper than in glass. In contrast, most of the big brewers are already invested both in glass filling equipment and returnable glass bottle, so a change to PET could be extremely costly.

"PET beer bottles are also attractive for microbreweries because unit costs are lower and the bottle is lighter. In transport, there are savings to and from the factory. And of course, there are less breakages.

Oxygen sensitivity

In the past, one of the criticisms of PET in meeting the needs of the beer industry was the sensitivity of the beer to oxygen migrating through the walls of the PET bottle, affecting the taste of the beer. "Unlike soft drinks, the taste of beer can be affected when packaged in PET because oxygen from the atmosphere can diffuse into the product over time. Recently, however, new technology has developed both active and passive barriers, including multi-layer solutions, that can reduce both the ingress of oxygen and the loss of CO2 to extend the shelf life of sensitive products like beer," says Oosthuizen.

Boxmore is an expert in multilayer and other barrier technologies like oxygen scavengers. It has used its experience in solving shelf life issues for the global soft drinks giants in developing solutions for the beer industry. "Although not all artisanal beers need the 'ultimate' multi--layer solution, it is possible today to produce a beer bottle that can match the performance of glass, with a shelf life of up to six months. Our approach is to match the needs of the product and its supply chain - to the bottle we produce for it," she says.

And appearance...

The other and potentially greater challenge PET faced in the beer market was that of image. Although PET has been used in SA for beer, most producers have been limited to "amber" soft drinks bottles. This, Oosthuizen admits, "has inhibited the perception of a premium product". But internationally, PET beer bottles have come a long way in the past 5-10 years. The first PET beer bottles in Europe and the US were generally "glass look-alikes" with crown closures and champagne bases, but things have changed considerably since then. "Although the first bottles opened the way for the growth of PET, they didn't really harness many of the benefits that PET could bring to beer. But since then the European market in particular has matured their bottles now use plastic screw-on closures, allowing resealability, and the weight of the bottles has been significantly reduced by using petaloid bases, while still retaining the look and feel of glass bottles."

And now in SA, with the production of oxygen scavenging preforms, Boxmore has designed 500ml and 1litre PET bottles specifically for beer. "Having looked carefully at the bottle cost and trade issues (like price-point, servings per bottle and the size of the bottle on-shelf), Boxmore decided that a customised 1-litre beer bottle was a key opportunity to change the image of beer in PET. Much of this stems 'From the similarity in size between a 1-litre longneck bottle and the current 750ml glass bottle. But the PET bottle offers 33% more volume. "The 750ml returnable glass bottle is the most cost-efficient form of packaging currently in the beer industry. Competing against it requires a really good-value proposition to the consumer.

The PET 1-litre bottle of beer is likely to be similarly priced, but more in volume. In the mass market - where the 750ml glass beer pack is mainly sold - the 1-litre PET bottle will score full points due to the added volume, giving microbreweries a competitive advantage.

"Both the 500ml and 1-litre PET bottle have a similar look and feel to glass beer bottles. Also, PET bottles are conducive to customisation by changing shoulder inserts, allowing brewers to emboss the bottle with their brand name, etc. "This not only builds consumer loyalty but also makes the bottle look and feel more premium, competing further with glass.

"Unlike glass, embossing is quite easy to do with PET, and relatively cheap. The same mould can be used - a simple insert will ensure that there is embossing of a specific design at a specific position on the bottle. Still, longer manufacturing runs allow for more cost-effective bottles, so brewers should opt for this if their volumes justify it. But such volumes will still be much, much lower than for glass as it is a simple process to insert a logo, for instance.

"The look and feel of the product is key to changing perceptions. Offering a bottle that looks like a glass beer bottle and following it with a superior taste experience has the potential to significantly boost acceptance in the beer industry."

Teigue Payne | Food & Beverage Reporter

Boxmore has factories in Harrismith, Cape Town and Mauritius.
Zea Oosthuizen: Tel: 082-699-4305; Zea.Oosthuizen@Boxmore.co.za