Top Editors ... Sharp packaging

Title: Sharp packaging
Date: 09/08/2007
Autor: By Lynda Searby

Glass packaging might have lost out to PET in recent years, but it’s fighting back, thanks to its premium and environmental credentials.

In recent years, the rise of PET in food and beverage applications has hit the glass packaging industry hard. According to Euromonitor data, the international glass packaging market lost nearly 6% of its share to rigid plastic bottles in the food and drinks sector between 1998 and 2003.
While Sharon Crayton, marketing manager with Rockware Glass, acknowledges that glass packaging has seen its share of the mainstream soft drinks market eroded by PET, she is quick to emphasise that this isn’t the full picture.
“The food and drinks sector of the market has, since 1998, maintained a steady performance, with some segments showing strong growth. At the premium end of the soft drinks market, for example, we are seeing a renaissance of glass, and there’s healthy demand coming from the premium beer market,” she said.
The quality credentials of glass have certainly allowed it to weather storms in the past, and look likely to assure its future popularity with consumers.
“Glass protects products against moisture, oxygen and chemical invasion, degradation and tampering,” said Paul McLavin, UK sales and marketing manager with global glass packaging giant O-I (formerly Owens-Illinois). “That’s why it has been trusted by consumers for over 3,000 years.”
An example of premium in its extreme is an opulent crystal glass decanter that was custom-created by Rockware Glass for F Duerrs and Sons, to commemorate 125 years of marmalade manufacturing.
Rockware came up with a crystal glass decanter, consisting of a glass bowl with a silver stopper, sitting on a solid glass base. Production of the decanter was carried out by skilled glassblowers; silversmiths crafted the
silver lid and housing on top of the decanter; and the finishing touch was added by hand engraving.
Beatson Clark operates exclusively at the premium end of the glass container market. It recently designed a bespoke jar for Rowse Honey for its range of Sainsbury’s ‘Taste the Difference’ honeys, sold in the UK.
The 340g glass flint jar has a honeycomb design embossed around the shoulder and is used for all three variants: English Honey, French Sunflower and Manuka.
Both food and beverage manufacturers and packaging suppliers face mounting pressure to minimise the impact of their activities on the environment. This is a trend that plays into the hands of glass packaging manufacturers, as glass is fully recyclable and viewed as a more eco-friendly packaging option than plastic.
“Over an entire lifecycle, glass creates less carbon than, say, plastic, as the raw materials are natural rather than manufactured by complex and energy intensive cracking and polymerisation. Equally, the 100%
recyclability means you reduce the carbon footprint each time the same ingredients go around the loop,” said Mr McLavin.
“Another major driver in the industry is lightweighting,” said Ms Crayton. “Driven by the Courtauld Commitment and the work of WRAP [Waste & Resources Action Programme], many of our customers and also the retailers are asking for ‘best in glass’ in terms of weight when specifying new bottles and jars.”
Rockware has produced a 70cl spirit bottle that weighs less than 300g - apparently making it the lightest spirit bottle on the market.
The bottle, which took 18 months to perfect, is produced via the NNPB (narrow neck press and blow) method. Besides the obvious environmental benefits, Rockware says the bottle also results in supply chain cost savings.
O-I is another player at the forefront of the lightweighting trend. It has just produced a new ‘benchmark’ bottle for UK brewer Adnams, which is over 40g lighter than the previous best weight for ale bottles and more than 100g lighter than most bottles in the category. The bottles, which appeared on-shelf in the UK in January, are said to be the first UK ale sector bottles to be produced using NNPB technology. As a result of the move, Adnams has reduced the amount of glass entering the waste stream by more than 550 tons a year.
One area that is a hotbed of innovation for glass packaging at present is the spirits industry - particularly in the UK, where the sector has been buoyed by investments and a spate of high profile redesigns.
For example, last year, Gordon’s Export Gin was relaunched in a lightweight D-shaped glass bottle weighing in at just 408g. The design was intended to complement the Gordon’s Gin UK packaging and project a more modern image for
the Export brand. Clear white flint was used to emphasise the purity of the product.
Other activity in the spirits industry includes a new range of bottles for the Bowmore Distillery’s Single Malt Scotch whisky. Designed by Creative Breeze and produced by Allied Glass, the bottles are described as using an
‘elegant profile, as a reminder of the superior quality of the whisky’, and heavy embossing on the front panel to ‘reinforce the heritage of the brand’.
Clearly the primary function of packaging is differentiation, so brand owners are always looking for something different in terms of shape, colour or decorative finish. According to Rexam Glass, there is currently a trend towards using unusual colours which add a point of difference without detracting from the quality image of glass.
A 20cl champagne bottle made from blue glass covered in a part silver, part transparent sleeve, produced by Rexam for Dutch party beverage Monte Scroppino, is one such container.
“This decorative element lends a fresh and stylish design to the bottle, which highlights the glamorous and sophisticated side of the beverage,” explained Eric van Leur, sales and marketing director at Rexam.
Innovation in glass packaging isn’t just restricted to preserves and beverages. Children’s chocolate spread brand Venz Rimboe has just invested in a new glass jar design for the Dutch market. Three different animal images are sleeved onto the jars, making it look as though the animals are eating chocolate spread.