Smurfit Kappa has launched eBottle, a new range of packaging options tailored for the rapidly growing online beverage and liquids market.
The new portfolio includes a variety of sustainable options for single and multi-pack products, including the Rollor bottle pack, BiPack, and Pop-up insert.
The company identified how the surge in e-commerce due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been evident across all sectors, with the beverage market having experienced a ‘significant impact’. In particular, it noted, online sales for alcoholic beverages have increased by 34% in Europe, driving demand for sustainable, durable and consumer friendly packaging that protects the product during shipment.
Key challenges for the beverage e-commerce channel are product damage, sustainability, consumer experience, and the ability to accelerate growth using the right packing processes. Consumer research carried out by Smurfit Kappa shows consumers are continuing to push for higher standards. Moreover, Smurfit Kappa’ own research has highlighted that 69% of consumers prefer paper-based packaging, whilst more than half want the parcel to be easy to open. Only one in every 10 consumers will reconsider re-ordering in the case of damage.
Commenting on the launch of the e-Bottle portfolio, Arco Berkenbosch, vice president of innovation and development at Smurfit Kappa Europe, said, ‘Our new eBottle product range offers beverage businesses a suite of fit-for-purpose and bespoke packaging solutions that address the key challenges for their e-commerce channel.’
The eBottle portfolio has been designed and developed primarily for the wine and spirits category, but it can be applied to any category that uses glass and bottles, for example, juices, olive oils and water.
All options within the eBottle range are fully customisable in dimensions and material for use with any bottle size and shape. They can all be printed digitally.
The eBottle packaging portfolio includes:
- Pyramid insert (pictured, above), where the pyramid insert protects fragile product; it is suited for single bottle applications;
- Cuboid insert, which provides a larger surface area to personalize;
- Protected gift (pictured, bottom), with an even larger communication area and which is designed to ‘perfectly present’ labels, such as on a wine bottle;
- Rollor bottle pack (pictured, top), offering full protection of single bottles in a stand-out and unique shape;
- Bag-in-Box, which maximises the parcel space, saving carbon dioxide during transport;
- Divider 3-in-1, which increases productivity in delivery and can hold three or six bottles;
- Heavy duty pack, providing extra strong protection for a fragile product; these can accommodate 1-6 bottles;
- Pop-up insert, a modular option giving full visibility of products and can hold three or six bottles.
- eStack, for securing bottles with different heights so suited for delivery of mixed products; and
- BiPack, which provides full protection for the product as well as an ‘excellent’ unboxing experience; brands can communicate with customers by changing the print inside the box.
Mr Berkenbosch continued, ‘The innovative range, combined with our focus on e-commerce processes, supply chain and consumer experience, have all contributed to increased sales and greater efficiencies for our customers.’
Smurfit Kappa also offers a host of automated options to optimise packaging processes in addition to the eBottle range. The launch of this new product portfolio is the latest addition to its range of ‘Better Planet Packaging’, designed to be more sustainable and coming from a renewable and recyclable raw material. Businesses are already benefitting in the alcoholic beverage segment, such as InterDrinks.
This customer is an online merchant selling more than 2500 different types of beers and beer products. Smurfit Kappa introduced a flexible and unique packaging system that accommodates all the various sized products sold by InterDrinks. It also includes automated assembly that mounts the packs as required.
Herwin Wichers, market development director at Smurfit Kappa, said, ‘As a result of the implemented packaging and automation solution by InterDrinks, it has increased its packing and filling capacity by 66%, allowing it to fulfil more orders, faster.
‘The online European alcohol beverage market is worth €5.6 billion and we want to help companies take advantage of the real growth and opportunity in this segment.’
Read more about the wines and spirits market, and the role of digital printing, in the November/December 2020 issue of Digital Labels & Packaging, and here
