KLEVE,COPENGAGEN—The Carlsberg Group has launched the Nature MultiPack packaging solution from KHS subsidiary NMP systems in Great Britain for its beverage cans.
The packaging solution, marketed under the name Snap Pack, combines beverage cans with adhesive dots instead of shrinkwrapping, hi-cone and other secondary packaging solutions.
“Over the past three years, we have embarked on a research and development journey to bring the Snap Pack onto the market. This will enable us to significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste generated worldwide. Last but not least, this is advancement for a better future,” explains Carlsberg Group chief executive officer Cees’t Hart.
The brewery group expects that by dispensing with shrinkwrapping in its can packs, up to 76 per cent of plastic can be saved—in absolute figures, this amounts to around 1,000 tons per year when fully rolled out.
“Today, good brewing also means protecting the climate, nature and the environment,” explains Carlsberg head of sustainability Simon Boas Hoffmeyer.
In the run-up to the market launch, the Carlsberg Group has invested heavily in market research in order to better understand the wishes and needs of its customers. The result: sustainability is one of the most important purchasing criteria for consumers. Carlsberg then developed its sustainability programme “Together Towards ZERO”. Its objectives include reducing carbon emissions and avoiding waste. The Nature MultiPack perfectly meets this objective.
“It offers our customers the opportunity to enjoy a high-quality beer that is also good for the environment,” explains Hoffmeyer.
The Carlsberg group was also impressed by the packaging solution from NMP Systems in terms of consumer convenience. It scores, for example, with the possibility of precisely orientated cans. Consumers can thus easily identify the product. This feature offers additional advantages at the point of sales.
“Orientating the layout of each single can in the Nature MultiPack creates a so-called billboard effect. This effect brings a larger visual communication area for the brand disposed in the shelf,” explains NMP Systems senior sales director Christoph Georg von Aichinger. “The outstanding handling of the Nature MultiPack and the easy separation of single cans provides perfect consumer convenience.”
Carlsberg implements Nature MultiPack for cans as four- and six-packs including the carrying handle. The brewery group launched the sustainable innovation in the U.K. September 3, with the Snap Pack expected to be available in selected European countries first, with more of a global release to follow.
The market launch was preceded by an intensive research and development phase. A particular challenge was the composition of the adhesive which bonds the filled cans with only a few adhesive dots to a stable pack. The individual cans can easily be separated with a single movement.
“We have succeeded in developing an adhesive that works in combination with the printing ink and can lacquer without damaging it,” says von Aichinger. “The market launch of Nature MultiPack for cans is now the next milestone for more sustainability in secondary packaging.”
Switching to the Nature MultiPack packaging solution will help align Carlsberg Group’s initiatives to its new industry-leading sustainability program “Together Towards ZERO” to be implemented by 2030.
Photos courtesy of NMP Systems/ Carlsberg.
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