The world around us has changed and as a result, breweries must be able to react to, and fulfil, changing market demands. Here, Brendan Greenwood, strategic account manager at DS Smith, explains how packaging plays is its role in helping you achieve your company’s goals.

At DS Smith our designers and packaging strategists work closely with breweries to support their evolving needs. Plastic replacement innovation and sustainability are key drivers along with brand integrity, and the high-quality, cost-effective packaging is critical in delivering on that promise and catching the attention of the consumer.

We’ve developed over 650 designs focused specifically on plastic replacement and our packaging designers have created a range of sustainable alternatives for multi- can carriers, can clips and fully enclosed, high-sided trays to replace plastic film.

Thinking about the whole package we are working on eliminating plastic tape in our box designs, by creating boxes with different closure mechanisms. Innovations like this can have a huge impact, one of our customers has already eliminated 18,000km of plastic tape by implementing this design – enough to stretch halfway around the world.

Sustainability for our brewery customers is not just focused on the packaging, but the entire supply cycle. Making minor changes in packaging design can make a huge difference throughout the supply cycle. Here at DS Smith we work with partners to create tailored ‘distribution efficient’ packaging, that cuts carbon footprint and reduces delivery miles.

Switching from heavy weight card board packs to a lighter alternative like our R-Flute® packaging can reduce packaging volume and weight, reducing the number of deliveries to the breweries. For a large brewery customer this led to a 35% decrease in the number of pallets being delivered to their warehouses, which also means potentially 35% less warehousing space to light and heat too.

Impact on-shelf has always played a major role in driving sales, brewers continue to have high print expectations and more complicated printing requirements, which DS Smith has the technology and expertise to accommodate for.

On top of this new variant types are key drivers, particularly in the craft category, which requires a visually attractive pack to capture consumer attention on shelf – over 70% of purchase decisions are made after your customers enter the store.

Our latest consumer insight shows a ‘new normal’ has arrived, where big shops replace more frequent, smaller shops and over half of UK shoppers say they are visiting supermarkets less. A habit that 1 in 4 shoppers say they expect to continue long-term. Brewers need to compete at fixture and DS Smith’s innovations in packaging design and print capability allow us to create attention grabbing designs for our customers.

Our partnership with Eyetracker, a leading European packaging research group, demonstrates that with the help of impactful Shelf Ready Packaging (SRP) shoppers find what they’re looking for 10% faster 11 and 80% of retailers report impactful SRP can deliver a sales uplift of 4% or more.

Brewers want to move quickly and adapt to selling online, as there are significant opportunities that exist, from sales to sampling, personalisation to subscription models,” Brendan Greenwood, DS Smith.

The growth of e-commerce, particularly due to recent world events, has boomed as staying home is the new going out. Even as bars and restaurants slowly re-open, all the indicators are that it will be some time before on-trade footfall and sales return to pre-Covid-19 levels. Brewers want to move quickly and adapt to selling online, as there are significant opportunities that exist, from sales to sampling, personalisation to subscription models.

At DS Smith our innovations in e-commerce packaging design, robust testing methods and unrivalled insight into European supply chain complexities mean we can support our customer with scalable packaging solutions and support brewers get online quickly and safely, supporting our customers as they grow.

Our e-commerce solutions include our ePack site that offers a simplified range of off-the-shelf packaging solutions and bespoke solutions, where customers can design packaging to delight consumers with personalisation, limited editions, collectibles and the quality of print.

Our innovations are bespoke for the customers we work with and we ensure our solutions meet the unique needs of every brewery customers. We’ve worked to find the balance between protecting packaging and limiting the amount of materials used, as it’s a key concern for our customers.

Our DISCS™ technology enables us to scientifically assess our customers’ requirements and get this balance right, with a real-world packaging testing process for creating high performance e-commerce packaging.

Named after the types of testing (Drop, Impact, Shock, Crush, Shake), the patented system consists of five pieces of equipment, each replicating a part of the product journey to ensure our packaging solutions are durable as well as sustainable.

We’re experiencing that canning has been buoyant throughout the various stages of lockdown with particular growth in larger can sizes, such as the pint sized can. Consumption off-trade has increased but was recently impacted by supply chain issues and a lack of availability within the UK.

Aluminium shortages have affected canning manufacturers over the past couple of months, as shopping habits changed in reaction to the Covid-19 pandemic. The initial bulk buying of supplies from supermarkets, meant canned beverages experienced a surge of sales, that coincided with a shortage of material to supply the demand.

“The initial bulk buying of supplies from supermarkets, meant canned beverages experienced a surge of sales, that coincided with a shortage of material to supply the demand,” Brendan Greenwood, DS Smith.

Investing in packaging with DS Smith provide a whole host of benefits to a customer’s brewery packaging and whole operation. Volume production capabilities and low cost are the main benefits, as well as delivering on the recyclability agenda.

Beyond this, it’s DS Smith’s mission to ensure all Beer & Cider brands stand out at fixture. Our printing capabilities means we can create disruptive promotional, seasonal and exclusive versions of customers packaging a commercial reality. These are scalable operations, as we can print as few as 5000 units per design and deliver multiple prints in a single run, without having to stop each time to make ready. 

To support smaller brewers, we can even bundle the print runs of more than one brewery on a single machine, this increases our operational efficiencies and cost-savings in all quantities. With the UK’s largest digital printer, we easily switch to larger volumes too, planning up customer designs to maximise each 2.8m-wide sheet.

Our capabilities allow us to help smaller brewers to develop urgently needed ecommerce channels and find innovative ways to protect products and optimise supply chains. We are committed to designing plastic out of packaging, reducing the carbon impact of the just-in-time supply chain and reducing the end-of-life impact of packaging.

We’re currently working on a number of exciting projects with our customers, these include working with a major beer supplier to replace the plastic high cone. This resulted in 1 million single-use items of plastic being removed from supply chain and a continued listing with major stockist. 

With each year over 20 million tonnes of plastic packaging produced in Europe and globally 8 million tonnes of plastic waste entering the oceans, a small change like this can have a big impact. 

Recently for a customer, we designed a bespoke point-of-sale display (POS) to support a new product launch and promotion in wholesalers. Part of our POS range which are available in every shape and size and put our customers’ products centre stage offering customised and unusual shapes. This particular project resulted in an 86% uplift in sales and the promotion spread further than just store.

The distinctive displays drove interaction with store colleagues, with some dressing up to match the attention-grabbing display and uploading photos to social media.

We’re also working with another customer to relaunch their brand, providing new high-quality graphics across the range. This includes mixed can packs in a variety of combinations and we collaborated with the client to develop High Quality Post Print outer packs for customer facing SKU’s.

The quality of the print and vibrant designs were strategically designed to grab shoppers attention on the shelf. They also drove brand awareness and ensured a successful brand relaunch.