Instant and ready to eat: The development of beverage packaging towards miniaturization

Smaller packaging does not reduce consumption. Instead, it changes people’s lifestyle and eating habits. Snacks and drinks in small packages can satisfy people's desire to “get ready and ready to eat”, and they can taste delicious food after opening the package.

The development trend of dessert products packaging is getting smaller and smaller, that is, the number of desserts contained in a package is decreasing. This is the current trend in the food packaging field, and people have entered the era of miniaturization and micro-miniaturization. The "ready-to-eat" situation is particularly prominent among families with a small population.

The trend of "small packaging" in the food sector also appears in the beverage industry, and it is even worse. Small packaging in beverages is not only smaller and smaller in disposable packaging, but also in secondary packaging. For example, the packing of beverages is getting smaller and smaller, especially for new brands of beverages and beverages with different tastes, and consumers are also very fond of mixed-packed beverages (for example, six bottles of two flavors in one package). In the beer sales market, 20% of the beer is sold in small packages of 0.33L per listen and 6 listens per carton. The newly-listed beer, such as the rejuvenating "Gold-Varianten" beer, is sold in small packages at 70% of its sales.

Small packages that are conducive to export

One of the important reasons why small packaging has become a trend in food and beverage packaging is export. In the international food and beverage market, not only German beer, but also high-grade cool drinks produced in Germany are the best-selling products in international metropolises, with very good sales. In order to maintain the international image of German products and ensure that foods and beverages are not damaged during long-distance transportation, they arrive in designated countries in an intact manner. Food and beverage packaging must meet specific product protection requirements. There are many reasons for using small packages, but the main ones are:

- Single family and two-person families usually prefer small packaged foods and beverages;

- Small package light weight, suitable for the elderly to buy and carry;

-Automobile service stations and convenience stores are an important channel for sales of beverages. In these sites and stores, a few bundles of small packages are very popular;

- Consumers also like small packaged drinks because of the constant appearance of new beverages and the diversification of beverage products;

- Blending several different flavors of small packages so that consumers can buy beverages and foods with several different tastes at a time;

- Blended packaging provides convenience for "drinking with a package and drinking directly from an open package."

- In the beverage export market, disposable packaging plays an important role.

With the continuous increase in various forms of small packages, high demands have also been placed on beer and beverage companies, requiring them to continue to introduce innovative technologies and packaging designs.

Blow and seal "three in one" bottle packaging

The Bottlepack blow-fill-seal "triple play" technology developed by the STI Group Company can realize the "three-in-one" mass production of liquid products under manual, semi-automatic and automatic control modes without requiring large-scale changes to mechanical equipment. produce. This kind of integrated beverage product has high production technology flexibility and can produce two bottles of one-packaged beverage products, and can also produce six bottles of one-packaged beverage products. It can be used not only for the packaging of mixed-flavored beverages, but also for the production of beverage products packed in boxes. If this technology is used in a 24 bottle/carton production line, it can be converted into four 6-vial small packages by manual rotation, or converted into two portable 5-bottle packaging methods in a 10 bottles/carton production line.

Bottlepack's "triple play" technology is the most effective alternative technology for telescopic film packaging that requires higher investment and individually packaged equipment. After using the Bottlepack technology, only a few beer boxes were "abandoned" before filling, and they could be converted into mixed-tasting package styles through simple process technology. In the manual operation mode, the cutting of the packaging material size is performed using a simple wooden tool; in the semi-automatic operation mode, the cutting tool is manually placed on the beer box, and then is completed by the punching tool through the beer bottle neck.

In the fully automatic operation mode, the Bottlepack integrated device is integrated in the packaging finishing equipment. In other words, according to the size of the package, it automatically determines the position in the form of 2 bottles/pack to 6 bottles/pack, and the punching equipment completes the cutting.

The result of the "three-in-one" technology is that the connection between the bottle and the handle is very securely achieved. Compared with the stretch film packaging technology, it can save 30% of the raw materials, and it can also use the Bottlepack technology for different tastes and different types of beverages at any time. Pack it.

STI Group, headquartered in Munich, has teamed up with other machinery manufacturing companies to develop and manufacture TLMTop-Loading beverage production equipment for high flexibility and high-speed small package beverage production. In this production facility, after a short time of equipment adjustment, it can complete the production of 4 bottles, 5 bottles, 6 bottles/pack of small-packaged beverages, and can also complete the traditional portable beverage packaging, telescopic film packaging and steam Heat shrink sleeve label. In order to meet the needs of the export market, the device can also be equipped with automatic paste box machine, you can choose 10 bottles / box or 20 bottles / box of packaging production products.

The equipment's production capacity is 19200 bottles/h, and the adjustment time of the equipment is very short, so it is very suitable for beer production enterprises and mineral water production enterprises. When the product packaging method changes, all adjustments can be completed within 4 to 5 minutes.

Packaging: a weapon to enter the market

After investigation and analysis of the market, the packaging of mixed-taste beverages has the following advantages: It can have a purposeful professional design and different specifications of design to cater to the needs of consumers, making it an important part of the company's market strategy.

Red Bull's beverages are packaged in a blended flavor to increase sales at points of sale such as auto gas stations. The company has used product marketing methods and marketed frozen Red Bull beverages to increase product sales. In this hot summer season, the sales of products in various convenience stores greatly exceed the expected expectations, and increase consumer satisfaction and corporate reputation. After adopting such a sales model, Red Bull’s sales increased by 500% under the premise of no change in prices, which brought huge profits to the retailers and beverage manufacturers.

In addition to product ideas and the company's marketing strategy, proper product packaging plays an important role in the success of the product. Especially in new products and beverage products with a wide variety of tastes. Therefore, in the beer and beverage industry, small packaging products can win new consumer groups and open up new sales channels, but these also impose higher requirements on the technology of small packaging and structural innovation of packaging materials.