Beer, wine & spirit

The rising demand for the craft segment where locally made spirits and beers gain importance. To sample new interesting flavors, consumers are increasingly seeking out microbreweries, wineries, and distilleries. The craft beer market in the US has exploded and is now reaching other geographies. The rapid development of local breweries is generating more references on the shelves, new distribution channels and new packaging sourcing.

A major trend observed across the globe for beer, wine and spirits is the growing importance of attractive packaging to seduce consumers. Cool designs, limited editions and even personalization are gaining importance. The packaging is becoming a creative place driving demand for shorter runs, more flexibility and faster time to market.

Premiumization of drinks is a trend and this has a direct link to the packaging as it conveys the value of the brands.

Retail and shelf ready packaging is growing fast in the beer and wine markets. Brand positioning, visual disruption are key success factors. Such new boxes call for sophisticated packaging designs and high-end cutting and folding machinery to produce them.

Last and not to be ignored, the prominence of counterfeit products request producers and retailers to look for advanced technologies to secure the products.

To date, PET beer bottles have gained only a very limited market share from glass bottles and metal cans. PET bottles have, however, made good inroads into the US spirits market, with many spirit brands sold in PET alongside glass equivalents. Barrier PET bottles are starting to make headway in the wine industry. PET, being lighter is seen as a major cost saving source for retailers.

Beer, wine and spirit labels are becoming increasingly complex in terms of enhancement effects, such as application of lacquers or varnishes, tactile effects, embossing, gold leaf, and label shapes. Narrow and mid web inline flexo presses like the MASTER M5 have become industry benchmarks for quality output and operational efficiency including post printing enhancements and die cutting all in one single pass. The unique Digital Flexo Automation, enables fast, flexible and reliable operation through a workflow that is digitally checked, adjusted and controlled, including the use of the 7-color Extended Color Gamut (ECG) printing. BOBST MASTER CI 90SIX CI flexo press is designed to deliver premium quality on a wide range of carton thickness including heavy substrates. An array of auxiliary systems that facilitate change-overs ensure maximum profitability even for short runs and even with the largest formats. Thanks to its sophisticated mechanical and electrical design the machine can handle even thin substrates which further increases the efficiency of production. In gravure the web tension capability of the EXPERT RS 6003 platform makes it perfectly suited for paper applications owing to the material's high web tension and large diameter winders.

The production of metallized labels for beer bottles can be done on the BOBST industry leading metalizer machines. The BOBST EXPERT K5 can produce more rolls per day and provides significant cost saving innovations. The machines in the CO coating range that are configured for the production of plastic and film release liners and label stock are tailor made lines delivering unparalleled performance at speeds of up to 1000 m/min. They can also be tailor made for post metallizing on luxury boxes.

When printing high added-value packaging on substrates from micro-flute to double-wall, the MASTERFLEX-XL is the most productive flexographic printing press in its market with up to 9 printing units. Post-print flexo on corrugated board, unmatched quality at lower cost in one pass. For brand owners requiring very high quality graphics incl. images on corrugated boards, the BOBST THQ FlexoCloud Technology is the most advanced one pass platform delivering quality, productivity at low operating costs. In addition, BOBST offers security printing features for anti-counterfeit and track & trace - features required by brands. High value spirits require high-end imagery as well as the maximum protection for transport. BOBST MASTERFLUTE TOUCH in-line laminating solutions provides highly efficient production lines for litho-laminated corrugated boards requiring embossing, foiling and gold/silver impressions.  

Brand owners and packaging designers are aiming at striking differentiation for their products. Hot foil stamping is indeed a great way achieving it. With almost fifty years of experience in the design and manufacture of foil stamping machines, BOBST has remained constantly at the forefront of advances in this technology. For spirit boxes, the EXPERTFOIL 104 FR is the unique solution on the market with its format VI. It is the only hot foil stamper with 600 tons of embossing pressure, enabling very deep embossing with superb quality. It maximizes foil economy with automatic foil control, continuous self-adjustment of foil web tension during production and allowance for processing of large size foils at full running speed.

For cutting boxes, even in high volume production BOBST offers the most automated and productive die-cutter MASTERCUT 145 PER capable to run up to 9'500 sheets/hour. This high speed die-cutter delivers fast, uninterrupted production and a superb quality of the finished product. And when it comes to flat-bed die-cutting of corrugated board and litho-lam such as ice box, MASTERCUT 1.7/2.1 is the pioneering solution that delivers higher running speeds, fewer stops, shorter make-readies, and matchless quality. With the most versatile and productive folder-gluer MASTERFORLD 110, BOBST offers the perfect configuration to deal with complex packaging such as 6 pack packaging. The EASYFEEDER / BATCH INVERTER 4 will feed the blanks faster and easier. The GYROBOX & NICK BREAKER modules will deliver exceptional quality and increase efficiency by producing complex boxes in a single pass. The device SPEEDWAVE 3 -for crash-locks  will save time and deliver exceptional folding quality; while the high performance packer CARTONPACK 4 with CASE ERECTOR increase your productivity by automatically filling your shipping containers.

Beer, wine and spirits are a major market for packaging converters. The BOBST DRO family has been designed to accommodate the most complicated jobs such as 6 packs with a fully automated production line from sheets to boxes ready to be sent to the packers. The BOBST DRO 1624/28/32 NT RS is also the most productive press on the market. The BOBST FFG 924 or 1228  are the most productive machines delivering up to 33.000 boxes per hour. For brown boxes in very high productivity, the BOBST FFG 8.20 EXPERT is the industry benchmark in terms of speed and fast order change for a fully automated complete line. Within the beer, wine and spirits production, corrugated board plays a major role.