Achieving extraordinary shelf differentiation is an ongoing challenge for any craft beverage brand trying to be noticed in a seemingly endless array of competitive products vying for the consumer’s attention at retail. While there are many ways to put a different spin on a glass bottle with shapes and different labels, they are all just that – another glass bottle.
Less is more
A truly ideal beverage package, the SHINING Aluminum bottle addresses all of the inefficiencies of legacy glass bottles head on. With its unique “featherweight” design, it is 80-90% lighter than glass equivalents, effectively reducing the weight of filled product by more than 35% or over ten pounds per case. Not only does this provide dramatically improved shipping efficiencies, but combined with its shatter resistance results in easier handling, reduced back injuries, and no spoilage or injuries due to glass breakage.
Glass: Loyal, but Limited
Glass packaging, while a tried and true standard for hundreds of years, is heavy, fragile, and space inefficient due to the thickness required to hold pressure and/or resist impact. While recyclable, it has a low value to density ratio and is typically separated by color before being recycled as different colors cannot be easily combined to produce a consistent color of finished glass. Therefore its recycle rates depend heavily on the distance from the location in which it is turned in for recycle to both a glass recycling facility and a customer for that particular color of recycled glass. As either of these distances increase, so does the cost to transport it, and due to its low value, simple economics limit how far it is worth shipping to be recycled. As a result, a significant portion of glass put in recycle bins winds up in landfills.
Aluminum: Stunningly strategic
Aluminum, which enjoys the highest recycle rate of any packaging material due to its high value to density ratio, is virtually never placed in a landfill no matter where it is turned in for recycle. It is also light weight, space efficient, provides full light protection, chills quickly, is shatterproof, and can literally be recycled forever. Available in either screw top/ROPP or crownable/corkable top finishes, SHINING’s bottles are specially coated with a custom FDA approved liner that isolates the product from the aluminum to protect against any flavor impacts and provide for optimum product shelf life. With over 1,000 pounds per pallet in weight savings vs. glass, a truckload of packaged beverages also saves approximately 24,000 pounds or 30-35% of transported weight providing for dramatically improved shipping efficiencies.