Helped by an app, the TV characters from F.C. Kampioenen have come to life on the Dagschotel beer bottles from Martens. © Frank Reinhold

Direct printing instead of paper labels

Martens Pils will soon be available on selected supermarket shelves in a newly designed digital PET format. © KHS

Martens Pils will soon be available on selected supermarket shelves in a newly designed digital PET format. In this way the company wants to expand the position of its beverage brands in the plastic packaging premium segment. © KHS

There are several innovations on the beverage market: Quite soon PET beer bottles from the Belgian brewery Martens will appear on supermarket shelves with labels printed entirely in a digital process. The innovative packaging is expected to be popular with consumers, while also being environment-friendly. The same is true for the new adhesive method Nature MultiPack™. This sustainable packaging solution makes it possible to carry water bottles conveniently in a sixpack and then to detach them again with perfect ease.

PIXEL PATTERNS MAKE BOTTLES TALK

Last year the Martens brewery in Belgium attracted considerable attention with its Dagschotel beer. To help promote the movie Jubilee Generale, the brewery had printed pixel patterns onto its PET bottles. These can be read by a specially created smartphone app which then breathes virtual life into the characters of the Dutch sitcom F.C. Kampioenen. By scanning in two bottle codes at the same time, customers can even listen to a conversation between those characters. The underlying technology, which is currently still unique, was developed together with the German packaging solutions company KHS, offering a new form of interactivity to the consumer. Moreover, each bottle can be designed flexibly and individually. But in addition to its marketing benefits, digital printing also scores highly in terms of food safety. Direct Print Powered by KHS™ is a process that uses low-migration inks. Previously hardened with the use of LED UV light, these inks are perfectly safe for use with food. The next generation of machinery was announced quite recently. From mid-2016 consumers will be able to buy Martens Pils in PET bottles with digital instead of paper labels.

Evian has officially been bottled since 1826. These are four bottles in each Nature MultiPack. © KHS

World première in the innovative use of adhesive

KHS GmbH clearly has no intention of stopping after only one innovation. Another world premier on the market is its Nature MultiPack™, Made in collaboration with NMP Systems GmbH and Danone Waters, this innovative packaging is already seen as revolutionary by experts. Using a special adhesive, it joins together individual PET bottles in such a way that the bottles align themselves individually and can easily be detached again later. Moreover, the packaging handles make the bottle convenient to carry, while using less material than cardboard, foil or plastic. Powered by KHS received this year’s German Design Award for unusual designs and environment-friendly packaging.

Full of contrasts – just like New York where Alexander Wang studied at the Parsons Design School. The lines of barcode and the spaces between them symbolise the perfect elegance and purity of evian®. Alexander Wang. © Schlumberger, Top Spirit

Limited bottle design for Evian anniversary

evian®, too, recently started to combine its prestigious plastic bottles with the new Nature MultiPack technology. And when it comes to design, Danone goes one step further, as this is now the ninth time since 2008 that evian® is selling a new limited edition of mineral water bottles designed by famous fashion designers.

This year the American fashion designer Alexander Wang has picked up the packaging theme of barcodes, visualised on the glass bottles through black-and-white stripes. Almost coinciding with Evian’s 200th anniversary, he has paid special tribute to the company. After all, this popular thirst quencher was said to be the first of its kind when it was bottled in 1826.