Shrink sleeves open drinks route to younger audience

Related tags Scotch whisky

Beverage brands eager to have their cake and eat it are increasing their use of full-length, limited- edition shrink sleeves alongside established branding on more traditional, labelled bottles.

Sales director at CCL Decorative Sleeves Jon Cowan said: "Many of the premium spirits brands, for instance, are trying to reach non-traditional markets. Scotch whiskies are among those products with a rapidly ageing consumer base which are trying to attract a younger audience. But they don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water and alienate traditional markets."

Examples from recent months include limited edition bottles from Jack Daniels and Southern Comfort, as well as a 150th birthday variant from Bacardi Martini.

In wines, applications have been more selective. "In sparkling wines such as international brands of Champagne, and Cavas from Spain, numbers of limited edition sleeves have increased," said Cowan.

Nor is the market only for promotional packaging. CCL Decorative Sleeves is supplying the Cornish Mead Company with decoration for its standard range.

Growth in the drinks sector is helped by films offering higher and more consistent shrinkage, predominantly polyethylene terephthalate (PET) films. For those higher-value applications which are seeing the fastest growth, creasing or poor shrink performance are unacceptable, Cowan explained.

"In addition, there is now a more developed infrastructure of third-party providers of contract packing and decoration," he added.

Premium adult soft drinks, including non-alcoholic cocktails, represent a further growth area, according to CCL. To a lesser extent, children's soft drinks are taking up full-length shrink sleeve options.

In food, there are fewer examples, said Cowan, but many of these are high-profile and high-volume, such as the Heinz Beanz Fridge Pack.