Containerlite: Less Is More

While David Wiggins was optimistic when his team set out to further improve the main bottle used for all of Coors Brewers products – the 300ml standard Grolsch bottle – he didn’t quite expect the resulting bottle to reduce overall packaging weight by 4,500 tons or a full 13% of annual shipped product weight since its debut in the summer of 2006. David, who joined Coors Brewers seven years ago with a strong background in packaging development, extends a fair amount of the credit for the project, called Containerlite, to two UK government-affiliated groups: the Waste Research Action Project (WRAP), which is funded by the UK government to encourage better use of packaging by industry, and the Farraday Partnership, which brings together industry associations to collaborate on new technologies. David’s team had worked in partnership with both organizations for some years, and is in fact on the Board of Management of the Farraday Partnership. They felt that it made sense to leverage these partnerships in order to make a significant leap forward in the ongoing goal of bottle “light-weighting”. They were right, and the two organizations ended up providing needed access to expert resources as well as research funding.

“While optimizing our bottles for both consumer appeal and environmental responsibility is an ongoing task,” says David. “We think very carefully about any changes, since the package has to be competitive on-shelf. It has iconic value. It delivers the brand image.” With this in mind, the first task was to evaluate different container options and determine consumer preferences for beer bottles. Did they care most about the bottle’s size, shape, decoration – or all three? To find out, David’s team enlisted the help of the Leeds University School of Business. Using an “eye-tracking” technique, the group found the narrower, more gently tapering shape and smaller label to be the consumer favorite.

Shelf Appeal: “Hot spots” denote areas of consumer fixation
(after initial fixation cross in blue circle)

The resulting bottle made its debut in the summer of 2006, sporting a reduced diameter, smaller label size and significantly less glass content. The new diameter means that bottles fit perfectly onto incoming and outgoing shipping pallets, wasting no space. So, less glass and secondary packaging is being shipped into Coors Brewers, less is going out with the product, and less going into landfills after it’s used. The decreased truck movements mean reduced CO₂ emissions – a key objective of the company.

Coors Brewers decided to roll the successful new package out to all of its brands, resulting in the current common bottle for Coors Fine Light and Carling products as well as Grolsch. “It’s rewarding to see these results,” says David. “This project is one of those rare opportunities to work on something which delivers a cost benefit to the company as well as an environmental benefit, in a package that consumers prefer.”