Cardboard can will shake-up UK premium drinks: Alexir Packaging
Designed by Austrian dairy company and co-packer Ennstal Milch, the trademarked cylindrical Cartocans can be filled aseptically and have a 12-month shelf life without refrigeration.
Aside from an initial UK launch (through Itsu iced tea), Cartocan is also on sale in Germany, Russia, Italy, Belgium, Australia, the US and Switzerland via launches in iced teas and coffees, vitamin drinks.
Only such solution in Europe
Ennstal Milch spokeswoman Diana Steiner insisted to BeverageDaily.com that her firm was the only one to offer such a solution in Europe:“We are the only company that has the machinery to make such cans in-house. We’re the only one – definitely.”
The CartoCan says the can be filled with a wide range of beverages with a pH greater than 3.0 and less than 7.0: Tea and coffee, wine and cocktails, fruits and vegetables, energy and wellness products, milk mix drinks, waters and isotonic drinks, but not carbonates.
Ennstal Milch claims its CartoCan is the market leader in the space, and offers a high quality, environmentally friendly alternative (with a lower carbon footprint) to aluminum cans or PET.
The can uses 60%+ renewable material (FSC-certified fibres sourced from an Italian card producer/printer) and claims a favorable greenhouse gas emissions profile, energy use and weight.
Seven layers protect the beverage, starting from the inside out: Polyethylene (PE), adhesive resin, aluminium film, PE, carton board, a metalized film (printing layer for a matt or alu-optical finish) and external PE to protect from humidity and outside contamination.
Award-winning innovation
The can is delivered as a flat roll that is then formed into the body of a can, fitted with a lid and base, filled and then sealed – with a standard pull-tape closure, carton-cap or reclosable lid.
Claire Summersby, from CartoCan's new UK distributor Alexir Packaging, told BeverageDaily.com:“We went to the International Food & Drink Event back in March, and we loved it. Our sales director said it was the best bit of packaging he’d seen in years.”
Summersby added that Cartocan was geared towards the premium end of the drinks industry due to the “way it looks, the way it feels”.
She added:“It won the Packaging Innovations Award there, because the Itsu brand has already launched in the UK. But we’ll take on all future business with the Cartocan from now on.
“This fits our portfolio because we do dry co-manufacturing already, so now we can do wet co-packing as well for our customers,” Summersby said.
