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New Carlsberg packaging replaces plastic with glue

Carlsberg cans will soon sport a more sustainable packaging. The company has launched Snap Pack, a solution where Carlsberg cans are glued together in a multipack instead of using shrink-wrapping, hi-cone rings or other secondary packaging solutions.

The innovation was invented by KHS subsidiary NMP Systems, and developed together with Carlsberg over the past three years. It is now being launched as a world premiere for cans under the name Snap Pack.

“Carlsberg’s Snap Pack will significantly reduce the amount of plastic waste and we look forward to offering consumers a better beer experience with less environmental impact,” explains Cees ’t Hart, CEO of the Carlsberg Group. The brewery group expects that by dispensing with shrinkwrapping in its can packs, up to 76 per cent of plastic can be saved – in absolute figures this amounts to more than 1,200 tons per year, when fully rolled out.

In the run-up to the market launch, the Carlsberg Group invested in market research in order to better understand the wishes and needs of its customers. The result: sustainability is one of the most important purchasing criteria for consumers. Carlsberg then developed its sustainability program Together Towards ZERO which includes initiatives such as reducing carbon emissions through increased recycling and reuse of materials.

A particular challenge was the composition of the adhesive which bonds the filled cans with only a few adhesive dots to create a stable pack. “We have succeeded in developing an adhesive that works without damaging the printing ink and lacquer on the can,” Christoph Georg von Aichinger, Senior Sales Director at NMP Systems, says.

Carlsberg plans to implement Snap Pack for for cans as four and six packs including the carrying handle, and will sell it in the U.K. and Norway with Denmark, Carlsberg’s home country, in early 2019.

Another benefit of the solution, Carlsberg explains, is having perfectly aligned cans, enabling consumers to easily identify the product and find it on the shelf. “Aligning the layout of each single can in the Nature MultiPack creates a so-called billboard effect. This effect brings a larger visual communication area for the brand displayed on the shelf,” von Aichinger says.