Shedding some weight

• New lightweight beer bottle designs prove popular with customers while saving on material costs
• Lightweight packaging and containers can also cut transport costs and carbon footprint

Lightweight glass containers offer commercial benefits for manufacturers, retailers and brand owners.

International beer company Coors Brewers Ltd has launched a lightweight version of its 300 ml Grolsch bottle. Coors Brewers Ltd and glass manufacturers O-I and Rockware explored a wide range of new bottle design concepts.

The new packaging needed to look dynamic, maintain strong customer appeal and brand identity, as well as being practical and resource efficient. Designs were put through rigorous consumer perception trials, including an eye-tracking study using high-tech infrared equipment to see how different bottle designs drew the consumer’s eye.

Key benefits

The chosen design retained the classic Grolsch bottle profile, but with a 13 % weight reduction, saving 4 500 tonnes of glass each year. The new bottles can also save on transport weight-cost which has environmental benefits as well. 

The design proved so successful that Coors Brewers Ltd has further 'lightweighted' their 300 ml Grolsch and Coors Fine Light bottles, saving an additional 4 000 tonnes each year.