B, Double E, Double R, U-N:
Let's Design Time For a 'Beer-Run'

By David Luttenberger

Yes, I'm a packaging geek. Oh heck yes, I'm a beer lover. And when good beer comes in great packaging — as is the case with Labatt Blue in DuPont's Cool2Go™ shrink label technologyŠ it's just a wonderful thing.

While I typically opt to ramble in this column about aesthetics, functionality, or structure, this month I traveled the technology pure-play route and went for the "whoa" factor rather than the "wow" factor.

I say "whoa" because for the beer-swigging consumer at large, it'll take a few seconds to drink in and tie together the graphic triad of "The Cold One," the Cool2Go icon, and the quarter- sized thermal barrier graphic to grasp the whole story at point of purchase. When the realization registers that through some miracle of material science beer in this can will stay cold longer, it then becomes a "whoa, that's cool" moment and bingo — into the shopping cart!

While it's the outer shrinkwrap graphics that sell the idea, the actual technology is applied to each individual can. The Cool2Go wrap has a polymer insulation sandwiched between two layers of DuPont Teijin Melinex film. Multi-Color Corporation played a key role by creating a specially designed, rotogravure-printed, shrink-sleeve label. The labels are produced at Multi-Color's Scottsburg, IN, facility using DuPont Cyrel® NOW plates.

History tell us that Cool2Go is a younger sibling of DuPont's suite of Edge technologies introduced in 1999. At that time, DuPont was promoting Edge as a multi-solution technology for barrier and decorating. The company was particularly keen on its "cool-to-the-touch" feature, and was targeting what was then expected to be an exploding market — beer in PET bottles. DuPont's market development manager at the time, Susan Procaccini (now with DuPont Packaging Solutions), said in 2000 that Edge technologies "could replicate in a PET beer bottle the feel of a cold glass bottle or can of beer."

Labatt and DuPont are the second brewer/shrink label technology duo to team up in the past few years. Connoisseurs of both premium brews and innovative shrink label technologies will likely remember the new millennium debut of Coors' George Killian's Irish Red "keg can." Although not an insulating sleeve, the oriented polypropylene roll-on-shrink-on (ROSO) label's maroon and black graphics were striking. Both the technology and the graphics were on the receiving end of multiple industry awards — as will no doubt be the case with Labatt Blue and Cool2Go in the coming year.

While DuPont credits the Cool2Go technology with the ability to keep beer "colder" for a "longer" period of time, there are no defined parameters for "colder" or "longer." Regrettably, distribution of Labatt Blue with Cool2Go technology is currently limited to the Great White North provinces of Ontario and Quebec, obviously leaving us Yanks yearning for a cold one that stays cold longer.

And what about international markets? If, for instance, Labatt could find a German distributor (and if Germany would relax those silly regulations on beer cans and glass bottles), Cool2Go could easily become the No.1 bestseller following a hot day at Interpack when packaging geeks from the world over gather for a cold one at our favorite Koenigsallee brewhaus. Yes. I do love beer, and Whoa! — or now that I think about it — Wow! What a package.

David Luttenberger, a certified packaging professional (CPP), is the director of Packaging Strategies, an intelligence briefing service for packaging markets, technologies, and businesses. He can be reached at (610) 436-4220 (ext. 18) or at dluttenberger@packstrat.com.