Supercap has been designing and manufacturing closures since 1999, with the mission of placing its client’s requirements center-stage and to design closures to match the vision of its clients. We recently caught up with Heinz Heidenreich, Supercap sales director U.S. division, to talk about the future of closures.
What type of key trends do you see for caps and closures in 2020 and beyond?
Heinz Heidenreich: More customization and upgrading of corks, caps and bottles for further differentiation in a crowded market space. The store shelves are full and crowed with different brands, and the package is the most crucial aspect for sales and promotion of the distilleries’ brands. Distilleries recognize that specifically higher end whiskies are going up in retail price, therefore they are spending more on corks to give the consumer the touch and feel they are looking for with luxury goods. The Scotch market is a model for how high the price per bottle can go [and] people buy on emotions.
Decoration of their logo on top or side of the corks for further imaging: More and more corks are now produced with decoration instead of just stock corks with a flat and less interesting top. The top of the closure gets touched approximately 30 times before the bottle is empty—the consumer will get an impression of the closure, which transcends to the overall feel of the package & image of the company. Laser etching is very popular, followed by ink printing.
More differentiation between brown and clear spirits with the closure. Brown spirits tend to be closed with wood [and] clear spirits tend to be closed with aluminum.
More and more customers choose high quality closures instead of low cost ones, that can break while uncorking. When talking about plastic top closures, the preference goes to co-injected closures, 100% unbreakable under normal usage conditions.
Metal coins inserted into the wooden top—this is part of the luxury movement for bourbon and single malt in the retail range of $45 to $150 per bottle.
Overall in craft spirits, what do you see as the key trends in 2020 and beyond?
Wine has written the book for destination, appellation, branding and flavor description—the evolution over 2,000 years helped to make wine an integral part of society. Spirits is still fairly new, but seems to start on this pathway. Spirits is following the wine trend. For example, single malt is now being produced by more than 100 distilleries in the U.S. These distilleries are describing in detail where the grains are produced, [by] which field, farm or farmer, and under what conditions—cold, hot climate, rainfall, etc. Soil conditions are also described but much further testing and research needs to be done by industry groups and distilleries to find out what really makes a difference in order not to be just another marketing scheme. [Also], distilleries are trying to figure out (similar to Scotch), how beneficial new oak really is versus used oak. The motto is, let the grain shine, and the oak influence should not overpower the true essence of the distilled spirit from the wheat, barley, etc. [Finally], most key states now have very organized state distillery guilds in order to help sales and legal matters—the U.S. in many states has a very strong prohibitionist mindset and government officials are hard to change.
What type of advice do you give to new craft distilleries who are looking for a supplier of caps and closures?
- Get organized: Get your cork, glass and capsule orders in earlier. Factories on a global level are very busy.
- Focus on branding: We understand distilleries really care about distilling the spirits in their stills, blending and making a great whiskey, gin, etc. The flavor and quality of a distillate remains in the mind of consumers especially thanks to the packaging look, that allows the product to be successful.
- Use more time for the development of closures, bottles and labels: Сompanies such as Supercap have an internal department that can assist the customers also on this matter, developing personalized technical drawings and helping to find the most suitable closure for their product, creating a safe and functional packaging that stands out for its unique details.
- Work with a design or marketing agency: The money will be well spent.
- Understand your consumer: Whom do you want to sell to?
- Don’t buy stock products: You will look no different from your neighbor’s bottle on the shelf.
- Visit stores: Go to many different liquor stores and see / compare how your bottle compares to the competition —be as objective as you can when you observe.
- Trade shows: Go to as many trade shows as possible.
- Magazines: Purchase every available magazine—see what is happening out there.
- Get great with social media.
- Website: Have pictures of your staff and describe their roles—make it personal and friendly.
- Get outside your distillery and meet with bartenders and all the best bars in the biggest cities: When you hear a consumer sit at the bar and ask the bartender, “Can I have that whiskey with the horse on top?” then that question should be a light going off in your head (Blanton’s Bourbon) about how consumers identify and remember certain brands.
Are there any new products coming from Supercap in 2020 that excite you?
2019 was a great year for Supercap as we celebrated 20 years of activity. We invited our customers and partners from all over the world to show them our factory and what’s behind the production of our closures, which are a fundamental part of the packaging.
ln 2020, as it was already done in 2019, we aim to increase our ECO projects, presenting new eco-sustainable products. This will allow our customers to use closures for spirits made with Supercap Eco®, the first T-Cap Zero Carbon Footprint, made with an innovative material composed of green polymers. Supercap Eco® allows a significant reduction of the CO2 emissions in the environment over the entire life cycle of the product.
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