The appearance of PEN bottles of pasteurized Budweiser beer-in New York's Madison Square Garden and selected marinas in the Hamptons on Long Island-is not only a market first for PEN, but the latest move by Anheuser-Busch, Inc., St. Louis, MO, in its continuing quest for a plastic bottle that can be used to market a "mainstream" beer (see Packaging World, April '98, p. 68). A-B slipped into and out of the test markets without saying anything about its interests. It's not hard, though, to guess what they're up to. Clearly the commercial market debut of the first pure PEN bottle in the U.S. gives Anheuser-Busch some of the "hard numbers" it needs before it would put its flagship brew in a plastic bottle on a widespread basis. It also corroborates answers to questions asked in earlier focus groups. The PEN bottle's market appearance also underscores the fact that A-B is further along the plastic bottle path than any other U.S. brewer. And-on some level-it puts glass container suppliers on notice that their largest market, beer, is susceptible to the market appeal of plastics. Glassmakers don't have anything to worry about in the short term. And-because most packaged beer is sold in single-serving sizes in the U.S.-we're unlikely to see wholesale conversions to plastic beer bottles like those we've seen in carbonated soft drinks, where a significant volume is sold in multi-serving bottles. But ultimately, inexorably, beer will be commercially bottled in plastic. And that's going to affect the beer sales in both glass bottles and aluminum cans. Holding 16 oz of Budweiser beer, the amber PEN bottle A-B brought to the two New York playgrounds (see photo) was injection/stretch/blowmolded by Constar, Inc., a division of Crown Cork & Seal Co., Inc. (Philadelphia, PA). The 6"-high, 21/2"-diameter bottle weighs 30 g, has a champagne base and incorporates a sealing ring below the closure. The cap looks like a conventional 28-mm compression-molded polypropylene carbonated beverage screw closure with a tamper-evident band. Like the bottle, the black PP closure is designed to withstand pasteurization temperatures. Developed for this specific application by Crown's Closure division, the cap includes an oxygen-scavenging compound and a foil spot. The PEN bottle/oxygen-scavenging closure combo gives the beer a 60-day shelf life at 72°F. Underscoring the stadium market target of the PEN bottle, its screen-printed polypropylene body label carries the images of several athletes in action: a baseball player swinging at a ball, a track runner in full stride, a pair of dueling soccer players and a basketball player dunking the ball. The basketball player partially obscures Bud's classic "Beechwood aging" banner. That's the first time A-B's taken such liberties with its primary label. Spear, Inc. (Cincinnati, OH) produces the high-gloss, full-bleed PP body label, along with its companion bright red neckband. Three questions you might ask about what A-B is doing (and my answers) are:
Anheuser-Busch tests PEN bottle to answer some market questions
The first commercial market appearance of a polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) homopolymer bottle in the United States occurred earlier this summer in New York City and on New York's Long Island.
Aug 31, 1998
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