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Shaped cans south of the border

"I have seen shaped cans from Europe and I have never seen anything like this." That's what Lawrence Boro, marketing manager for privately held Grupo Jumex, Xalostoc, near Mexico City, Mexico, says about the company's newest shaped steel three-piece can.

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Used for its new Frutastica juice drink, the can began appearing in Mexico last October and will be available in the U.S. in the next few months.

The can is remarkable for its undulating, wavy shape. It signals consumers that this is a new breed of drink altogether, according to Boro, since it combines unusual flavors, is lightly carbonated, and contains real fruit juice. The playful shape is also designed to entice the drink's targeted demographic: young people aged 14 to 22. The 295-mL cans retail for about 3.5 pesos (42¢).

Unfortunately, Grupo Jumex declined to supply any technical details, apart from acknowledging that it makes its own cans. For some educated guesses, Packaging World turned to Heinz Grossjohann, president of Container Machinery Corp. (Kiderhook, NY), which represents can-making machinery manufacturers from Europe and the Far East.

We asked why Grupo Jumex is able to produce dramatically shaped, mass-market cans with apparent ease, while Coke's first U.S. attempt at a shaped can (see PW, Mar. '97, p. 8) displayed less prominent shaping?

The two can't be compared, according to Grossjohann. That's because shaping drawn and ironed (D&I) aluminum cans like Coke's is much more challenging than shaping a welded, non-D&I steel can like Grupo Jumex's.

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