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Shrink sleeve invigorates glass bottle

SmithKline Beecham's Lucozade, a popular energy drink sold in the U.K. and Ireland, recently received a dramatic packaging makeover intended to better convey the intense burst of flavor found inside the glass bottle.

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The new look features a full-body shrink sleeve label. Also new is a curvaceous lightweight bottle from Rock-ware Glass (Wheatley, Yorkshire, England). Together the two new components produce far greater impact than the straight-walled glass bottle and paper label formerly used. "The new design is a communication of energy," says Andry Oi, senior product manager for Lucozade. "We've used more vibrant color and a more dynamic photo illustration to enhance the taste and refreshment." Keith Marriage, packaging development manager at SmithKline Beecham, says the full-body shrink sleeve was the only way to go in order to have a "feel-the-energy" kind of shape with a better grip and feel. "We wanted to make a bit 'noisier' shape. In order to achieve that shape, we needed a full-body sleeve," he says. The 1.6-mil sleeve label is gravure-printed in four to eight colors by Smurfit Labels (Wakefield, Leeds, England). Rockware Glass applies the sleeves on three parallel sleevers, each capable of handling up to 250/min. Rockware also makes the glass bottles at the same facility, which cuts costs considerably. According to Lucozade, this is the first time in England that one company has both manufactured the bottle and applied the label on this large a scale. Bericap (Hull, Yorkshire, England) manufactures the injection-molded 35-mm closure with a polypropylene shell and a multilayer barrier liner that includes ethylene vinyl alcohol. The bottles are filled in SmithKline Beecham's factory in Colesford, Gloucester, England. On shelves since April, the 300-mL bottle sells for 49p (80¢).

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