You would never know it's not glass

Sidel, a global provider of liquid packaging solutions, recently launched the world's first lightweight PET bottle for beer with a non-petaloid base with a cap that can be pasteurised. The innovative bottle supports a crown cap, which together with the non-petaloid base gives the bottle the appearance of glass, but with all the advantages of PET. The new bottle weighs only 28 grams, which is up to 86% less than an average equivalent glass bottle, according to Sidel data.

"We want to help beer producers take advantage of the flexibility, lighter weight, sustainability and lower costs offered by PET, by producing a bottle that was more attractive to the next generation of beer consumers who want their drinks packaging to be more sustainable, convenient and user-friendly," explains Georgios Diakakis, Regional Commercial Manager at Sidel. "We have noticed that consumers are becoming more aware of the benefits of PET, because they experience it as the preferred packaging material of choice in other food and beverage areas in their life."

For many years, there have been misperceptions around beer in PET. For example, some mistakenly think beer in PET gets warmer quicker. In fact, in the company's studies, its beer bottle kept beer cold for the same time duration as an equivalent sized glass bottle, with much less wall thickness and hence much less material weight. Taste is also another misperception, with some consumers falsely believing beer tastes better, for example, in cans instead of PET bottles.

According to a recent Euromonitor report, the beverage market in Africa currently stands at 56 billion litres. Beer ranks second amongst various beverage categories, constituting 22% share, with bottled water being the first with its 55% share of total beverage market. South Africa is the leader in beer production with 3,445 million litres, followed by Nigeria with 2,048 million litres and Angola with 1,032 million litres. Ongoing, focused marketing with product innovation are expected to continue to be the main drivers of demand and thus growth within beer category across the African continent.

For more information, go to www.sidel.co.za.