New Costs, New Packaging: Part 2 – Rethinking Materials, Because It’s Not Just What’s Inside That Counts
In Part 2 of our five-part series on the impacts of rising costs on beverage companies, we examine alternative packaging materials as a potential opportunity for beverage companies to explore cost savings while simultaneously reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
• Rising costs and supply chain challenges provide the perfect opportunity to rethink packaging solutions across the beverage industry – but especially in wine.
• We see alignment between the cost pressures on packaging and the need to improve sustainability, meaning companies can take action to improve margins while lowering their Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
• Improving the current generation of packaging through lightweighting is one way beverage companies can capture some gains, but these are limited and incremental.
• A greater move to bag-in-box wine is starting to happen at the margins, but the potential for significant cost and emissions savings should have companies looking more closely at this option.
• Other types of packaging – kegs and other reusable on-premise options – may be an easier lift for companies, while paper bottles present hope for more daring solutions coming online over the medium term.
