In the highly competitive beverage market, carton packages offer distinct competitive advantages over plastic packages, particularly in the fastest growing category of the market: functional and flavoured waters.
Tetra Pak, the world leader in carton packaging solutions for liquid food and beverages, is eyeing opportunities in this segment. Volumes of value added water has grown 133% from 2001 to 2005, according to market researcher Euromonitor International.
Carton package attributes are mainly linked to barrier protection against light and oxygen, which can help maintain the flavour and nutrients in value added waters.
As a result, waters bottlers have started to use carton packages for flavoured water. In Norway, Nora has just launched, an apple flavoured water in a Tetra Prisma Aseptic 1000 Square. While in Spain Nafree has launched a functional water with added calcium water for babies in a Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Base.
Another successful example is the recent launch of Yagua functional water in the Netherlands which is packed in a Tetra Prisma Aseptic 500 Square. Indeed, Mintel Food Trends selected it as the most innovative health and wellness product of 2006.
Another recent example of branding with carton is Virgin Water in the Netherlands. Doing things differently is part of the Virgin brand. So what better way to distinguish itself than by introducing water in carton?
Environmental attributes are another strong advantage of carton packaging, which, unlike plastics, is made mostly from renewable resources. It is important to note that customers in environmentally conscious countries like the Netherlands and Germany were the first in the world to pack water in carton.
Brand differentiation and the ability to design right on the package are added advantages for choosing carton packages for water. H&M Water in the Netherlands chose the Tetra Prisma Aseptic for their European Campaign, which is about respect for nature and different cultures.
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