Tetra Brik® Aseptic Edge: Tetra Pak Reinvents the World’s Most Popular Beverage Carton
A new look, improved functionality, lower cost and better environmental profile make the smart package an even smarter choice for long-life beverage producers
Tetra Pak, the world leader in food processing and packaging solutions, reinvents the world’s most popular carton with the global launch of Tetra Brik® Aseptic 1000 Edge. Striking design and the latest technologies combine to improve on the world’s most widely used drinks carton — delivering the consumer convenience, reduced cost and strong environmental performance that long-life beverage producers need to thrive in today’s highly competitive markets.
Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge with the LightCap 30 screwcap adds a distinctive sloping top panel to the familiar shape of the Tetra Brik® Aseptic carton package, bringing consumers new levels of convenience and producers a distinctive way to promote their products on the busy ambient shelf. Incorporating the latest closure technology, the new package provides cost benefits, robust stacking capabilities and significant environmental advantages. It is already available with Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC™) certified packaging material, and will be offered with green polyethylene closures during 2012
Targeted at in-the-home use, the new package offers large-volume producers competitive costs for long shelf life beverages such as milks, vitamin-enriched milks, Omega-3 milks, flavoured milks, dairy alternatives (e.g. soya beverages), juices, nectars, still drinks and wines distributed in ambient conditions and without the need of preservatives.
“The Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge is bringing us immediate advantages in the increasingly competitive long-life beverage market,” said Günter Berz-List, CEO of Schwälbchen Molkerei. “Robust and efficient packaging saves us warehouse space and cuts road journeys. It looks great on the pallet and its sloping top and big screwcap ensures excellent pouring — we’ve had feedback from consumers, young and old, telling us that with the Tetra Brik Aseptic Edge, we got it right.”
The smart choice — for branding and consumer convenience: With a sloping top and wide 30mm opening, Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge brings a completely new silhouette to the long-life beverage shelf; a different shape that ensures it stands out for consumers.
The sloping top panel is larger and fully visible to consumers as they browse, making it an ideal space for extra branding and messaging to draw attention to the large-size closure. With five visible printing surfaces and a square bottom format, there’s a greater probability that a brand is facing out towards the consumer on the shelf.
It is a design that is proving popular in the German launch market, prompting the German Museum of Packaging to name it ‘Package of the Year’, describing it as, “a distinctive premium design which sets it apart on the low-priced milk shelf.”
The package introduces a number of refinements designed to meet the needs of consumers of all ages. The sloping top makes it easier to access and grasp the ridged cap, which requires a low opening force. The sloping top also means that the package doesn’t need to be lifted high off the surface to use and, together with the 30mm wide opening, makes pouring easier and smoother. The carton package has won two awards from German retail magazine Lebensmittel Praxis, the consumer-voted ‘Product of the Year 2011’ and the retailer-voted ‘HIT 2011’, describing it as a package that, “guarantees smooth pouring without sputtering and making a mess.”
The smart choice — for cutting costs
A key feature of the Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge is the ability to maximise the size of the opening whilst minimising use of raw materials. This is achieved by moulding the base of the neck as flat as possible to the underside of the packaging material — something previously only applicable for white milk products using direct injection moulding concept (DIMC). In an industry first combination of DIMC and pre-laminated hole (PLH) technologies, however, Tetra Pak has made this very low cost closure technology available to a much broader range of product categories for ambient distribution.
The Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge’s angled top and positioning of the LightCap 30 closure deliver robust and space-efficient stacking. It means 750 packages per pallet compared to 720 for the Tetra Brik® Aseptic with SlimCap — an improvement of 4 per cent. It also means that less product will be wasted owing to damage in transit.
Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge requires low initial investment — available using Tetra Pak A3/Flex iLine solutions with the DIMC applicator incorporated in the filling machine, delivering 8,000 packages per hour and selectable capacity, allowing producers to make use of existing processing and secondary packaging equipment. Investment is ‘future-proofed’, with full adaptability to the development of a 500 ml version. The 1 litre and 500 ml package sizes will be made available as QuickChange, allowing producers to maximise production utilisation.
The smart choice — for the environment: Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge cuts environmental impact as well as costs. An obvious advantage stems from the reduction in pallets required, cutting down on transport-generated CO2 emissions.
The recommended high tray with top flaps distribution unit uses up to 36 per cent fewer secondary packaging materials than that for the Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Square with StreamCap. The package is highly efficient in its use of non-renewable plastic for the closure and is also available with FSC certified packaging material. From 2012, customers will have the option to choose a renewable closure with High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) made from sugar cane, further increasing renewable content of the package.
Said Gregory Sklikas, Managing Director of FrieslandCampina Hellas:“We selected the new Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge for the launch of the NOYNOY Family, which has all benefits of Tetra Pak aseptic beverage cartons and at the same time offers important advantages to the consumer, as it has an excellent pouring due to the sloping top panel and the new, innovative cap for secure closing.
The Tetra Brik Aseptic 1000 Edge will be available globally from spring 2012, with the portfolio expanding with a range of popular portion package sizes later next year. The 500 ml version will be available from 2013.
