Drink Vol12 - Page 32 - No. 3 - September 2008
Bag-in-Box Wines - Freshly Tapped and Effectively Marketed
People scarecely let go of their old habits- And if they do, they only do it reluctantly. This also applies to wine connoisseurs, whose high-class wines used to be stored exclusively in bottles with natural corks. The bottle caps then gradually changed: natural corks were followed by plastic corks; these in turn were followed by screw capes. Also the containers changed: instead of bottles, the wines were filled into beverage cartons. For several years now a further innovation has made its way: in the catering trade and at home, wines flow through through the tap into the glass more and more often from what is referred to as bag-in-box (BIB) containers. In the catering trade and at home, innovative BIB cooling devices help to tap wine comfortably and to pour it out at the perfect temperature. Additionally: they reveal new ways of marketing the products.
The trend towards “BIB bottling” come sfrom Australia and began as early as in the 1970s. Bag-in-box describes the principle of packaging: the beverage manufacturers fill the wine into wine pouches. Bordeaux and the like – but also a great number of other high-quality wines – can be tapped comfortably this way. Today, the enterprise Down Under already sells more than half of their wines in containers. The proportion of bag-in-box is increasing in Europe as well; in Noway, it is already about 33 percent. With an increase of about 8 percent, the largest growth rates can be notched up by Sweden. Meanwhile, even in France, the country of wine per se, the bag-in-box wine market has a proportion of 4 percent.
How the wine gets into the pouch
In order to fill wine or other liquids into the pouches (material e.g. polyethylene), fully and partially automated plants (manual insertion of pouchers) are used. During the bottling process a pump conducts the liquid to the container through a tap valve attached to the pouches. Expressed in simplified terms, the bottling process consist of three steps: vacuuming of the pouches, filling process (by pressure pump) and closing of the connecting piece. Nitrogen can be optionally injected to prevent oxygen from penetrating. Depending on the bottling machine, an inductive flow metering may take place during the filling process. The possible pouch size reach from 2 liters to use at home to 1000 liters. The connecting piece, via which the liquid is filled, can be immediately or subsequently equipped with different top pieces: wheter a tap for diect tapping from the container or a connector which connects the containers to different dispensing systems is selected, depends on the place of aapplication (catering trade or bars=. The pouches are sheathed in overwrapping made of corrugated cardboard. The filled pouches can be placed mechanically into the folding box by what is referred to as a loader. The full pouches fill the cartons almost completely and ensure the required stability during transport or storage.
Bag-in-box boom
The European bag-in-box wine market is growing – and with it the sales and marketing potentials. Perfect advertising spaces offer newly developed wine coolers, in which high-class wines are cooled at optimum temperature (cooling temperatures between 0 and 18 degrees) and poured out of integrated taps. The company Gastro-Cool, one of the leading providers of innovative cooling solutions atr the point of sale, offers beverage manufacturers a bag-in-box wine cooler (dimensions 121 x 37 x 55cm, capacity 110 liters net) with three taps. Up to three 10-liter-containers red wine, rose and white wine for professional application can be stored in it. They are connected to the tapping equipment via three separate, food-safe-hoses.
Bag-in-box – bottling with market and marketing potential
The basis for the development of the device was made up of various criteria, crucial for successful application in catering firms. Special attention was paid to product quality, economical operation in practice, environmental compatibility and suitabilty as marketing tool. Christian Machers, managing director of Gastro-Cool, describes the product’s advantages as follows: “due to the vacuum packaging, no air can get to the wine up to three months from opening the container can be achieved. As each drop gets into the glass of guest, there are no perishable leftovers as it is the case with wine bottles. This means: The efficeny – and with it the profit – increases. The packaging waste from the filling process is little: similarly to a deflated ballon, a thin outer cover is finally left.
“Form follows function”
Under the design principle “form follows function” the innovative BIB wine coolers serve as effective and valuable marketing tools. This is of special significance especially in times of tight marketing budgets. The bag-in-box wine coolers fulfils this requirement to a great extent. Branded with the logo of the company or the winegrower, the devices are highly visible and advertise the product as well as the manufacturer of the wine or fruit juices directly at the point of drink-
“Within the scope of product development, we rely on the three fundamental considerations to advertise a product or a brand as effectively as possible, to achieve a great sales-promotional effect and thus generate a large profit. This applies to both the beverage manufacturer and the trader,” says Christian Machers. Also in the area of direct and dialogue marketing, branded coolers are perfectly suitable for retaining customers and attracting new ones. Marketing opportunities are provided by prize games, in which attractive BIB coolers are offered as rewards. Another B2B marketing opportunity is for example providing quantity buyers with free, branded cooling devices.
The “BIB-mini” – small and sales-increasing
Much smaller in their dimensions,. 3-liter bag-in-box wine coolers turn out to be not less efficient with respect to their market opportunities. With or without individual branding, they can be placed on every table and are able to cool containers with a capacity of up to 3 liters. Its handling is easy: place the container into it, connect it to the mains and white wines, rose and red wines flow out of the tap optimally cooled at either 8 or 18 degrees. “The competitive advantage compared to bottling is that the provision is considerably simplified: the wine cooler is on the table and the quest comfortably tap the wine themselves. As due to this the profit is boosted – initial experience with the device has shown that the wine consumption increases by up to 30 percent – the use off the “small” BIB wine coolers pays off rapidly” Christian Machers explains. Besides professional users, the target group of the “minis” among the BIB tapping devices ia also private wine connoisseurs, since the selection of high-quality wines on supermarket shelves and in drinks warehouses ist constantly increasing.
The trend of bottling more and more wones – but also fruit juices or still liquids – in bag-in-box containers is strongly taking hold in the European market; thus, the product range, services and marketing opportunities around the product BIB increase as well. In order to keep track of thois and to be able to optimally use bag-in-box bottling, an international website, which covers nearly all facets of the bag-in-box market, is currently under construction. It will serve as an extensive BIB-catalogue, in which for example professional users receive the opportunity to form business contacts and consumers in search of specific products can quickly make a find.
