Top Cap Holding expands management team for next phase of click cap

Top Cap Holding has announced the recruitment of two renowned managers with deep industry expertise to lead the final phase of the development and marketing of the “click cap” closure for beverage cans. With Robert Jansen as CEO and Valerie Auer as CMO, the Austrian technology company is working with renewed vigour to bring its innovative closure technology to market.

Robert Jansen and Valerie Auer. Image: Top Cap Holding

The new management duo heralds a strategic change at Top Cap Holding: Instead of licensing the technology, the company is focusing on its own manufacturing and development capabilities to mass produce the patented closure system. Robert Jansen and Valerie Auer combine industry and consumer understanding with cutting-edge technology. 

In a career in the beverage packaging industry spanning almost thirty years, Robert Jansen has paved the way for new technological developments as a production technology engineer and managing director of renowned companies in the sector. As a developer with an affinity for innovation, he consistently relies on a culture of exchange and creative collaboration: during his many years with international beverage can maker, Ball Packaging Europe, Robert Jansen and his team brought Ball’s resealable can end (BRE) to market maturity. Tactile coatings, thermochromic colours, and the “Sleek Can,” an elegant can for the premium segment, were also created in this way.

As former long-term managing director of Deutsche Pfandsystem, Jansen is also an expert on the topics of EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) and DRS (Deposit Return Scheme). In this role, he helped develop and successfully implement new technologies for fraud prevention, among other things.

Jansen explained his move to lead Top Cap Holding: “The resealable beverage can end has long been regarded as the ultimate challenge in the industry. When we bring this key innovation to production, it will mark a major milestone in the evolution of how drinks are packaged. Ultimately as a development that has the potential to open up new beverage segments for the can.

“With its agile structures and quick decision-making processes, Top Cap Holding offers exactly the right creative environment in which such disruptions can succeed.”

The resealable can end uses less plastic than comparable solutions, opens intuitively, and enables efficient filling, according to the company.

As chief marketing officer, Valerie Auer, together with Jansen, is preparing the successful strategic launch of the “click cap” technology and is responsible for brand development. She was most recently head of marketing for the D-A-CH and Nordics region at Innocent drinks and has more than 15 years of experience in various marketing positions for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage brands. 

Auer commented: “Our strategy has to appeal to can manufacturers, beverage producers, contract fillers and consumers alike, and convince them of the benefits of the click cap.

“The click cap solves an existing consumer problem and opens up entirely new use cases for the beverage can. We are creating lasting change in an industry that has seen little disruption for decades, which is a particularly exciting challenge.”

With the management change, Top Cap Holding is reaffirming its commitment to bring the click cap to market readiness. Jansen and Auer work hand in hand with an experienced team of developers who are developing the click cap in their own R&D laboratory.