Crown focuses on Brazil
Following 2014’s strong growth of 10.7% as a result of both the FIFA World Cup and the country’s presidential election, industry experts anticipate that the Brazilian beverage segment will see a more modest increase in 2015. Looking further ahead, Euromonitor, a market research provider, projects that the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro (Rio 2016) will boost performance of beverage packaging.
As a result, companies like Crown Embalagens Metálicas da Amazônia S.A. (Crown Brazil) are preparing for the estimated demand by focusing on enhancing production this year.
Speciality aluminium cans, defined as sizes other than the standard 350ml container, currently make up over 30% of Brazil’s beverage can market. Through the company’s investment in its launch of a new plant in Teresina earlier in 2014 and the opening of a third line in its Cabreúva facility that same year, Crown Brazil is now capable of producing its entire portfolio of seven beverage can sizes, ranging from sleek style 269ml to standard 550ml cans, in any of its plants. For the remainder of the year, the company is concentrating efforts on strengthening newly-introduced capabilities and optimizing training for the new lines.
“In order to enhance the efficiency of our operations, it is essential that all of our manufacturing facilities are working optimally, especially ahead of Rio 2016,” states Wilmar Arinelli, president, Crown Embalagens Metálicas da Amazônia S.A. “The stable forecast for 2015 allows us to focus on implementing any changes necessary in order to achieve production synchronisation, while still meeting the existing market demand.”
In addition, advanced decorative technologies continue to be a powerful tool for brands to leverage, especially when launching a new product or executing a marketing campaign like those anticipated for Rio 2016. Beverage companies will continue to employ uniquely themed and highly decorated packaging designs as part of concentrated marketing efforts to attract consumers and differentiate products on store shelves. Crown’s decorative capabilities such as its Accents™ technology, which allows up to 24 different images that can include words, phrases, line drawings and pictures to be printed on a single pallet of beverage cans, and thermochromic inks, that change colour on the aluminium can to indicate that the beverage is at the ideal temperature for consumption, are both expected to be popular features for brands to adopt for the upcoming games.
