Sidel's packaging team gives water bottle a youthful lift

Sidel’s Shanghai packaging team has redesigned the package of Menton flavoured water to target young consumers in China. Using a straight-wall lightweight PET bottle which weighs only 17.85 g for the 500 mL format, the company hopes the design will also convey sustainability and differentiate it in the ready-to-drink (RTD) flavoured water market.

Menton is an RTD product sold in convenience stores and markets around schools in medium-sized cities in China. After three years of rapid sales, its flavoured water faced growing competition in the market so the company decided to restyle it into a premium brand.

Sidel developed a new packaging design from a concept to the industrial realisation of the product.

The bottles are being produced on three Sidel Aseptic Combi Predis PET packaging lines at a rate of 60,000 bottles per hour (bph) per line.

The bottle concept was inspired by the product’s main ingredient, lemon, which is harvested in Europe.

Sidel’s challenge was to turn Menton into a premium product while retaining its health attributes.

The company said it was essential to maintain its healthy characteristics as soft drinks are often seen as being unhealthy and full of sugar.

“Following the overall packaging design trend in China, we decided to create something more contemporary for young people, who are the main target audience for the drink, moving away from complex and technical design structures,” Sidel Packaging Director of Greater China Steven Xie said.

The production process of the re-styled bottle is also more sustainable, reducing material and energy consumption due to its light weight. The new bottle also achieved performance requirements for transportation and storage.

Based on customers’ insights, specifications, supply chain conditions and product goals, Sidel supported from packaging conceptual graphic design and technical design to label design.

The company also provided all feasibility studies and performance tests, including dimensional and mechanical tests for thickness and weight. Within this project packaging experts also supplied three series of moulds and supported the industrial production to ensure that the bottles were performing across the supply chain according to initial specifications.

Sidel said the product launch in May 2020 has already received positive feedback from its audience.

Image supplied by Sidel.