Breweries averse to taking risks

With the rising popularity of beers in India, there is a need to constantly innovate & evolve label designs for beer cans and bottles, says Vidit Singla, Director, Ravi Print Pack Pvt. Ltd.

There is an old cliché that says never judge a book by its cover. However, in today’s marketdriven environment, the package design is the first thing that a consumer often notices. This is true for beer market too. The consumer is generally initially attracted to or repelled by the label. It is only after that the quality of the liquid comes into play.

A beer bottle or can design should ideally be path-breaking, meaning it should not be in the lines of those designs which are commonly used by other breweries. Spelling out the design elements, Vidit Singla, Director, Ravi Print Pack Pvt. Ltd., says that the beer bottle or can design should be catchy, different and innovative enough to set a new trend.“We can produce new innovative, textured, holographic, microembossed packaging designs, which have the potential to attract new consumers. Alternately, craft packaging for beer cans, or glow in the dark colours can be used, thus encouraging environment-friendly packaging,” he informs.

Delving at length on the innovations and technological developments which have happened over the years in the realm of beer bottle or can design, he says the brewing industry in India is essentially traditional and hardly any brewery in the country takes the risk to change the process.

Today, technology in India’s brewing industry is primarily used to save energy and increase production. “The increase in competition brings both positive and negative challenges but only quality producers survive. The biggest challenge is to compete with price as the label industry is influenced by using ‘stock lot’ paper to increase profits or to set the monopoly. On the other hand, few breweries stick to quality substrate which in turn gives boost to ethical printers,” he elaborates.

When asked as to how cost-effective it is to introduce new ideas for beer makers, Vidit says: “Beer makers can go cost-effective by using energy-efficient technologies.” When asked to name the most innovative beer companies, he mentions the names of Tuborg Gold, Fat Fire, and Pilsner Urquell.

Sharing his forecast on market trends for beer in India’s beer industry during the next five years, his take is that the “Indian beer market will increase approximately 10 percent every year. This is because the young generation Indians prefer beer over whisky.” “If beer makers operating in the country are able to transform whisky consumers to regular beer consumers, then the rise in production of beer in India can never match its demand,” he expresses.