Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch is breaking new ground with the introduction of a new bow tie-shaped can for its category-leading Budweiser beer brand.
The unprecedented can shape echoes the red ‘bow tie’ backdrop design integral to the Budweiser brand’s logo.
In development since 2010, the proprietary can will be available only in the United States and in an 8-pack – it will not replace the traditional Budweiser can.
“This can is incomparable, like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” says Pat McGauley, vice president of innovation for Anheuser-Busch.
“The world’s most iconic beer brand deserves the world’s most unique and innovative can. I think we have it here.”
A number of technical challenges had to be overcome in order to make the new can possible, according to Anheuser-Busch.
Major equipment investments were required at Budweiser’s can-making facility in Newburgh, New York, and “significant capital investments” were also required to upgrade packaging lines at the Budweiser breweries in Los Angeles and Williamsburg, Virginia, the first breweries with capability to package the new cans.
Proprietary equipment at the Newburgh facility creates the can in a 16-step process – 10 steps to form the bottom half, and an additional six steps for the top portion.
“We explored various shapes that would be distinguishable in the marketplace, but would also be viable from an engineering standpoint,” says McGauley.
“Aluminum can be stretched only about 10 percent without fracturing, which requires that the angles of the bow tie be very precise.”
An initial run of more than 10 million bow tie cans was produced in Newburgh in time for the spring 2013 introduction, with an additional 8 million cans scheduled for production in April.
The Budweiser bow tie can follows on from new packaging introduced in 2011 that emphasised the logo’s bow tie element, a symbol that first appeared in a national advertising campaign in the US for Budweiser in 1956.
