Beverage can ends digitally-printed with a wide colour range have been adopted by Dutch craft brewer Kaapse Brouwers to augment the impact of its canned beers.
The brewer is using Ardagh Metal Packaging’s (AMP) H!ghend components, which feature all-over decoration, and are said to be ideal for shorter runs.
“We wanted to make the most of the possibilities of H!ghend,” said Tsomme Zijlstra, chief executive of Kaapse Brouwers, which has its own brewery, canning line and a number of retail venues.
“Suddenly we can have bright, beautiful colours on the shell, so we chose to express the K in the most vibrant colours we could, which all play off each other.” The ends are being used across the Kaapse range of brews.
Kaapse has always used 330ml aluminium cans supplied by AMP through CanLab, which offers a range of packaging services to the craft-brewing segment – including sleeving, labelling, personalisation and mobile filling – which are often only accessible to large breweries.
It has used see-through labels on a brown base to delineate the range, but now with the introduction of the deposit return system in the Netherlands, CanLab has supported Kaapse to move to a base silver can with multi-coloured labels, adding the special H!ghend end to bring its range together under one branding umbrella.
Zijlstra commented on the use of the novel ends, saying, “This new look for our beer cans is fantastic – something really different and exciting at the top of the can. We’re binding the brand, emphasising the ‘K’, and reinforcing the fact that this is a Kaapse beer every time the customer picks it up.”
Gerlof Toenhake, AMP’s Europe director of regional sales, said: “The brilliant H!ghend design finishes off the Kaapse cans with such a great effect. Bringing a range of different products together with one unifying design at the top is a really effective use of our H!ghend, and we’re delighted to help our customers find new ways to boost their branding.”
