New Printed Can Minimums

As the 2022 quickly approaches, many companies are looking forward to the New Year.  One of the world’s largest aluminum can suppliers just shocked the craft beer market and has made many breweries start scrambling to find a solution after their recent announcement.

During the final quarter of the year, can manufacturer Ball Corp. started informing breweries across that country that their minimum orders will be increased at the start of 2022.  They will require non-contract customers to order five truckloads per SKU.  This is up drastically from their previous minimum of one truckload per SKU.  Many of these non-contract customers include small and regional breweries.  In addition to the new minimum quantities, non-contracted customers will no longer be able to store excess cans in their warehouses.

Now with printed cans becoming potentially more difficult to obtain for small and medium-sized breweries, we believe that craft brewers will start looking more towards using labels on cans.

Labels on cans may seem like a step down from printed cans, but they are a great way to get your cans to pop in stores and the cost advantages are easy to realize.  Find out more about the differences between labels, shrink sleeves and printed cans here.

If you need more information about printing labels or for pricing, contact one of our label experts at Lauterbach Group at 262-820-8123 or email craftbrew@lauterbachgroup.com.

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JK Williams

JK Williams Whiskey

JK Williams Stormy River Whiskey

Craft Brew Labels powered by Lauterbach Group is proud to introduce J.K. Williams Distilling as our newest craft spirit client.

Recently purchased by a new owner, JK Williams is relaunching Peoria’s oldest distillery, known for producing high-quality craft whiskey. The design of these labels derive from “distillery row”, the stretch of the Illinois River that has long been home to distilleries and breweries.

These high quality labels are printed using the latest digital print technology on embossed metalized paper with a matte varnish.

Visit JK Williams Distilling at https://www.jkwilliamsdistilling.com or check them out on Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/jkwilliamsdistilling for more information on the distillery.

For more information about printed labels or print capabilities on your product, contact us at the Lauterbach Group.

https://www.bevnet.com/spirits/2020/jk-williams-distilling-to-release-product-at-retail-new-master-distiller-hired-new-facility-secured

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Shrink Sleeve and Labels vs. Printed Cans


Canned Wine, Beer and Specialty Drink:
Shrink Sleeves and Pressure Sensitive Labels vs. Printed Cans

Customers that are interested in 360° top-to-bottom graphics on cans for wine, beer or specialty drinks have three labeling options:

Printed Cans
Shrink Sleeves or
Labels

Printed cans have a high minimum order requirement -100,000 cans at a time, longer lead times – 12 weeks, and can be more expensive for small to mid-size producers who are not buying truckload quantities of a single version. Given the setup charges for art, version charges and split shipment charges for printed cans, it is not always the best choice for brands that want more flexibility with their design, and faster print-to-market solutions, and better graphic and decoration quality.

Shrink sleeves and pressure sensitive labels allow brands to trial different designs in the marketplace easily, add fun and eye catching designs to draw product attention on the shelf, and do so with very short lead-times to react to market needs. They also lower overall cost.

LOWER OVERALL COSTS / SPEED MATTERS

Shrink sleeve and pressure sensitive labels provide the ability to print only what is needed and when it is needed. They also provide the highest quality graphics, shelf value-add and product differentiation.

Our OmniMark Art Management System provides great flexibility to change or upgrade designs literally real-time providing speed to market opportunities. Why wait 4 to 6 weeks to get a design, when you could have it in days?

With shrink sleeve and pressure sensitive labels, clients do not have to invest in vast warehouse space dedicated to printed cans which consume expensive warehouse costs, get damaged through warehousing and material movement and become obsolete as designs change.

COLOR AND DECORATION QUALITY AND VALUE

Shrink sleeve and pressure sensitive labels provide exceptional print quality. Vignettes, background screens, vivid colors and many decoration opportunities are available, from spot varnishes, soft touch varnishes, tactile print and varnish, as well as metallics.  We invest in state-of-art digital and flexo printing equipment to push the limits of print quality and creativity.

Ink that is printed directly on cans appears muted and hazy due to the gray metallic of the can showing through the ink. The print quality simply does not provide the necessary value and shelf appeal. Shrink sleeves and pressure sensitive labels ensure your graphics pop and help your product stand out on the shelf.

For more information or someone simply to help you navigate your can labeling needs, please give us a call at 262-820-8123 or email craftbrew@lauterbachgroup.com.

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Visual Impact

We work with many businesses from small to large. In serving these businesses and their brand, we are spending more and more time explaining the value of unique materials, decorations, printing and converting processes for pressure sensitive and shrink sleeve labels and why a slight increase in a package cost may yield many times the return on investment in the sale of their product.

Today we have the ability to mix and match materials: decorations of foil, spot varnishes, tactile varnishes, soft-touch varnishes and laminates, as well as ink: metallic, fluorescent and a full range of colors to bring innovation, and product appeal to our clients’ packaging. The concept of mass personalization or mass customization are readily available and yield enormous impact to a shrink sleeve or pressure sensitive label.

In addition, the development in material substrates and adhesives to expand recycling opportunities or performance improvement can provide brand owners great flexibility and innovative package designs to engage the consumer. Adhesive repositionability on a product bottle or reseal performance for multi-serve packages from food and cleaning supplies to any part you can image are available now and help ease of use for consumers and extend product freshness or product life.

As the numbers of SKUs in a store continue to grow rapidly, consider these types of materials, decorations or enhancement to increase your products sales.

Contact us if you are interested in samples or pricing on these emerging technologies in product marking and labeling.

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Collage

Looking to change up your printed labels?  With our collage feature, you can choose what image elements you want to display randomly across your artwork, and our software will make up to 20 unique label patterns.  This software allows us to control variables like repetition, rotation, size, overlap and spacing between elements.

You can go from subtle like this example by Raised Grain Brewing all the way to extreme by using different colors and dissimilar elements.

Find out more information about collage printing and other cool features by contacting us at the Lauterbach Group, craftbrew@lauterbachgroup.com or calling us directly at 262-820-8123.

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Holographic Foil

Our Group works closely with our suppliers to develop creative ways to improve or add unique decoration enhancements for our clients. Over the years, we have worked closely with ITW Foils on many projects and with great success. Over the past few months, we have worked with ITW Foils on a line of holographic foils that can bring eye catching differentiation to a product label and doing so with great value. We are excited to present this technology to our clients.

Please take a look and if you need more information, please contact us at craftbrew@lauterbachgroup.com or 262-820-8123.

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Craft Beer Marketing Awards

Craft Brew Labels powered by Lauterbach Group is proud to be sponsoring the Craft Beer Marketing Awards for 2020.

The CBMAs were developed to recognize and award the very best marketing in the brewing industry across the USA. Breweries, their agencies, artists and marketing partners are invited to enter their top work. The 2020 CBMAs include over 30 categories that recognize all aspects of beer marketing.

Our own Brian Berndt will be judging the category of Best Can Design / 16oz, 19.2oz Can 2, winners to be announced on or after June 16, 2020.

craftbeermarketingawards.com

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Riggs Beer Company

Craft Brew Labels powered by Lauterbach Group is proud to introduce our newest pressure sensitive label brewery client, Riggs Beer Company.

Riggs is a family farm owned brewery in Urbana, IL. In June 2016, they opened their doors to the public. They focus on brewing German and American style beer, with an emphasis on lager beer. We are pleased to be printing their 16oz craft beer can labels for American Lager and Hefeweizen on our state-of-the-art HP digital press. These wonderfully designed labels incorporate their story and feature the latest digital print technology, matte finish and pressure sensitive adhesive.

Visit Riggs Beer Company at www.riggsbeer.com or check them out on Facebook, www.facebook.com/RiggsBeer for more information on the Brewery.

For more information about printed labels or shrink sleeves on your product, contact us at Lauterbach Group.

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Spot Varnish

A spot varnish is a special effect that puts varnish only on specific areas of a printed piece. Use spot varnish to make specific areas pop off the label or to create texture.

In this example below from Raised Grain Brewing Company, each individual bubble in this label is spot varnished and has a soft touch textured feel to it.  The label is printed on pressure sensitive foil to also give reflective dimension.

Find out more about our label options by contacting us!

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Raised Grain Brewing

Craft Brew Labels powered by Lauterbach Group is proud to be Raised Grain Brewery’s label producer. These beautiful designed labels feature the latest HP digital print technology, matte finish and pressure sensitive adhesive.

Located in Waukesha WI, Boldly Brewed Beer is the driving force behind everything that their Brewers create. Every beer is uniquely different as each label always has a story to tell. From their most popular Naked Threesome IPA to their newly released Hard Seltzer, Raised Grain is always keeping their customers on their toes.

Visit Raised Grain Brewing at www.raisedgrainbrewing.com or check them out on their highly active social media pages.

Facebook: www.facebook.com/raisedgrainbrewing/
Instagram: instagram.com/raisedgrainbrewingco

For more information about printed labels or shrink sleeves on your product, contact us at Lauterbach Group.

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