“We were bored by the idea that screwtops
were the revolutionary idea,” Bieler says of himself
and his two partners. “We got sick of the
idea that the only way to present a different face
is on the label. We wanted to change all notions
of packaging in the business.”
Manufacturers are jumping into the alternative
packaging trend en masse, albeit not as
quickly as they embraced the development of
critter wines. But the shipping, storage and display
advantages of boxed wines and single-serves
can create major supply chain efficiencies – and
savings all around. And that could mean they’ll
be even more popular in the long term.
“I think it’s where the future of wine is going
in this country,” says Vincent Monaco, the
corporate wine director for Kappy’s, a chain of
package stores in the Boston area. “It won’t all
be packaged that way, but you’ll see more and
more available.”
According to Bieler, a case of his Tetra-Pak
“Bandits” consisting of 15 4-packs of 250 mL
single-serve boxes weighs 28 lbs.
“That’s nine pounds less shipping weight for
three more liters than your regular case of 12,” he
says. But the real advantage for retailers still lies
in the novel aspects of the packaging, he adds.
“There’s a lot of trepidation, but it’s a fantastic
way to differentiate yourself among mass
customers,” he says of retailers. “Just being like
your neighbor is a pathway to mediocrity. This
adds a lot of life to the store.”
And with consumer wine education on the
rise, they’ll see the advantage of the packages, manufacturers
say. Singles consumers, who
have buoyed the market for “187s” (so named
because they are 1/4 the size of the traditional
750 mL bottle, or 187 mL) know they can open
one of the small “juice boxes” when they don’t
want to uncork an entire bottle and see it go to
waste. Meanwhile, steady consumers recognize
the value of a four-bottle capacity box that can
keep wine fresh for weeks, due to the fact that
the bladder inside the box decreases the wine’s
exposure to oxygen.
“It makes for nice portion control,” says Monaco.
“Someone wants to have a glass a night, it’s
easy, and it’s quick.”
Additionally, because the products cost retailers
less, they appeal to cost conscious consumers,
as well. A Black Box, for example, contains the
equivalent of four bottles of an award-winning
wine – at the low price of about $6 per liter.
“Consumers are more aware of what they’re
drinking, and the energy market has really come
into play from a supplier standpoint,” says Josh
Schulze, director of packaging technology for
Constellation Wines. “The price of oil is affecting
glass manufacturing, and recyclability is
much more of an issue. PET is also petroleumbased,
so that takes energy, as well. And as consumers
get more knowledgeable about our products,
they become more aware of its costs, and so
we are more aware of those costs as well.”
It’s not as if America is in the lead when it
comes to marketing these packages to consumers.
In Australia, the same place that launched
the critter labels, bag-in-box wines account for
more than 50 percent of wine sales overall; in
Italy and other European countries, Tetra Pak
bricks are common to many drinks and other
liquids, including milk and broth. Recently,
Tetra Pak products also became the darling of
Ontario, Canada wine sellers, because a shortage of dump space meant that there was nowhere to
put traditional bottles.
Dump space aside, it’s in-store spacing that’s
the real key to selling boxed wines, according to
Kamp, the wine director at Meijer.
“What I’ve actually done is separate the threeliter
boxes from the fives, because those products,
the Franzias of the world, are more in
line with the traditional box,” he says. “In most
stores, we’ve now got a four foot, five-shelf section.
It’s really big, and we carry all the Black
Box SKUs, a Blue Nun Riesling, some South
African boxes, a Sangria from Spain, even Toad
Hollow Pinot Noir.”
He’s devoting the extra space because, he says,
“when the ‘cork dorks’ got ahold of Black Box,
they realized it’s a beautiful box at a nice price.”
Those “cork dorks” are the group Monaco, of
Kappy’s, describes when he says “there’s a different
demographic that’s drinking this.”
Retailers indicate that the products in stayfresh
boxes and single serve have the potential
to fit many channels, from gas stations to manufacturers markets, as well as traditional package stores.
“I actually don’t know that boxes have a huge
place in a bottle shop,” says Kamp. “You can
hand-sell a bottle easier than a box. But in a big
box store, a chain or drug, look out.”
Recently, Constellation began testing the
sale of mid-priced wines through its beer distributors,
selling it only by the case; other wine
makers are trying to sell half bottles through
convenience stores. It’s not that wine has gone
downscale, it’s that knowledge has gone up, everywhere.
“We’re doing really well in all channels right
now,” Sproule says of Black Box. “The only
reason people weren’t doing it before was the
stigma. Food and drug account for about 20
percent of our sales, and we’re also doing really
well in Wal-Mart. There’s not a major chain
we’re not in right now.”
Guess that means that, unlike his predecessors,
the box wine guy now does pretty well
at parties.