Premium alcohol-free drinks company, Manchester-based Drynks Unlimited, has worked with leading specialist suppliers – glass packaging company, Croxsons, and label manufacturers, The Label Makers – to supply primary packaging for their Smashed range of 0% abv ales, beers and ciders.
As a start-up, Drynks has enjoyed a considerable run of success this year, having received funding from a favourable appearance on Dragon’s Den to its Smashed range, overtaking big established no and low alcohol products, such as Peroni, San Miguel and Budweiser in terms of units sold in Booths supermarket. And with consumers looking to drink less alcohol during the COVID-19 lockdown and beyond, a further opportunity has been created for alcohol-free brands to thrive as people focus more on their health and wellbeing.
For the packaging, Croxsons supplied the brewer with a complete range of amber, flint and green glass 330ml bottles, together with a larger 660ml bottle as a Smashed Lager sharing bottle. The bottles are topped off with a stylish branded crown, also supplied by Croxsons.
Sporting a design by Leeds-based the Fun Agency, The Label Makers produced label packaging across different formats, bottle and can, ensuring in the process that a common material specification was used that worked across different filling environments. The labels were then flexo printed to ensure maximum colour control and consistent branding between both formats.
Both the bottle and label packaging ideally support the premium feel of the brand.
“It’s vital as a start-up to have the right team around you who can support your vision, and both Croxsons and The Labels Makers had the ability to do just that,” said Richard Clark, founder and managing director of Drynks Unlimited. “We needed heavyweight reputable and personable suppliers with experience and they both delivered.
“The 330ml bottles from Croxsons have been excellently received and we have more recently taken supply of 660ml for the sharing bottle – Drynks being the first company in the UK to launch an alcohol free Lager in this sharing sized bottle. The labels have this wonderful vibrant, tactile and premium feel – we were so impressed with the quality of the label finish, speed in turnaround and flexibility along the way.”
Both Croxsons’ COO, Tim Croxson, and The Label Makers’ managing director, David Webster, jointly agreed that Drynks was an “inspiring and highly enthusiastic brand to work with, possessing all the hallmarks of a market leader in this category”.