New tools for premium beverages

Manter has developed a stunning web-based design tool for premium wineries – and is looking to move the concept to the craft beer sector. Andy Thomas reports

Wine label designers can now visualize how different bottle shapes, graphics and decorative finishes will work with premium label papers following the launch of Manter's Labelabbymanter.com virtual design studio.

Label Lab allows designers to choose between 32 colored face papers in Manter’s Imaginative Colors series, matching them with seven bottle shapes in three glass colors and four finishing techniques. Decoration options include combinations of hot stamping, embossing, varnishing and silk screen effects. Designers can zoom in to see the relief effects and the texture of the paper.

It is even possible to choose what kind of wine will be in the bottle – white, red or rose – which modifies the options available.

Users can choose between five pre-set label designs to apply to these models, or can import their own designs to a fixed size and format. A wide palette of colors can be selected to model any print process, with up to six design layers available.

The site has been optimized for all mobile devices including ipad and is available in English, Spanish and French.

‘We developed Labelabbymanter.com following a request from a designer who wanted help seeing how our papers look without committing to the expense of printed samples,’ says Christian Gali, export area manager and product manager at Manter. ‘Label Lab allows designers to try new combinations without any cost.’

Along with the new site, Manter is introducing a minimum order size of 250 sq m to meet the needs of smaller boutique wineries.

For a Labelabbymanter.com demo and walk-through, visit www.manter.es.

Onwards to beer?

One intriguing possibility is that the site could be expanded to include models for beer bottles and wet strength premium label papers included in Manter’s new ‘Craft Beer Label Collection’ catalogue.

‘We believe the beer market will follow the same evolution as wine 20 years ago, with increasing diversification and consumer segmentation,’ says Roser Pijuan, marketing and communications at Manter.

Manter is focusing on the fast growing craft beer segment, which last year climbed to 5 percent by volume of the US beer market at a time when the overall beer market remained stagnated.

There are many similarities between the craft beer and specialty wines sectors, both of which are value-added niches requiring short runs and a high level of differentiation.

Indeed, fine wineries are starting to perceive craft beers as direct competition.

‘Some consumers are choosing craft beers instead of wine with their meals and more top restaurants are bringing beer menus to the table, particularly during the summer months,’ says Pijuan. ‘Craft beers are sold not only in supermarkets but also increasingly at specialist wine boutiques.’

‘The craft beer sector has the margins to support our specialist label papers,’ says Christian Gali. ‘We need to show the smaller breweries that to spend more money on the label is not a waste but an investment.’

While mass market ‘industrial’ beer brands use combinations of metalized, semi-gloss and PP clear-on-clear labels, Manter is aiming to bring a wide range of specialist papers to craft beer label designers.

‘We will bring across the super-waterproof label technology we developed for wines in chill buckets,’ says Christian Gali. These papers are coextruded with film to stop the moisture reaching the adhesive.

The craft beer face label range will include cotton papers or papers with a percentage of cotton, embossed, pearlised, felt-marked, as well as metalized wet strength papers. ‘We can realize the same wet resistance performance as PP, while creating a distinct personality,’ says Gali.

‘In the wine market people already know this, but it is quite new in the beer market.  But remember that wine went through the same learning curve.’

Innovation

Manter is gaining a reputation for its innovative web-based label design tools. Last year the company showed a site developed to promote its Imaginary Colors label collection, which allowed users to see how complex designs were put together layer by layer.

Pictured: Manter’s Craft Beer Label Collection

This article was published in L&L issue 5, 2012