Think about your favourite high-end whisky, or any luxurious liquor, for that matter. Its bottle is intricate, and glossy, however clunky. Heavy bottles and glasses have lengthy been an indication of costly and unique liquors, till now.
Diageo, the London-based spirits large that owns greater than 200 manufacturers, on Friday unveiled the “world’s lightest whisky glass bottle,” a 70-centiliter Johnnie Walker Blue Label Extremely. The corporate’s earlier Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottles weigh 850 grams with out liquid or the stopper, however this one weighs nearly 5 occasions much less at simply 180 grams, Jeremy Lindley, Diageo’s international design director, instructed Fortune. By comparability, typical whisky bottles weigh between 400 grams and 1,000 grams, he mentioned.
“We didn’t know what we were going to be able to achieve when we set out to push the boundaries of luxury,” Jennifer English, Johnnie Walker’s international model director, mentioned in an announcement. “The result is something that many said would not be possible.”
A part of the corporate’s mission in producing lighter-weight bottles is decreasing its carbon emissions. Lightweighting is project- and product-dependent, however research have proven that for each gram of glass diminished means greater than half a gram much less carbon emissions in manufacturing, in response to a UK glass manufacturing sector decarbonization roadmap to 2050. Plus, chopping carbon emissions can minimize prices.
Picture courtesy Diageo
“The transformation required to reduce carbon emissions is a challenge at every level and for all stakeholders, but it also offers new opportunities for cost savings and growth,” in response to a 2022 examine by Deloitte in Europe.
Whereas it’s not a “new idea” to make extra eco-friendly packaging for drinks, extra “luxury alcohol brands are just now coming around to it,” Andy Keenan, govt vp and basic supervisor for model and retail consultancy Benefit Options, instructed Fortune.
“As consumers have become more eco-conscious, they want to see companies producing less waste. This has quickly become the standard,” Keenan mentioned. “Eventually, all brands will follow suit and move to lighter glass bottles.”
What Diageo’s bottling means for the alcohol trade
Diageo can be planting its flag as a pacesetter within the liquor trade for innovating extra environment friendly packaging beginning with Johnnie Walker.
“In the course of its five years of research, Johnnie Walker has been granted a UK patent and to encourage further progress in the industry—and in a first for Diageo—a license to the patent will be offered on a royalty-free basis to anyone in the world who wishes to share in these discoveries,” Lindley mentioned.
Picture courtesy Diageo
Diageo, nonetheless, is beginning comparatively small. Solely 888 bottles of this particular Johnnie Walker will ever be produced, with a restricted quantity launched on the market in 2025 in choose markets worldwide, in response to an organization assertion. And these limited-edition bottles include an eye-popping price ticket: greater than $1,100. Different Johnnie Walker Blue Label bottles may be discovered for a fraction of the worth, usually round $200 to $300 a pop.
If the brand new bottle is the “technological breakthrough” like Diageo says it’s, then why not mass produce the bottles? The liquor large would want to “completely redesign glassmaking at scale to handle the delicate nature of the bottle across production, filling and transport,” Lindley mentioned.
Picture courtesy Diageo
And that’s a “cross-industry challenge,” he added. Nevertheless, we are able to anticipate to see Diageo proceed to innovate on its bottle-making procedures.
Though Diageo hasn’t confirmed future releases of different light-weight bottles, Lindley mentioned “we’re applying our learnings in lightweighting across a huge range of other Diageo projects.”
Whiskey connoisseur Chris Walster mentioned he’s observed different whisky distilleries implementing comparable practices, together with the famend Bruichladdich Distillery based in 1881.
“Whisky is often sold based on the history of the brand, but sustainability is actually being seen as a marketing tool for all distilleries,” Walster mentioned, with Johnnie Walker having been round for greater than 200 years. “All are looking at reducing their package weight, sustainability of packaging, and their overall environmental footprint. The fact that [Diageo] now [has] the lightest bottle shows what is possible to do and other distilleries will naturally follow, as they are already conscious of their environmental impact.”
