How to pack wine bottles
With the festive season around the corner, wine, Champagne, beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages are a popular gift choice, whether you’re searching for a corporate present or a perfect treat for your loved ones.
Last year, 8.8 million wine bottles were sold in the UK, marking a 10% increase from the previous year. This represents a continuous growth trend over the past five years, with no signs of slowing down.
As many customers opt for online shopping due to its convenience and ease, ensuring that your bottles arrive in perfect condition is crucial.
This blog post looks at why bottle packaging is important, examines various options available and provides advice on selecting the right bottle packaging for your products.
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The importance of bottle packaging
The right packing materials protect your bottles from damage and ensure your customers can fully enjoy their gifts.
When any product arrives damaged, online retailers need to think about:
- The cost of product replacement
- The damage to your brand’s reputation and the customer’s experience
- The expense and hassle of reverse or replacement logistics
- The environmental cost, as the carbon footprint of transactions increases when products need to be replaced
All this adds to your operating costs and can greatly influence how customers view your brand and whether they will buy from you again. Therefore, it is essential to select the appropriate bottle packaging to fulfil its purpose.
Types of bottle packaging available
The choice of the right bottle packaging can vary based on various factors. Below are a few options available.
1. Airsac® inflatable bottle packaging
Airsac is an innovative, inflatable packaging solution, made of 2% film and 98% air. It is supplied flat and inflated on demand. This makes it a great lightweight, storage saving alternative to traditional bottle packing methods, like polystyrene and bubble wrap.
It is suitable for transporting one, two, three, six or 12 / 70cl wine bottles. Customers can purchase the bags individually or in combination with an outer cardboard box for a comprehensive packaging solution.
A hand pump or air compressor is necessary to inflate the bags and there are automated inflation options available for high-demand environments. Airsac bottle packaging contains 50% recycled content and the inflatable bags can be recycled at large supermarkets.
2. Flexi-Hex® bottle packaging
Flexi-Hex is an excellent, paper-based bottle packaging solution. It features a unique honeycomb design that expands to snuggly fit around bottes for exceptional transit protection.
This eco-friendly bottle packaging choice is completely kerbside recyclable, made from up to 85% recycled content and renewable paper material.
You can choose from one, two and three bottle options for online retail that include the sleeves and shipping boxes, as well as single bottle gift packs.
3. Cardboard bottle boxes with dividers
Cardboard bottle packaging, such as bottle boxes with dividers, are widely available as an “off-the-shelf” solution or can be tailored to fit your specific needs.
You can choose from single bottle boxes or packages designed for cases containing six or twelve bottles if you are selecting from stock items. All cardboard bottle packaging is kerbside recyclable, which is good for the environment. However, it’s important to ensure the bottle box you choose can support the weight and dimensions of your products to prevent damage during shipping.
4. UPS approved spirit packs
UPS approved spirits packaging is a bottle packaging solution created by Macfarlane Packaging in collaboration with UPS and Sealed Air.
It is available in four distinct styles, catering to a variety of spirit bottle shapes and sizes. This includes a traditional bottle pack designed to provide an ideal fit for shipping wine bottles. Each pack features an outer cardboard box with a Korrvu insert that securely holds the bottle in place, offering a good transit protection for breakable goods.
5. Polystyrene bottle packs
Moulded polystyrene is a traditional bottle packaging option, offering a high level of transit protection. It’s widely available to transport wine in packs for one, two or three bottles with peace of mind.
Polystyrene bottle packs can be quite hard to dispose of, which may lead to a negative customer experience and increased packaging waste. Additionally, this type of bottle packaging requires a significant amount of storage space. The extra bulk can also affect your shipping and courier costs, as the dimensions and weight of your parcels may be larger. This, in turn, can lead to higher CO2 emissions during transit.
6. Moulded pulp packs
Made from paper pulp fibres, moulded pulp bottle packaging is an environmentally friendly, biodegradable alternative to polystyrene bottle packs.
It can be manufactured as endcaps to fit the top and bottom of a bottle or tailored to a specific bottle format.
This solution is easy and straightforward to pack, however, doesn’t provide as much protection as some of the other bottle packaging we’ve mentioned before. It can also be bulkier to store.
Choosing the right bottle packaging for your business
The bottle packaging you need will depend on several factors, including:
- How many bottles you send in each shipment
- The size of your bottles
- The weight of your bottles
- How damage prone your bottes are
- If your bottles are going in multi-pick packs
- The storage space available in your packing area or warehouse
- How important the environmental credentials of your packaging are to your customers (and your own environmental impact goals)
Take a look at this concise bottle packaging comparison guide to find the most suitable bottle packaging option for your products, budget and requirements.
Support with bottle packaging
If you are unsure which bottle packaging solution is right for your products or would like to discuss your specific requirements, get in touch today.
Our team of friendly packaging experts, armed with extensive knowledge and a wide range of bottle packaging options, is here to help you find the perfect solution for your business needs.