Petainer, Mitsubishi Chemical & KHS Japan to bring one-way PET beer kegs to Japan

18-Jan-2018 - Last updated on 18-Jan-2018 at 11:23 GMT

Kirin beer, Japan. Photo: Japan Info.

Petainer, KHS Japan and Mitsubishi Chemical have joined forces to bring one-way PET beer kegs to the Japanese beer market.

Mitsubishi’s DLC barrier technology will be combined with Petainer’s patented petainerKeg to create the ‘DLC Keg’.

Japanese recycling stream

DLC replaces petainerKeg’s existing Nylon and Polyshield barrier technology and is clear, rather than the traditional amber. The removal of Nylon and color ensures the keg is recyclable as part of the Japanese recycling stream.

Mitsubishi already uses DLC for some of its existing products which it supplies to the alcoholic drinks industry, including global brands such as Kirin.

Chris McEwan, group business development director, Petainer, told BeverageDaily, Japan is enjoying a boom in craft beer; and brands, such as Asahi and Kirin, are becoming increasingly popular.

The collaboration includes the development of a 10L keg, specifically designed for the Japanese market and supports legislative trends to reduce packaging weight limits.

It complements the existing petainerKeg range of 15L, 20L and 30L kegs, which are available in the market.

“Japan is the seventh biggest beer market in the world and the second biggest in Asia, behind China, with a large on-trade consumption profile,” said McEwan.

Myanmar & Vietnam

“Japanese beer manufacturers are becoming increasingly prevalent in the world: Asahi has purchased several high quality European brands; Kirin has expanded into Myanmar and purchased 25% of Brooklyn Beer and Sapporo expanded into Vietnam recently.

“Japanese premium brands, such as Asahi Super Dry, are growing significantly in popularity across the world and Japan has a very active and growing craft beer market; with brands such as Coedo, Baird and Kiuchi.

“The partnership with Mitsubishi also allows us to plan to localise manufacture of the petainerKeg to reduce supply chain lead time and cost.”

According to Petainer, single-use PET kegs are increasingly being used as a more economical and efficient alternative to traditional steel kegs and glass bottles.

They are recyclable and cut out costly return logistics and washing processes.

Initially, Mitsubishi will assemble the petainerKeg range and the DLC Keg after applying DLC technology in Japan, but plans to manufacture the kegs by blowing from preforms.

Mitsubishi, KHS and Petainer will join forces to market, sell and distribute the DLC keg and petainerKeg range in Japan. The DLC keg manufactured in Japan will also be available for global customers.

“This is an extension of our successful global distribution partnership with Petainer and an exciting development for the Japanese market,” said Hideo Suzuki, CEO, KHS Japan.

“There is growing demand for cost-effective packaging for Japanese breweries, large and small, to help them grow and enter new markets.”