Beer Handle Takes the Hungarian Market 

A co-operative effort by Heineken Hungária and Stora Enso Packaging resulted in the beer bottle multipack, which saves both money and the environment.

Where can you find beer bottle packaging that is easy to open and carry, is water-resistant and saves money for both the producer and consumer?

One of Hungary’s largest breweries, Heineken, turned to Stora Enso Packaging in the spring of 2008. Two key criteria were specified for the design: the bottles were not to fall out or move, and the packaging should be water-resistant.

Emphasis was also placed on the look of the packaging. Indeed, the decision finally rested on offset, which Heineken had already used with Stora Enso Packaging for its speciality packaging.

“Product development took quite a long time, and there was lots of testing. We tested a total of seven different packaging models with four differently shaped bottles,” explains Corporate Affairs and Communications Manager Eva Kiss of Heineken Hungária.  

Four versions

The result was a multipack unlike anything the Hungarian market had ever seen: four or five half-litre beer bottles held together by a carrying handle.

Soproni, Soproni 1895, Kaiser, Zlaty Bažant, Gösser and Amstel beers are sold in five-packs. Heineken will get its own four-bottle packaging this spring.

"The Gösser and Amstel handle is slightly different from the others. So, in all, we developed four different handles,” explains Krisztian Asztalos, sales manager at the Páty mill of Stora Enso Packaging.

Heineken is very pleased with the final result.

“The bottle row sits very nicely in the refrigerator door, and you can remove one bottle without the others coming loose. The packages can also be stacked next to each other in a beer crate,” says Eva Kiss.

From circle to hexagon

Designing even small packaging can be a multi-phase process. The beer handle is an excellent example of this.

“We ended up shaving off millimetres. We noticed, for example, that the hole holding the bottle neck didn’t work as a circle. So we changed it into a hexagon,” explains Kiss.

The other challenge was mounting the packaging around the bottles at the brewery.

“Unfortunately, gluing didn’t work. So we had to figure out how quickly the packaging could be mounted by hand or machine.

Stora Enso Packaging finally developed a simple tool for manually mounting the packaging. During that time, Heineken tested the solution in a brewery environment five times.

Good for the environment

One reason for developing the new packaging is naturally to save costs and the environment.

“The handle saves us 44 tonnes of packaging material a year: six tonnes of plastic and 38 tonnes of paper," says Kiss.

Transport needs are also reduced because there is a decreased need for plastic pallets in the delivery chain. Ultimately, these savings are passed on to the ordinary beer lover.


Text: Hanna Rusila
Photo: Heineken Hungária