As pouch packaging becomes popular in the Australian market for convenience products, particularly for beverage offerings for children, figures from the US suggest the format is poised to achieve growth in a more adult market – for alcoholic drinks.
Research firm Nielsen has reported that sales of alcoholic beverages packaged in pouches reached $US200 million ($A223 million) in annual sales by the third quarter of last year, a dramatic growth from the $US12 million of sales in the corresponding period to 2010.
Nielsen said its research showed the number of US alcohol buyers purchasing pouch products in the past 12 months had doubled over the previous year.
Growth in the US market has been led by the adoption of pouch packaging by such global brands as Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Constellation.
Diageo last year began national distribution of pouches of its Parrot Bay and Smirnoff brands containing fruity malt-beverage drinks meant to be frozen and squeezed into a glass or cup.
The single-serve pouches have been positioned as a no-mess way to enjoy fancy bar drinks at home.
"If you think about making mixed drinks, in a lot of markets you need to go to the liquor store for one ingredient, you need to go to the grocery store for another, you need to pull out the blender," Diageo's brand director overseeing frozen-pouch marketing, Patrick Hughes, said.
The format hasn't only been used for single-serve or convenience drinks. Pernod Ricard's Malibu rum brand entered the pouch market in the US in 2010, with prepared cocktails packed in 1.75l pouches, enough for 10 cocktails.
"The format with the pouch and the little nozzle really made it a very shareable opportunity for us," Pernod Ricard brand director, Lisa McCann, said.
Pouch packaging has become one of the fastest growing packaging formats for the alcoholic beverages category in the US.
