From Protection to Performance: The New Role of Beverage Secondary Packaging

1. Flexibility is becoming a competitive advantage

As beverage portfolios expand and SKU variety grows, flexibility is becoming a more important packaging requirement. Brands need secondary packaging that can accommodate different product counts, formats and pack configurations, while still supporting efficient production and strong shelf impact. 

This is why renovation is often replacing reinvention. Rather than creating entirely new systems, many beverage brands are refreshing proven pack formats through structural refinements, improved materials and stronger visual design. Rounded corners, cleaner silhouettes and simplified structures can make a pack feel more premium, while still working within current equipment and production footprints. 

Paperboard solutions offer clear advantages in this context, combining structural versatility with high-quality print to support personalization, promotional messaging, shorter runs, variety packs and customer-specific activity. By giving brands more room to adapt within a familiar material platform, they can help balance operational efficiency with the need to keep portfolios fresh, relevant and responsive to changing shopper expectations.

The QuikFlex™ 2100G4 delivers greater carton design freedom for fully enclosed cartons, enabling faster, simpler changeovers, and eliminating the need to plan pack styles too far ahead. Supports 4- to 30-pack configurations.

• Growing SKU variety is increasing the need for adaptable secondary packaging. 
• Small structural changes can refresh proven formats without major operational change. 
• Paperboard can support personalization, seasonal activity and multiple pack configurations. 

2. Convenience remains a powerful consumer cue

While sustainability may dominate the industry agenda, convenience continues to shape consumer preference. Shoppers want packs that are easy to identify, pick up, carry, open, store and use. Integrated handles, intuitive openings, fridge-ready formats and at-home dispensing features are becoming valuable ways to improve the everyday experience. 

Changing consumption habits are also influencing pack design. Smaller can sizes, mini formats and compact multipacks reflect growing demand for moderation, portion control and lifestyle flexibility. At the same time, economic pressure is encouraging interest in bulk packs and variety formats, giving consumers value and choice without locking them into a single flavor or product. 

Protection and hygiene remain part of the equation too. Partial or full enclosure can help shield can tops and bottle caps, while also giving brands a larger canvas for communication, graphics and promotional storytelling.

• Convenience influences everything from handling to storage and at-home use. 
• Smaller formats and bulk packs are both gaining relevance for different need states. 
• Enclosed formats can support hygiene, protection and brand storytelling. 

3. Material cost is only part of the story

• Material cost is only one part of the total cost equation. 
• Line efficiency, logistics, machinery flexibility and supply resilience can all influence overall cost. 
• Early collaboration can help reduce waste, improve efficiency and identify better-value formats. 

• Click and collect still requires strong brand impact beyond the shelf. 
• Packaging can reassure consumers at collection, handover and at home. 
• Strong graphics and print quality help packs remain distinctive after online purchase. 

5. Packaging is a consumer engagement platform 

Secondary packaging is often one of the first branded touchpoints a consumer sees. Increasingly, brands are using it not only to protect and promote the product, but to create richer interaction. Accessible features such as braille can broaden usability, while augmented reality, QR codes and NFC technologies can connect the physical pack to digital content, loyalty programs, traceability information or brand experiences. 

• Secondary packaging can connect physical packs to digital brand experiences. 
• Accessible features and smart technologies can broaden usability and engagement. 
• Our work with BERO shows how packaging can support traceability, loyalty and brand connection. 

6. Circularity is reshaping the brief

For beverage producers, the circularity conversation is becoming more sophisticated. The shift away from plastic shrink film and rings towards paperboard alternatives remains important, but it is not happening at one pace everywhere. Regulation, infrastructure and category economics all influence how quickly brands can transition. 

As a result, many companies are taking a more strategic route: reducing material use, lightweighting packs and improving designs to lower overall carbon footprint. This broader view recognizes that sustainable packaging is not defined by a single claim. Recyclability, renewable inputs, material efficiency, carbon impact and circularity all need to be considered together. 

That approach is expanding the range of beverage multipack formats available, from wrap and clip-style solutions to basket carriers and fully enclosed cartons. The benefit is flexibility: brands can choose structures that align sustainability ambitions with cost, performance, retail requirements and production realities. 

• Sustainability is now broader than material substitution alone. 
• Brands must balance recyclability, carbon impact, circularity and cost. 
• Format choice is expanding as brands look for practical, scalable alternatives. 

A more demanding role for secondary packaging 

The future of beverage secondary packaging will be defined by balance across the full packaging journey. Brands need solutions that support production efficiency, protect performance through distribution, create impact and ease of use in retail, improve convenience in the home and contribute to circularity at end of life. The winners will be those that treat secondary packaging as a strategic tool from the start: one that can reduce unnecessary cost and complexity while strengthening brand value, improving the consumer experience and supporting a more circular economy. 

Want to learn more? Contact us today and connect with a member of our expert team.