Impact to packaging due to Covid-19 - Necktags
As we mentioned in our blog post from April 8, the impact of Covid 19 has forced the world to change the way in which it operates, and Kyoto Brewing Co. has been no exception.
The largest change for us to date has been the dramatic shift in the make up of our packaging formats. From the beginning, we put a strong focus on draft beer, believing that is not only inherently easier to maintain a higher amount of control over the quality of the beer but also ensure that the people serving that beer are familiar with our products and can act as our ambassadors as they serve their customers. This meant that most of our sales, close to 97% in fact, were done in keg form. With Covid 19 shutting beer bars and restaurants across the country, our focus quickly had to shift to producing beer in bottle form.
In addition to products we already intended to release in bottle, we will now be packaging at least a small number of all products that are either currently in production or soon will be. Originally, we intended to create a unique label for each of our bottled products, the design of which would embody the care and effort that went into crafting the liquid inside. These visuals will be the next most obvious change that our customers will see over the coming weeks. Instead of having a unique label applied to each bottle, each product will receive a common neck tag with the information relating to that product either handwritten or stamped on it. While we will miss the visual distinction that our labels provide, we believe that this decision is important in order to continue to provide our customers with a wide variety of products in as timely a manner as possible.
The changes we have made in our packaging formats as well as our design strategy have taken a little getting used to here at the brewery. However, one of the most positive changes we have felt through this is a closer connection with our customers. There is something about holding these bottles in your hand as they come off bottling machine knowing that eventually the same bottle will be in the hand of a customer as they open it and pour it into a glass at home that just can’t be rivaled by packaging beer in kegs. We hope that you also find ways to enjoy the changes that are afoot here at Kyoto Brewing Co!
