Alken Maes invests in new packaging line: deposit for Desperados, but “don’t push a lime into the bottle” (Alken)

Alken-Maes has invested 4.7 million euros in a new packaging line at the brewery in Alken. With the new installation, the brewer is switching to bottles with a deposit for the Desperados beers.

Source: BELGA

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Desperados was first brewed in France in 1995. The beer with a tequilla flavor soon ended up at Heineken, the Dutch parent company of Alken-Maes. Various variants are now on the market. Since 2020, the beer has also been brewed at Alken-Maes. Until recently, some of it was still imported from abroad.

Between 2019 and 2023, sales of Desperados in Belgium increased by 54 percent

Partly because Belgian sales are increasing sharply, plus 54 percent from 2019 to 2023, the brewer is now switching to a reusable bottle. During the year, 9 million reusable bottles will come onto the market. Strikingly, the brewer calls on not to push a piece of lime into the bottle, which is often the case now. The lime pieces are difficult to remove from the bottle and then the bottles still end up in the waste.

Already in stores

From now on, Alken-Maes will take the entire production process and distribution of Desperados into its own hands. With the new packaging line, Alken-Maes can itself package the bottles, which have retained their shape, in the cardboard with which they end up on the store shelf, says CEO Marc Josephus Jitta.

The bottles are already available in stores, explains retail director Gwendi Hernalsteen. The switch took place in March and most stores have since made the switch.

“Thanks to this adjustment with the Desperados deposit bottle, 80 percent of the beer we produce finds its way to the market in reusable packaging,” concludes Alken-Maes CEO Jitta.