Quirky Beverages Company | 85Unlocking creative freedom Chandigarh, India-based non-alcoholic beverage start-up Quirky Beverages Company (QBC), unlocked new creative opportunities in labels and packaging when it switched to digital print technology. Akanksha Meena reports resh graduate Vivek Sonar was out with his friends in 2016 when he noticed that the Indian market lacked quality non-alcoholic beverages apart from established brands like FCoca-Cola and Pepsi. Sonar says that the so-called ‘beverage revolution’ in India began in 2018 when new beverage brands started appearing in the market. A passionate entrepreneur, Sonar jumped at the opportunity to start his brand of non-alcoholic beverages, called Quirky Beverages Company (QBC). He found success in the very frst year. “I place labels higher than what’s inside because that is what sells. Vivek Sonar (left) founder of Quirky Beverages CompanyWe can make the fnest products, The company has now introduced PET bottles and cans to its but if the packaging does not do packaging lineup. Sonar explains that getting low-volume can justice, it will not sell”printing is diffcult in India, so he opted for shrink sleeves for his canned beverages. The shrink sleeves are printed on HP Indigo.The positive market response motivated him to push the brand ‘It becomes very helpful when we get low-volume batches of further despite the challenges of a start-up. shrink sleeves. We get more than 220 designs printed for market ‘We run our company for people,’ Sonar says. ‘People love our research. Rapid prototyping has been possible due to HP digital product. They love to faunt them and tag us on social media. When technology. It was not possible for us earlier. Around 10 different we see people enjoying our product, it makes us happy. That is jobs used to cost us 6,000 to 10,000 USD on any conventional where we feel we are different from other brands. That was our core press. With digital, we can get labels for 60 USD with a quick starting point, and that is still where we are still.’ turnaround time.’ He then took a break from the market to focus on product and This empowered the brand to launch 20 to 30 new products in a packaging research and development. short period. ‘Technology advances every day, and we have to keep up with ‘Our creativity has increased. A label may look good on screen them,’ Sonar says. ‘Printing and packaging exhibitions have helped but might not match the fnal print result. We did not have the us immensely in terms of learning, getting to know the right people capability to check that earlier. We had to stick to our old designs and new technologies.’ due to the inability to print short runs. But now, we do not have Sonar met with HP in 2020 and says that the digital press to worry about timelines, getting cylinders and color matching. If manufacturer helped resolve the brand’s labels and packaging anything goes wrong, labels can be printed again,’ Sonar adds. concerns. HP recommended a converter that prints QBC’s labels QBC uses self-adhesive labels for its glass bottles and shrink and shrink sleeves. sleeves on its PET bottles and cans. A digital-focused strategy has He says: ‘Usually, when we go with conventional print technology helped QBC launch new packaging forms, not just variants. set up, we are stuck with one label design, and you need to get ‘This intervention and upgrade in technology have enabled us out almost 2.3 million labels at once. That was holding us back on to do that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible. This is a huge several of our products.’ problem for us because we are always creating new things. When Quirky Beverages Company was forced to stick with one label we go to label converter, they quote around 2 million labels. They wrap-around design for its entire range of products. It could not don’t print anything below that. We cannot invest that kind of experiment and prototype with the inability to order short runs. The money in labels until we have tested our products in the market. brand was fnding it diffcult to launch new product variants that Vendors do not understand this, and those who do understand required new label designs and formats. this are using digital technology. If I have 20-30 SKUs all in different favors and sizes, a conventional guy would not be able Exploring label formats to pull it off.’ Switching to HP Indigo digital print technology enabled the brand Conventionally printed labels would also lead to wastage, adding to produce short-run labels in new designs for its complete range of to the costs. ‘It also added to the environmental waste. A lot of beverages. This breakthrough allowed QBC to focus on its branding paper was wasted in what could have been printed on smaller size and design. materials.’ ‘There is a massive change in our labels, and it took us fve years Even the label design process has changed since the early days to reach this point. There is a lot of learning that goes on every day. of QBC. For us, labels are the most important part of our products. I place ‘I used to just go to a print shop with an idea and guide their them higher than what’s inside because that is what sells. We can designer. He would charge me hourly, and I would then get the make the fnest products, but if the packaging does not do justice, it labels printed and stick them on the bottles. We used to have the will not sell,’ Sonar explains. same template for all the labels and would just change the name of Jul - Sep 2022