Unless you’ve been living under a CPG rock, you’ve likely seen the new BERO launch from Tom Holland (aka Spiderman). BERO is a non-alcoholic beer brand touted as “not a substitute”, but the “new gold standard in beer”. Five years ago, if you wanted to launch as quickly as BERO did, you’d be going to market with one of these options: plastic sleeves on your cans or direct-to-can printing. Let’s face it: no matter how good your design is, plastic sleeves tend to give off a cheaper, low quality look and feel with metal peering through, and don’t allow for aluminum cans to be recycled. On the other hand, to achieve a sleek Coca-Cola-like can with direct printing requires a minimum order quantity (MOQ) of 200,000 pieces per SKU – a huge challenge for new and emerging brands because of lead time (4+ months), working capital, and those slight tweaks you’re almost guaranteed to make to your branding and labels.

Digital Print Technology

BERO opted to digitally print with our partners at Canworks – the largest digital printing company in the US, printing about 15 million cans per month. They’ve successfully printed cans for brands like Kin Euphorics, EquiTea, Cann and 700+ other brands/breweries. Now, digitally printed cans provide the best quality print on the market with almost no turnaround time, giving brands a new go-to option for launching high end cans quickly without tying up their cash with large orders. But digital printing isn’t just for small brands – larger brands are working with Canworks to launch their new flavors or limited SKUs, rather than slapping sleeves on their cans. New additions and limited runs no longer need to suffer from a lower quality look with the help of digital printing.

The Process

Tom Holland, who’s three years into his sobriety journey, wanted a brand that would feel like it’s “been around for a while” and would be easy to find in the cooler. Tom and the Canworks team got to work with branding & design experts, Center, to create an iconic two-tone look – a classic gold (a result of yellow ink on metal can) contrasting with modern, yet standout color choices like ivory, emerald, and maroon. Center CEO, Alex Center, formerly a Design Director at Coca-Cola, said, “This was my first experience with digital printing—something I hadn’t considered possible just a few years ago. The technology has come a long way, allowing us to effortlessly print and review sample cans throughout the process. This flexibility really helped us fine-tune the colors and materials to achieve exactly what we envisioned.”

Check out these beautifully printed products coming from our partner Canworks:

Kin Euphorics, non-alcoholic, functional beverages with designs that are bursting with gradients of vibrant colors exploding throughout the entire can.

EquiTea – all natural, tea-based beverages with simple black and white illustrations accompanied by each flavor’s color profile, blocked out on the label.

Startup CPG Community Brands Printing with Canworks: 

“Canworks has been a trusted partner for Pricklee’s journey into digitally printed cans; they’re attentive to our business needs and always available, but, most importantly, they’ve consistently delivered a high-quality product against ever-moving production timelines when it matters.” – Pricklee

Image by Noah Lovas

“Digitally printed cans are a no-brainer versus sleeved cans. We switched a few years ago and haven’t looked back. Canworks has been our trusted partner. Their team is always on the ball and they always deliver on time, which is essential for us to be production-ready.” – Jiant

Launching a canned product? Let’s get you connected with our friends at Canworks – sign up here if you’d like to chat.