Personalised manufacture

At one end of the scale, beverage filling lines are becoming forever faster. At the other end, demand is insatiable for greater personalisation.

It has always been more difficult to make small production runs cost effective with cans. So I’m delighted that Rexam is rolling out its mobile canning unit, which can produce a batch of just 5,000 at a time.

The new Keurig Kold drinks machine in the United States follows in the footsteps of many other home dispense gadgets and I was struck by a comment from Keurig Chief Executive Brian Kelley: “We’re literally bringing a bottling plant into the home with this machine.”

Signs of the times.