After selling tens of thousands of keg wraps over the last decade, Atlas knew it was time to take a new look at an old product. Over the last few weeks, we have, and we’ve made it better!
The purpose of keg wraps are to make kegs easily identifiable in the cooler, behind the bar, and in your retailers’ and distributors’ empty keg corrals, thereby increasing the odds that it will be returned quickly when emptied and making it less likely that it will be stolen and repurposed by some unscrupulous…person. Our standard keg wrap has been a 3” vinyl band, heavier than ordinary “bumper sticker” material with ultra-tac permanent adhesive, silkscreen printed with a heavy gloss laminate. Most were one color, but printing multicolor wraps has been possible. Most of our customers have not chosen to make the extra investment in a multipcolored wrap that will only be seen by distributors and bartenders.
Our keg wrap material has been very effective, but the cos-per-piece of silkscreen printing on that material in small quantities (125 or 250 kegs) has been an issue with many of our customers—most of whom just wrote a very big check to the keg manufacturer and have to watch their pennies carefully for a while.
We’ve been working with our production facilities to address this cost issue for a few months now, and we’re pleased to announce our result: the Atlas DIGITAL keg wrap.
The Atlas digital keg wrap is printed in four-color process using high-quality outdoor durable inks on super-tac vinyl and the same heavy laminate material as our standard keg wrap. Because it’s printed four-color process, you’re no longer limited to one or two colors and no longer limited by the low resolution inherent in silkscreen printing.
What’s more? The digital printing process, with its simpler press setups, is much more cost-effective, especially in the usual small quantities of 125, 250 and 500. The cost is 30% or 45% less than a single-color keg wrap.
Once our new keg wraps are properly applied to a keg, it will perform just as well as the old-style wraps will. But there is a compromise, of sorts, in getting this new product on the market. A little more care needs to be taken in the application. The digital keg collar’s adhesive is formulated a little differently than the old-style wraps, which is why we call it “super-tac” instead of “ultra-tac.” In order to get a proper initial application, the wrap should be applied to a dry keg at a normal room temperature (60-80F). We recommend that it be applied by two people (one to position and gradually peel back the liner as the wrap goes on, and a second person to smoothly adhere it, using a rag or a brush to get the smoothest laydown and the best adhesion. Once that extra care is taken for a good application, you can expect the same durability and performance as you would expect with our older-style keg wraps.
Our standard keg wraps will continue to be available to those who want the extra assurance and easier application of the “ultra-tac” adhesive, but we believe our new product will be a great solution for many customers who want a full-color wrap and need to watch their budgets.
Give Atlas a call at 800.247.0360 or email us at info@atlaslabels.com for more information.