Iconic Jack Daniel's Brand Embraces Eastman Packaging Resin

Eastman Chemical Company’s Embrace LV delivers a shrink film with excellent printing capabilities and shrink stability, ensuring a consistent level film edge with perfect alignment at the top and bottom of containers.

6 Jul 2012 --- For an exclusive UK birthday edition of Jack Daniel’s famous Tennessee Whiskey, packaging expert, CCL Decorative Sleeves created a stylish matt black, full body sleeve using shrink film made from Eastman Embrace LV copolyester resin. The eye catching ‘billboard effect’ eliminated the need for expensive direct-on-glass screen-printing while maintaining a high quality shelf presence.

Eastman Chemical Company’s Embrace LV delivers a shrink film with excellent printing capabilities and shrink stability, ensuring a consistent level film edge with perfect alignment at the top and bottom of containers. This stability eliminates uneven gaps between film and container edge (‘smiley faces’) and is ideal for unique shapes requiring a high ultimate shrink.

“We needed a reliable and technically-expert supplier who could both meet our deadlines and deliver the attention-grabbing look we required,” explains brand manager Jamie Butler of Brown Forman Beverages, the owners of the Jack Daniel’s brand. “The resulting sleeve has delivered on all counts.”

The matt black sleeve accentuates the bottle’s iconic square shape and is six colour gravure printed, with gold and white accents surrounded by the brand’s trademark metalwork motif. Key to CCL Decorative Sleeves’ role was the selection of Embrace LV in order to ensure that the film shrank evenly in both planes and avoided twisting around the neck area.

Jon Cowan of CCL commented: “This was a very challenging project, especially in achieving a consistent, crease free finish, requiring a twist free and consistent film. Jack Daniel’s had very precise requirements regarding positioning and no distortion of the design of the logo in the neck. Additionally, a square profile bottle formed to a round neck created an uneven film path, so a consistent and very high shrink percentage of the film was essential.”

Correct orientation of the sleeve on the bottle was also critical so that the branding was fully centered on the front face of the bottle. In addition, the matt finish is scuff resistant enabling the brand’s quality image to be maintained throughout the distribution process and in the home. Further, where there are no printed graphics, the high transparency of the film ensures an excellent view of the all-important bottle contents.

Shrink film with Embrace LV enables 360-degree full body labeling for maximum shelf impact in food and beverage, cosmetic, personal care and pharmaceutical product packaging. A one-resin solution, Embrace LV can be customized to meet or exceed alternative resins’ shrink curves. The greater than 75% ultimate shrinkage enables it to form around highly contoured or complex containers. As with other Eastman Embrace resins, Embrace LV is halogen-free and has excellent clarity.