air up relies on Greiner Packaging for the production of its durable and refillable tritan drinking bottles. The bottles will now be produced and assembled in Austria – with ecological and economic advantages.
What started in 2016 with an idea and a scientific thesis on the topic of ‘Neuroscience meets Design’ has developed into a successful international company with over 300 employees since the market launch in 2019 – air up. The five founders of the Munich-based scale-up developed a revolutionary drinking system that gives conventional tap water flavor only through scent. To do this, a pod filled with natural aromas is placed on the mouthpiece of the drinking system filled with tap water. When drinking from the straw, you simultaneously draw flavored air into your throat along with the water. From there, the scent molecules reach our olfactory center and are perceived as taste when we exhale. In short, our brain thinks we are tasting cherry, peach, or apple, when we are only consuming water.
air up had its goal in mind from the very beginning – sustainability by design. Hence the principle of the high-quality and durable drinking bottle made of tritan, which can accordingly replace the use of disposable bottles for daily drinking. A simple calculation – if you enjoy three flavor pods from the air up product portfolio, you can potentially save around 15 PET disposable plastic bottles.
Production of the innovative drinking bottles was initially handled by Chinese partners due to a lack of network and resources. From the very beginning, however, it was a matter close to the hearts of the air up founders to constantly improve themselves and their products in order to keep the ecological footprint as small as possible in the future. Consequently, with the goal in mind to take another step towards sustainability, today’s scale-up started looking for suitable suppliers in Europe at a very early stage. In the end, Greiner Packaging prevailed.
Magdalena Jüngst, co-founder and chief evangelist of air up, says, “Our goal was crystal clear from the very beginning – we wanted to move our production to Europe as quickly as possible. However, this is much more complex than it sounds. We needed a highly automated plant to produce our complex drinking system, to meet our high-quality standards, and also an appropriate team. We are pleased to have found the ideal partner in Greiner Packaging and are proud to have come one step closer to our goal of reducing the distance between our production and our customers.”
Greiner Packaging sees itself as an innovative company that – true to its motto ‘do the innovation’ – wants to get the best out of products. This is also what happened with air up. In its search for a European producer for its bottles, Greiner Packaging was able to impress with several, innovative ideas at once.
On the one hand, the bottle was previously lacquered to achieve its typical matt effect look. Greiner Packaging now relies on a masterbatch solution. This allows the same effect to be realized, but already as part of the bottle production process. Thus, no additional production step at another supplier is necessary. This saves logistics costs and, above all, CO2 – through savings in production and transport.
In addition, the straw was redesigned in the course of development: It is now produced by injection molding instead of extrusion blow molding as before and can thus be manufactured even more precisely. In addition, the cardboard packaging of the bottles has also been optimized. A specialist for high-quality packaging from Upper Austria was brought on board for this – packit! Verpackungen. The cardboard packaging is now made of 100% recycled cardboard and does not require a plastic coating; the matte design effect is achieved by means of printing.
“We are pleased that we were able to contribute our expertise and thus help shape the cardboard packaging of air up in a more sustainable way. To meet the challenges of complex packaging, we have also invested in our machinery and purchased a unique diecutter. The innovative character and the partnership-based cooperation, both with Greiner Packaging and with air up, particularly distinguish this project,” says Karl Ömmer, CEO of packit! Verpackungen.
With the relocation of the production to Austria, Greiner Packaging is now responsible for the majority of the product components produced – from the drinking bottle made of Tritan, to the injection-molded lid made of ABS (acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer), and the injection-molded straw made of HDPE (high-density polyethylene). Only the mouthpiece and handle tab made of silicone are currently delivered to the packaging expert. The assembly of the bottle and the packaging are also carried out by Greiner Packaging in Austria. The finished air up drinking systems, packed and ready for shipment to the consumer, finally go directly from Austria to the air up warehouse, where they are ready for distribution to large parts of Europe and the USA.
Greiner Packaging already has more than 60 years of experience in the production of plastic packaging solutions. The company scores with great know-how in a wide range of production technologies and also understands its added value for customers in this technological breadth. This diversity also proved to be a great advantage for air up, as the company could expect the best solution for each individual product part of the bottle. In particular, Greiner Packaging’s expertise in the field of single-step, high-quality injection stretch blow molding benefited the further development of the air up bottles. Above all, the angled neck of the bottle requires the highest precision in the production process, which Greiner Packaging can guarantee to its customer air up.