Articles by Barbara Harfmann

As more consumers seek better-for-you beverage options, they continue demanding packaging that reflects their eco-friendly, healthy lifestyles.

Fall is here, and that means consumers are enjoying football tailgating parties — both professional and collegiate — onsite at the big game or in bars. Although consumption of adult beverages can be fun, it is imperative that this activity be executed in a responsible manner.

The movement to become closer to one’s food source and consumers craving more healthful food and beverage options have buoyed the growth of the $53.5 billion natural and organic business, according to Rockville, Md.-based Packaged Fact’s July 2014 report titled “Natural and Organic Foods and Beverages in the U.S., 4th Edition.”

An extremely competitive beverage landscape didn’t stop Beth Wilson-Parentice from pursuing her passion. From managing a Starbucks in Connecticut, to creating concoctions in her Pennsylvania kitchen, Wilson-Parentice overcame financial, production and distribution hurdles to create her own line of natural, organic sparkling beverages.

With a plethora of alcohol and non-alcohol brands in the beverage landscape, packaging is paramount to attracting consumers. In the case of Wild Ginger Original Alcoholic Ginger Beer, a new craft beer, Dan Matauch, founder of Northville, Mich.-based Flowdesign, the firm that designed the new beer’s packaging, says the name itself immediately sparked his imagination.

From high line speeds to condensation, beverage producers operate in a virtually non-stop production cycle that requires up-to-date coding equipment that simultaneously labels, identifies and tracks products – all while keeping pace with ever-changing industry needs.

I recently returned from a vacation in Southern California, where I mixed in some work between Disneyland, whale watching and playing in the Pacific Ocean. After watching my 19-year-old son and the rest of Chicago Danube Swabians — a German folk-dancing group — participate in a Landerstrachtenfest in Anaheim, we got the chance to explore California and sample a few beverages, too.

Obesity rates have more than doubled in adults and children since the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Approximately 78.6 million adults are overweight or obese, with 12.7 million children and adolescents in the same category.

Groupe Geloso was founded in 1960 by Italian immigrant Vincenzo Geloso. He and his sons, Aldo, Antoine and Nicolangelo, rose from humble beginnings importing and crushing grapes to creating a multi-national beverage company that would help define future categories in the alcohol beverage industry.

The formulation has been carefully and meticulously perfected and packaged. And the next step is just as crucial to marketing the product and ensuring success of the brand — printing and applying labels.