Czechs turn to bag-in-box

Dispense system's popularity grows

The development of draught beer packaged in bag-in-box containers in the Czech Republic has reached new heights, with the rate of uptake in the country’s bars doubling in the past year.  

SABMiller subsidiary Plzeňsky Prazdroj is currently supplying six new bars with beer packaged in this format a month. At present the Czech market-leader is supplying 600 venues with beer in bag-in-box containers.  

“Patrons will seek out high quality and well-prepared beer, even in hard times and economic trends of the beer market, as witnessed in the decrease of demand for beer from barrels,” said head of Prazdroj’s tank division Milan Herman.  

“Even though tanks [bag-in-box containers] are suitable only for selected pubs with high volume and excellent car of beer quality, we have to really establish tanks facilities in numerous pubs in order to satisfy demand.” 

The containers comprise a water-tight, coextruded plastic liner (consisting of seven layers of various resins) within a box, which keeps the beer stored within free from CO2 loss and the ingress of oxygen and away from tank walls.  Prazdroj relies on Germany-based in-liner supplier Nittel for its bag-in-box requirements.  

In the Czech Republic, which boasts the highest per capita consumption of beer in the world with Czechs on average downing 162 litres each a year, volumes have been static for the past decade.