#330 - From Mass Production to Mass Customisation: How Digital Is Rewriting the Beverage Can Market with Clay Oliff, Polytype America

In this episode of the FuturePrint Podcast, Marcus Timson speaks with Clay Oliff, President and CEO of Polytype America Corporation, to explore how the beverage can market is being reshaped by changing consumer behaviour, brand fragmentation, and the rise of digital direct-to-shape printing.

Once defined by high-volume, standardised production, the beverage can industry is now evolving rapidly. Consumers are demanding more variety, faster product cycles, and more personalised experiences, driving the growth of microbrands, ready-to-drink beverages, and niche segments such as canned wine and functional drinks.

Clay explains how traditional dry offset printing - built for scale and consistency - struggles to meet these new demands. In contrast, digital direct-to-shape printing enables rapid design changes, short runs, and even mass customisation, dramatically reducing time from concept to shelf.

The conversation also explores how packaging is becoming a dynamic marketing tool, with brands using cans for localised messaging, personalised campaigns, and variable data such as unique QR codes.

Sustainability is another key theme. Digital printing supports recyclability by eliminating labels and enabling direct decoration, while new ink technologies and processes continue to evolve in response to regulatory and environmental pressures.

While still in an emerging phase, digital can printing is gaining traction, particularly among agile brands experimenting with new formats and marketing strategies.

Looking ahead, Clay outlines how Polytype is investing in digital technology and positioning itself for a future where flexibility, speed, and innovation define success in the beverage packaging landscape.

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Transcript

Welcome And What We Are Exploring

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the latest episode of the Future Print Podcast. I'm really happy to have with me a gentleman I met at the K Show, and he did a very good FVTV piece to camera. Clay Olif is the president and CEO of Polytype America. And welcome to the podcast, Clay. Thank you, Marcus. I appreciate it very much, and nice to see you again. Fantastic. Looking forward to the chat, Clay. Very focused area, but a really exciting, fast evolving one. We're going to be looking a little bit about how shifting consumer behavior, market fragmentation, and sort of changing brand strategies are really transforming the beverage can market. And it's very relatable. I think everybody, whether it's got beer in it, whether it's got any kind of other liquid in it, has held or consumed a beverage can. So it's very relatable and it's changing. And that's uh it's going to be interesting to find out how digital direct to shape printing is really emerging as a critical enabler in this segment.

Clay Olif’s Printing Background

SPEAKER_00 1:06

So, Clay, before we get into the questions about beverage cans, give us a little do you mind give us a little bit of a background about yourself? Because um I think you've had you've had an interesting career yourself in in printing.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Okay, good. Yes. Um absolutely. So um I've been with Polytype for 15 years now. And uh just as a okay, interesting connection between the topic today and in my past, one of the reasons that I came to Polytype was because they had a digital strategy 15 years ago. And I've been in involved in the printing industry for over 50 years, despite my youthful looks. Um a lot on packaging, but sheet-fed commercial, web-fed offset. Um I spent most of my youth standing by printing equipment and um ended up being a technical salesperson for a large German supplier of printing equipment. And okay, it's always been a space for me that feels a little bit like art and a little bit like work. And uh so I've I've I've I've thrived in the environment.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah, and and um I know it's something that you've um I I often think the the US, the culture, you you you're just all born speakers. I I don't quite know how you manage that, but you're also really good at uh at giving insight and sharing stories and so on, and and I'm I'm looking forward um to the

Why The Can Market Is Shifting

SPEAKER_00 2:39

chat. Um going straight into it really, um uh could you give how has the beverage can market evolved over the past decade or so? Um, and why is it becoming such a dynamic part of the packaging landscape today?

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Okay, I think okay, it's it's clear that the beverage can has been around for a while, but it is also interesting that in the last decade, maybe even a little bit longer, there have been some trends and some and some pressures. There have been multiple things that are asking the market to change a little bit. Um, the first thing I would say is that the beverage can is known as being extremely lightweight, but at the same time durable and offering a lot of protection to its content. Lightweight means that you move the product without higher cost of transportation and distribution, yet your product gets there with integrity, like it left uh the filler with. Um, I think the market overall is becoming a little bit fragmented. I think that's due to the historical um business and industry based around super large quantities and the emerging trends of new generations wanting things different, faster, not necessarily interested in large brand orientation, wanting something unique. Uh, and so I think all of those are are really driving some change in the industry.

New Drinks And New Buyer Habits

SPEAKER_00 4:17

Yeah, and it's it's um, I guess as well as anything else, sustainability and things like that make a difference, don't they? Um how are changing consumer behaviors, perhaps around health and lifestyle influencing the types of beverages come into market?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

Okay, it's interesting. I think some statistics actually indicate that alcohol consumption, certainly in in the United States, but I'm pretty sure globally, is actually on the decline. Yet some of the emerging brands from the micro brews and also ready to drink, and there are there are some new new segments that are actually driving some growth into the industry that you know weren't known or even thought of maybe a decade ago. Like for instance, wine. And you know, putting wine into an aluminum can was not always thought to be positive, yet the consumer today wants this ready-to-drink option of a spirit that they want. It could also be a health drink, it could be uh uh and is you know, completely a different product inside the can today that we weren't used to seeing a decade ago.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah, it's interesting. Yeah, it's interesting. It's that that change in consumption and um and also sort of changes in the the kind of marketing landscape about how to reach consumers is is sort of is clearly changing as as well, isn't it? What yeah um so the what are the products driving the growth, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Okay, well, like I said, on one hand, alcoholic beverage overall is on the decline, but the micro beverage industry globally is really something that's exploded. Okay, it's been more than a decade that it's been growing, but it's really taken off in the last decade. Um and I think that those two segments are really pushing a lot of unique product into the market that's begging for a different decoration style or a different message. Um, and you know, that kind of lends itself to the digital platform more so than the traditional dry offset process. Yeah, yeah,

Fragmentation And The Rise Of Indie Brands

SPEAKER_01 6:45

makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

And you said the market's far more fragmented today. What what's driving the rise of smaller agile beverage brands?

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Um, I I believe the consumer Okay, then the the large brands are known, been there, done that kind of thing. Um consumers want more of an individual um marketing campaign to their preferences, their styles. Um they even want the message to change often, quickly, not necessarily be the same logo that they've seen since they were a teenager into their 50s and 60s. They really do expect more of an agile, um, fluent market that's catering to their needs and in some ways even catering to whims and change that come and go quickly, fads, you may say. But nonetheless, um it is what the consumer asks for. It's what they respond to. And I think the the industry sees that and they're developing a way to to make that possible.

SPEAKER_00 7:59

And it's it is clearly technology is enabling that change as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, of course.

Direct To Shape Digital Speeds Up Launches

SPEAKER_01 8:07

If we're if we're if we're talking about digital printing, especially direct to shape, you are talking about abbreviating the cycle between a concept of an artwork and actually that artwork being on the shelf somewhere. Um, and you know, digital could be deployed to a label and maybe still have some flexibility that the digital technology offers, but direct to shape really closes all the extra time that would be involved with the process. So digital is really helping enable an industry that wants to change the message often, wants to be on the market quickly, responding to a consumer whim or fag that's obviously alive in social media. And digital makes that possible. You don't have long pre-press steps to get artwork ready, and you don't have long preparation steps of the printing machine itself for the process. You go directly to the substrate, to the can, it goes directly to the filler, it goes directly to the shelf.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Yeah, yeah. It's kind of um smart marketing meets smart technology, I suppose, in a way, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's that kind of granular understanding and um and it's exciting. Packaging obviously is it is increasingly clearly acting as a marketing and communication tool.

Cans As Localised Marketing Billboards

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Um, you've kind of hinted at a bit of it there, but how are brands using cans differently today?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Okay, I think it's a great question. And for me, it's it's it's the compelling reason that okay, everyone in the packaging space, I believe, sees their product as a billboard of communication. And so for years there's been focus on color and the messaging, but digital allows that messaging to be very fluid and even dynamic, where the same product might have a different appearance in Georgia than it does in Boston or in Germany than it would in California. So that flexibility without adding extra cost to the process and overruns and waste, I think that that that flexibility is is one of the driving reasons that digital is being used in the digital beverage, into the beverage space overall.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

Yeah, yeah. Makes

Sustainability And Recycling Pressure

SPEAKER_00 10:47

sense. And I I I mentioned sustainability earlier. I was just I was just uh curious really as to the pressures and regulations that are impacting um production of everything, particular packaging. Um so how are sustainability pressures influencing decoration methods, particularly with this move towards digital director-shaped printing?

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, okay, on one hand, the sustainability goals of the global population, and and certainly driven by regulation, um actually feed into digital as being a positive. For instance, it's very difficult to take a beverage can that has a shrink label on it or an adhesive label and put that easily into a recycling stream with great effect and impact. So that's actually feeding in the regulations themselves that are being focused on printing, printing to packaging, migration through the substrate of a package, um still exist, of course, are still taken very seriously by the injured industry. There's a lot of focus on safety today. Um and you see this with the way that inks are being developed, coatings are being developed, primers are being developed, and even processes that at one at one stage may have been UV, but now are aqueous, for example. Just but there is a lot of a lot of attention being focused to the sustainability part of it.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Yeah, so I can s to sum up you digital is really emerging as a strong alternative for future ready decoration, is that right? Right, exactly. Yeah.

Where Traditional Dry Offset Falls Short

SPEAKER_00 12:37

Well, uh with that in mind then, where did where did traditional printing methods fall short in today's more agile, fast moving market?

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Well, I think okay, the traditional methods were really built around what I mentioned a minute ago about the way the consumer was serviced for decades. And that was, you know, to make a product that was well received by the market and would sell in large volumes globally. That's the goal, is to be as big as you can and service as many as you can. And the process to create that product, known in the industry as the dry offset process, is producing cans anywhere from 1,500 to 2,000 parts a minute, um, but with the same image. And to prepare that machine to run that job is a long process, sometimes taking days. The artwork preparation also takes days, sometimes weeks. And when you have uh what I would call an emerging brand or an indie brand or a brand that doesn't want that same goal as being servicing the masses, um, none of it really fits for them. They want something faster, newer. They might want to change their mind next run. And so the traditional process doesn't work.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Yeah. And and that can't be beaten really by digital for speed and efficiency in certain mass production runs, but just is too restrictive, really, for the, like you say, this fast changing. I mean, it was always called fast moving consumer goods, but now it's it's it's super fast, isn't it? We were talking earlier about how the pace of life has only increased with AI. We still feel as busy, if not busier, but actually the proliferation of different tastes and different local and the in in need to be more sophisticated in selling and production really is seeing a big uptick, isn't there, in in in terms of the interest in digital printing. So, could you explain what role digital printing technologies play in addressing these new demands?

What Digital Can Do Differently

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Sure. So it's really the exact opposite of what I just described as being the traditional method. Um, there's no pre-press step, more or less. You really could take a picture, send it to a machine, and put that picture on a beverage can today. So there is some preparatory work for design and layout, but if you're if your viewers are familiar with the traditional process of getting to the printing plate step, they know that that process is long, takes days and weeks. And it's not true in a digital environment. Files are swapped by email or by file exchange services, layout is done quickly. You can print a sample same day. And if you go to the traditional process and someone wanted the actual sample, you would spend days setting up the machine and weeks preparing the file to produce one sample. It's not even offered. But digital really does allow you to service the market needs in a in a much more a way that the market really is demanding today. So that no pre-press, you have minimal setup. Oftentimes I describe to people in the industry that they should think of the digital beverage can printer or cup printer or tube printer, a little bit like the printer in their office. You can send a thousand copies of a page to it and everyone's the same, or you could send a thousand-page document to it and everyone is different, with absolutely zero pre-press or machine changes in the middle. And this is exactly the reality of a digital device printing beverage cans.

Adoption Now Short Runs And Personalisation

SPEAKER_00 16:50

And are you are you starting to see this um play out on the shop floor in supermarkets and retailers? Are we still at an early-ish phase, or are you seeing it in areas but not adopted in full? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:03

I still I still say we're clearly emerging. Um the brands in a lot of instances are thinking how do we do a unique QR code, not a static QR code that's the same and takes everyone to a website, but something unique. They're thinking about how do I touch the individual? How do I touch Joe on the shelf? And but the reality is when I walk through the facilities currently using digital, they've clearly mastered short run. They're doing short and micro run. They're experimenting with games and codes and things that will really leverage the digital technology to its fullest. And so it's still emerging, but I'm I'm pushing for it.

SPEAKER_00 18:04

Yeah, and often, yeah, and the the technical capability is there for that, and it often takes time for the imagination of the creatives to understand how to exploit it and to embrace that. And I I think it's literally a matter of time, isn't it? And it's an ex it's exciting. We're at this stage. And sometimes when these technological advances take place, the innovation comes from different areas and not necessarily the area that you think it might work first. And um uh

Will Brands Bring Printing In House

SPEAKER_00 18:37

one of them could be a question for you. Um, do you see a future where beverage brands themselves bring digital cam printing in-house? And if so, what would drive that shift?

SPEAKER_01 18:51

Okay, it's an interesting question, and of course many industries have embraced that printing is just part of the process. For example, a map publisher decides they can also print the map, or the largest bank in the world you find out, has a printing division to support the needs of the bank. And when we talk about the food space and food and beverage space, there are a few that also take this full-line approach. I don't know necessarily that I see it moving in that direction, although it would not surprise me, especially if some of the larger brands, as they start to see their sales decline because of other offerings in the market that offer this unique customization, mass customization that they are not set up to do, that they would consider doing it. But to drive that and be and be successful at it requires uh a real technical expertise. It would not be as simple as putting an automatic automatic palletizer on the end of a can line, um, which would just be you know normal in our industry. But to print a beverage can and then fill it immediately, logistically, there are some challenges. There's there are some health concerns and safety concerns that regulate how that can be done nearline, inline. Um, I don't see that as in the imminent future. And especially if the players in the market today continue to service the brands at a high level and and continue to add the capacity that the brands need. I think it will be a real a real question in their mind, do they buy or build? Because building doesn't always make sense. Sometimes it makes perfect sense, but direct to your question, I don't see that trend at the moment, at least not in the market that I'm most familiar with.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yeah, and and to be fair, that's why I asked, because you know the market i incredibly well, and you the restrictions and the likelihoods and the and not least the culture and what is the priority and and what isn't, and like you say, what what may be potentially on paper possible may not make commercial sense because actually, as you said, the restrictions are are such that it it it um it may not happen at all. So thanks for giving us that sort of feedback there.

Polytype’s Strategy And The Next Five Years

SPEAKER_00 21:44

Just zooming out really, sort of finish finishing off really Claire, but at a high level, how does Polytype support growth in this market? And obviously Polytype, I'm learning, is a a true leader in the field and the the technology you have is exemplary, etc. So, how does Polytype support growth in this market in terms of digital? And looking perhaps ahead three to five years, I know it's difficult to see the into the future. How do you expect the market to evolve?

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Okay, I appreciate the question. Of course, you know, I think one thing that anyone who looks at the history of Polytype will realize quickly is we have a very successful history of reinventing ourselves. We started over 130 years ago in the newspaper industry. And if we hadn't have seen the emergence of plastic, which is really a rigid container in the 50s and 60s and reinvented ourselves, then we might not be having this discussion today. And so we've prided ourselves on being a developer of printing and decoration technology. And we have 60 years of experience in moving a shaped product. Clearly, I mean, almost anybody with with reasonable aptitude could take a print head and bolt it on an arm in their garage and get it to print a product underneath of it. But to move products at speeds of 150, 200, 300 parts a minute really takes engineering expertise. And this is where Polytype excels. For growth, we are dedicated that dry offset will not be the decoration method of the future. We don't go as far as saying that future is 10 years or 50 years because we don't know. But one thing we do know digital will continue to grow, and dry offset will continue to shrink. And therefore, our organization has to be in front of that growth. And today we have an entire division dedicated to digital technology, and um even the sales effort is being refined to leverage the expertise of someone very experienced selling traditional technology, but challenged to sell emerging technology, and vice versa. So I would say that if you looked at the organization today, you would see Polytype very focused on supporting growth in digital. And, you know, of course, I'm responsible for North America. I have five technicians, and three of those technicians are on every digital install at every school, at every symposium. They're working very closely with the with the factory to make sure that we can deliver the service long-term to machine installations. So it's really an entire culture that coexists at PolyTight, traditional and emerging, and the the designation will shift as we go through the next three and five years.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

Yeah, and it's that that kind of experience and that precision mixed with that curiosity and innovative culture that blends the best of both worlds, really. I I get from the conversations I've had so far and the what I'm learning about polytype. So and that extends around the world, truly globally as well. So listen, Clay,

Closing Thoughts And Farewell

SPEAKER_00 25:26

thanks for joining us. Obviously, the beverage can market is evolving into a dynamic place, isn't it, with digital printing and looking the flexibility and creative freedom really required to compete in this more fragmented, from what you're saying, fast moving, super fast moving world where where brands are looking for competitive advantage and um technologies there to meet that demand, particularly from Polytypes. So thanks so much, Clay, for joining us today for the Heat Friend Podcast. Hope to have you back at some point. Very good, Marcus. I appreciate the opportunity and I wish you a great day.