Aluminium closures had been used for a long time to seal other liquids, such as water, but by 2006 it was clear that the overall closure market was expanding so fast that the various manufacturers needed their own body, and so the Aluminium Closures Group, headquartered in Germany, was formed.
The situation today, according to the Aluminium Closures Group, is that the aluminium closures market accounts for around 9bn units annually, out of 30bn bottles of wine sold worldwide in 2016. The major drive of global growth has been the US market, but there has been strong growth in Germany, the UK, France and the Netherlands as well.
This growth is likely to continue into the future. “We did an end consumer survey in 2014, where we asked more than 6,000 people in six countries – five European countries and the US – about closure preferences,” says Guido Aufdemkamp, executive director of the Aluminium Closures Group. “What we found is that elderly men prefer traditional closures, while Millennials prefer aluminium closures.” The implications, he says, are that as younger drinkers enter the market, they push producers to adopt screw caps, and that this is happening even in the more traditional wine producing countries such as France and Germany. Another phenomenon that has driven screw caps forward has been the remarkable rise of rosés, as rosé producers are willing to experiment with different bottle shapes and closures; many top rosés are bottled under screw cap. “I would consider that rosé wines are more often consumed by Millennials,” says Aufdemkamp. “Millenials are less traditional, because they are not so concerned with the ritual of opening the wine bottle.”
As well as the ease of opening, aluminium closures also have sustainability on their side. According to Aufdemkamp, more than 75% of all the aluminium that’s ever been produced is still in use, because recycling is a natural part of the aluminium value chain. “Aluminium closures have a big advantage, because they are collected via two streams,” says Aufdemkamp. The first is via the normal mixed packaging stream. The second one is through glass recycling, where people drop their bottles complete with the aluminium closure, which is why every second aluminium closure in Europe is recycled. “As this can still be optimised we support national recycling initiatives,” he goes on. In the unfortunate case that screw caps end up in the general waste, they can also be recovered from the bottom ashes after incineration.