November 18: Rexam, the world’s largest beverage can manufacturer, said today that it is reviewing its capital expenditure spend for 2009 “in light of the current economic environment”, although it had been planning a “significant” reduction.

This year the canmaker, which produces worldwide about 55 billion cans a year, opened a plant in Russia, added lines at plants in Austria and Spain and is planning to open one new plant in Europe next year, in Denmark.

In its interim management statement for the period to the end of October, the London-based consumer packaging producer said that its beverage can business was solid.

November 18: They say that in hard times consumers increasingly turn to canned foods.
 

But at Hormel Foods in the US, where Spam has been canned from almost since the last great depression, workers say they’ve never had to meet the demand they’re experiencing now.
 

New York Times reporter Andrew Martin talked to workers from the Spam plant at Austin, Minnesota, who said that they have been making the canned meat seven days a week since July, and they have been told that the relentless work schedule will continue indefinitely.

The company makes food and general line cans, from 200gr to 17kg.

November 17: British supermarkets have been accused of adding misery to the poorest of families struggling with the recession by raising the prices of canned foods by more than 60 percent.

The Daily Mirror newspaper today called the increases ‘sneaky’, because it said on average food prices were falling.

It was using data collected by the retailers’ magazine The Grocer which revealed that in the month to November 4 the prices of retailers' own-label ‘value’ products like canned baked beans and tomatoes had been hiked by 61 percent to 29p.

November 17: Beer sold in metal cans and PET bottles has less impact on the environment than in glass bottles, according to research by Sidel, which manufacturers filling lines.

In a life-cycle-assessment (LCA) of data from the Martens Breweries in Belgium, it found that the production of steel cans uses the least primary energy and water while glass is the highest consumer. This was “against all expectations”, said Sidel.

November 15: Heineken’s ten-litre beer keg, developed with canmaking company Impress, claimed four of the top honours at this year’s Best in Metal Awards, making it the most successful metal container in the event’s history.

Launched in 2007, the TenCan keg won the Supreme Gold Award as well as the Gold awards in the Technical Innovation, Consumer Appeal, and Alcoholic Beverages categories. Using an internal carbon dioxide can to maintain pressure that keeps the beer fresh for up to 30 days, the TenCan is aimed at restaurants, hotels and bars.

Combining extreme shaping with distortion printing, a special lacquer which withstands the shaping process, and a minimum internal pressure of five bar, the TenCan was described by director of Impress’ Speciality Division Woep Möller as “one of the most sophisticated metal products on Earth”.

Nick Mullen, director of the UK’s Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association which organises the Best in Metal Awards, said: “Technically the TenCan illustrates the continually extending boundaries of what is possible in metal packaging, both in terms of the material and production technology.”

November 14: Nestlé and Coca-Cola has called upon canmaking company Rexam to produce a limited-edition run of cans for the leading brand of ready-to-drink iced tea in Spain.
 

The global food and drink partnership worked with Rexam Graphics in Spain to design a can for the co-owned Nestea brand.
 

Rexam’s tactile varnish was chosen to give the cans an unusual feel and an ice-like appearance, and the graphics were enhanced by the canmaker’s Illustration Impact printing technique.