Hardknott Brewery has recently created Peat Souper in a new collaboration project with six of its brewing friends. The “Fuller’s and Friends” project has seen Hardknott team up with Fuller’s Brewery, Cloudwater Brew Co, Fourpure Brewing Co, Marble Beers, Moor Beer Co and Thornbridge Brewery to create six new collaboration beers packaged together as a Fuller’s six-pack which will be exclusive to Waitrose within the grocery market. From the beginning of the collaboration, Hardknott’s Dave Bailey wanted LemonTop Creative to be involved in the design of his bottle. LemonTop are renowned throughout the brewing industry as the beer branding experts. Working in tandem with Dave and Fuller’s global ambassador, John Keeling, LemonTop created a number of designs to choose from, adhering to Fuller’s design brand guidelines. This ensured Hardknott’s bottle would seamlessly fit into the range of 6 bottles being produced for the collaboration. The final design was a combination of London skyline and Cumbrian hills, representing the collaboration, yet still basing the imagery and colour theme around the Hardknott brand and associated imagery. Peat Souper, a peated malt brew, brought yet another quality beer into the Hardknott range and allowed LemonTop’s creative team to expand on the already successful Hardknott brand. The idea came from Dave’s knowledge of history. He explained, “A lot of people learn at school that Pea Soup Fog, also known as London Particular or London Fog, was a historical smog that plagued London. Because we were working with Fuller’s from London, it seemed quite apt to make the historical reference with our beer. I wanted the name to be a play on words but also something that wouldn’t be lost on people outside of London. “Hence the name Peat Souper for our peated malt beer. For the design and look of the label, I wanted LemonTop to do what they do best, and to merge the image of London with our own area in the hills of the Lake District. “As they always do, the creative team at LemonTop captured my imagination with a refreshingly simple yet highly effective graphic image.” The beer itself was quite a triumph for the Hardknott brewery team, as they created a highly original yet authentic tasting porter. For a taste of the past, Hardknott used peated malt and a trio of classic English hops – Bramling Cross, Sovereign and First Gold – to craft a delicious, chocolatey smoked porter that evokes the classic London beers of the 18th century. Both Dave and John, from Fuller’s, were delighted with the final product and, along with LemonTop, are looking forward to the next successful collaboration. As far as growth and investment goes, there are few print businesses currently spending at the level of Print Leeds. The rapidly evolving company - a specialist in the POS market and the printing of beverage packaging - has invested over £3.5m in the last four years with a projected spend of an additional £5m in the next 18 months. In the last four years, the West Yorkshire business has undertaken a factory refurbishment and extension and also acquired a Heidelberg Speedmaster CX102 UV seven colour printer, and just recently a DYSS X7-1630C digital cutter from AG/CAD. In the next 6 months, the company will skyrocket its investment plans with a move from the current 20,000sq/ft factory to a 32,000sq/ft facility and also install another Heidelberg Speedmaster XL106 seven colour printer. With a factory move planned over the summer and the Heidelberg arriving just before Christmas, the management won’t get time to relax much during the seasonal holidays in 2017. Thankfully, as part of its investment strategy the 38- employee business purchased the DYSS X7-1630C to help lighten the load. The company has specialist divisions with core competences in producing wet-glue labels, UV litho printed plastics, and digital printing that caters for the PoS market and the printing of beverage and food packaging. As one of the most technically advanced printers in the UK, the business always has an eye on the latest technologies and the 3m by 1.6m DYSS-1630C digital cutter was purchased to replace a smaller, slower and aging cutter. Like the Heidelberg, the DYSS has been acquired to provide capacity, flexibility and added capability at Print Leeds. 66 BREWING & BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES BUSINESS New cutter bottles success for Print Leeds! LemonTop captures Peat Souper imagination News CONTAINERS www.lemontopcreative.com For more information visit: www.print-leeds.co.uk For more information visit: 66_Layout 1 10/11/2017 15:40 Page 1