A rapid innovation project with Datacom has helped Lion develop a successful pilot for a modern, painless returnables system for beer bottles.
At the heart of the innovation is a well-designed returnable crate with a digital tag that eliminates the admin associated with traditional returnables models.
The potential sustainability benefits of this model are a huge focus too. A returnables model will see bottles being washed and reused instead of recycled and reusing bottles is far more energy efficient than recycling them.
The project began with a four-week rapid innovation sprint to get to a workable prototype that could then be presented to Lion’s leadership team.
Lion Accelerated Change Director, John Steiner, says Datacom’s rapid innovation team approached the project with a focus on understanding and solving for the consumer needs, and then using smart tech and the AWS cloud platform as the enabler.
“The rapid innovation process was really consumer and customer-led, and the technology was just whatever the technology needed to be to make the process simple and easy.”
A recent in-store pilot of the new returnables crate with Steinlager Classic shows the idea is a winner with consumers.
“So far, the consumer response has been brilliant. Over the weekend, we outsold Steinlager regular 2 to 1, which has been an awesome result.”
