Wine serving 4.0 – how a Belgian start-up company revolutionizes the hospitality industry

The trend in wine consumption in the hotel and restaurant sector is clearly moving towards serving wine by the glass. This gave a Belgian businessman and his two associates the opportunity to invent a completely new way of serving wine. The development of a suitable solution and new wine packaging proved to be highly ambitious. The inventors therefore turned to MULTIVAC for implementing a marketable and innovative solution.

A visionary wine-serving concept

Amongst others, these problems inspired the inventors to develop a completely new concept with precise objectives: the wine had to be perfectly preserved, even after it had been opened, and it had to be served in perfect volumes at the simple push of a button. The newly developed dispensing system (the Invineo Wine Dispenser) contains three Wine Tubes, uses RFID technology to detect wines and chills every wine to its ideal temperature. This means no intervention by the operator is necessary.

The vision of the entrepreneurs went even further: the Invineo Wine Dispenser, which is already being used by some prestigious restaurants and hotel groups, is actually an IoT device, which meets the requirements of Industry 4.0. It captures all the relevant operating data such as wine consumption, wine stock and the purchase price of the Wine Tubes. Data and the wine information are then processed and used to optimise customer service. Even cloud-based services such as tracking of individual Wine Tubes can be activated if required, allowing lean procurement and maximum anti-tampering security to be achieved. Since the data is also made available via simple sales dashboards, clients can identify key commercial indicators such as the cost per glass and the consumption behaviour of their guests. Hence, stockholding and purchasing can be planned accordingly and delivery shortages and missing products become a thing of the past.

Invineo sees itself as an all-in-one service provider, which serves the hotel and restaurant sector as a one-stop shop. The Belgian start-up carefully selects and buys wines directly from producers, fills wine in its patented Tubes, and supplies HoReCa customers with wine and their innovative Wine Dispensers. In addition to the hospitality sector, the company is also setting its sights on private wine enthusiasts as a target group and secondary market.

New packaging design required

This revolutionary type of serving wine represents a real innovation. The Wine Tubes for the dispensing system have a capacity of two litres. They consist of a cylindrically thermoformed pack with a bonded closure sleeve. The pack, which is first encased in an attractive cardboard tube, is then filled with wine by means of a filling system before being subsequently sealed. “The principle of the pack is similar to a bag-in-box design," says Christoph Klein, Co-Founder and Project Manager at Invineo. “But such packaging concepts have neither the necessary product protection after opening, nor a particularly attractive appearance. So we had to reinvent the packaging from scratch.”

In addition to product protection and pack appeal, the focus of the concept was also on operating reliability: a special closure sleeve, which is sealed into the thermoformed pack by means of a specially developed sealing die and is only compatible with the wine dispenser, prevents the pack from being opened inadvertently or operated incorrectly. The innovative entrepreneurs knew they would need an experienced partner to successfully implement their ambitious plan. “We were entering uncharted territory in wine packaging,” recalls Christoph Klein. “The depth of know-how and extensive project experience were therefore the key factors in deciding to collaborate with MULTIVAC.”

The spirit of invention meets experience

The team at MULTIVAC Belgium of Jerome Garnier, Marc Deblaere and Christian Vlasselaer recognized the potential of the invention and contacted the MULTIVAC Innovation Center in Wolfertschwenden to develop the idea into a marketable packaging concept. In addition to complying with all the usual standards in the industry (product safety and hygiene, etc.) the bag also had to guarantee a shelf life of at least six months for white wine and twelve months for red wine. Furthermore, the content was to be used without any loss of quality for at least 30 days after opening the wine container, without using alimentary gas.

Implementation of the concept requires a very precise thermoforming process, so that uniform wall thickness is achieved throughout the entire surface of the thermoformed container. As Jerome Garnier says, “This is the crucial factor in regards of product protection. Fluctuations in the thickness of the container wall not only impair the oxygen barrier but also have an adverse effect on the mechanical protective function of the pack.” In order to further curb the undesirable loss of quality in the wine due to oxygen, the experts at MULTIVAC also placed particular emphasis on reducing the residual air pockets in the head space of the thermoformed pack to a minimum, which also contributed to extending the shelf life of the product.

The development of the packaging concept took a total of two and a half years. Several repeated versions were required until all the demands formulated by Invineo were fully met.

Highly promising pilot production

Since August 2019, the wine bags have been produced as part of a pilot project on a MULTIVAC R 245 thermoforming packaging machine. These bags are now being delivered to the project partners. In regards of transport logistics, the fact that the high-cost wines are protected threefold has also proven to be beneficial: the combination of a robust thermoformed pack, a rigid cardboard tube and the final secondary packaging reduces the risk of transport damage to a minimum. “Thanks to MULTIVAC we can now offer high-quality wines in a unique and very attractive pack,” says Thierry Tacheny with delight. “The packaging process is also very simple and intuitive in its application,” adds Christoph Klein.

After completing the pilot phase, the entrepreneurs expect a significant increase in production volume and a considerable reduction in the production costs per Tube. The packaging concept developed by MULTIVAC saves resources, since the plug-assist forming employed in the thermoforming process enables thinner film thicknesses to be used than is the case with the usual pouch packs.

The solution is well received

Users’ reaction to the wine-by-the-glass solution is throughout positive. In addition to easy handling and low maintenance, Invineo’s Wine Dispensers are particularly appreciated for the high-quality appearance, and the Wine Tubes meet the upmarket demands of businesses in the hotel and restaurant sector. However, the inner bag plays the central role in wine quality since restaurants and hotels are serving demanding guests, who would not accept any olfactory impairment of the wine.

The cooperation with MULTIVAC is regarded by Invineo as being very praiseworthy. As Thierry Tacheny says, “The high level of expertise shown by the MULTIVAC specialists has enabled us to launch an attractive packaging of highest quality in the market. Therefore, we are considering expanding our concept to other products in the food sector. Together with MULTIVAC, of course.”