In an effort to reduce the use of single-use plastics at stadiums and hospitality venues, Ball Corporation is seeking to expands its aluminum cups business.
The cups can be rinsed and re-used or recycled, and they're meant to be sturdier than plastic cups. Ball has already rolled out the cups to venues, including Ball Arena in Denver, as well as Red Rocks Ampitheater and SoFi Stadium. The cups come in five sizes from nine to 24 ounces.
Ball corporation CEO Daniel Fisher said he expects the aluminum cup business to continue to grow, citing proposed regulatory bans on single-use plastics, as well as growth in new stadium construction.
“You need the big inflection point to come out of food service,” Fisher told ModernRetail.com. “We’re bullish on the conversations, but a couple of those transactions and wins need to happen for us to really inflect toward break even. We’re doing better this year than last. We’ll do better next year. I need for one or two significant wins for us to get back to break even. But it’s not that far away. But until you execute that trade, it’s not in the near term.”
Emily Fong Mitchell, president and general managers of Ball Aluminum Cups, said that individual customers may rinse and reuse the aluminum cups, while the venues that use the cups can come up with different ways to encourage recycling. At Ball Arena, for example, site staff carried backpacks to help collect recyclable items from fans, who could also enter to win a gift card when using aluminum recycling machines.
“You’re already paying $15 for a beer,” Fong Mitchell said. “When you get it, you can have it in a flimsy plastic cup, versus a branded aluminum cup that has a QR code that has an opportunity to engage with content. It really is a much more premium experience.”
