Molson Coors India Unveils Thunderbolt in New Premium Packaging

Molson Coors India Pvt Ltd, the Indian subsidiary of leading global brewer Molson Coors Brewing Company, today announced a new brand packaging for Thunderbolt, a leading strong beer brand in India. Designed to uphold the macho imagery of the brand, the new look of the bottle and the new typography THUNDERBOLT in bold and upper case stands for confident, fresh and strong, embodying the brand image.

Targeted at the savvy, go-getter and avid adventurers, the newly designed pack is available across Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh from June 2016.

This redesign will include a new look bottle, a change in visual identity and a new logo. The new look will have thunderbolt labels on the body and neck of the bottle in mono-colour (blue) with white typography that will be visually appealing when the bottles are lined up.

Ashish Kapoor, President of Molson Coors in India said, “Packaging is a valuable visual identity which connects to the consumer, and the heart of the repackaging strategy was to create a stronger connect with our consumers. We decided to create a look which was more effective on the shelf, appealing to our consumers and gave us competitive advantage.”

Ashish Kapoor further added, “The new packaging is an embodiment of our brand and how we plan to connect it to our consumer. Packaging is about the look and feel of the brand, it’s about bringing an experience to our customers.Thunderbolt is about being fresh, confident and strong and the new bottle and labelling is about this.”

The look of the bottle was conceptualized & designed by Molson Coors Cobra India, the technical feasibility & testing was done by American Glass Research (AGR). The bottle matches Thunderbolt’s one-of-a-kind bold taste, and has proprietary design which is uniquely recognizable in the marketplace, while remaining easy to produce. 

Produced in emerald green glass, the new Thunderbolt bottle features an instantly iconic debossed, shield-shaped label panel adorned with the familiar Thunderbolt silver and blue logo. The angular and aggressive shoulder construction displays an embossed lettering wrap that spells out the Thunderbolt brand name including a lightning emblem within the letter ‘O’. Two additional embossed lightning emblems bracket the back label panel, just above the lower sidewall pinch, which transitions into a prominent heel construction. A new ring-pull cap gives the bottle a modern and premium twist in both look and function. 

“We have received rave reviews from both customers and consumers about the new Thunderbolt bottle, which we believe reinforces the brand’s identity of always staying original,” said Ashish Kapoor, President of Molson Coors in India. “Nobody can lay claim to our distinctively different, signature bottle, which in turn will bring greater savings and efficiencies to our business.”

Dr. Wenke Hu and Brad Salitrik of AGR created the bottle using the concept design provided by Molson Coors. Using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) techniques, the AGR team was able to evaluate the bottle’s ability to acceptably with stand the expected loading conditions (internal pressure, impact and vertical load) and to verify that the bottle would perform as desired once it was manufactured.

India is largely a strong beer market and Thunderbolt has seen an unprecedented successby retaining its position as one of the leading players in the North. Post the acquisition of Mount Shivalik Breweries Ltd (MSBL) in April 2015, Molson Coors has made a substantial investment toward supgrading the existing facilitiesto international standard and expanding Thunderbolt’s presence in the northern markets. As a result, thebrand has been able to deliver international quality outputwhile maintaining consistency.

The new Thunderbolt pack (650ml glass bottle) is available across Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh.

About Molson Coors in India

Molson Coors operates through two entities in India. Molson Coors Cobra India is the Joint Venture between Molson Coors Brewing Company and the Cobra Indian Beer Pvt. Ltd. Formed in 2011, the company is headquartered in Mumbai along with a state of the art brewery located in Eastern India. Molson Coors Cobra India is chaired by Cobra Beer’s founder, Lord Karan Bilimoria and currently produces King Cobra Superior Strong Beer, Iceberg 9000 Strong Beer and Carling for the Indian Market. The other entity is Molson Coors India, which was created in April 2015, follow the acquisition of Mount Shivalik Brewery Ltd.’s (MSBL), which operates in Haryana and Punjab. Through the transaction, Molson Coors acquired MSBL’s entire brand portfolio, including the leading strong beer brand, Thunderbolt, and controls brewing operations in Haryana and Punjab.

About The Cobra Beer Partnership

The Cobra Beer Partnership is a joint venture company that combines the brewing, selling and marketing expertise of the highly successful international brewer Molson Coors, with Cobra Beer’s iconic brand and strong presence in ethnic restaurants and off-trade. Formed in May 2009, the Cobra Beer Partnership is chaired by Cobra Beer’s founder, Lord Karan Bilimoria with the day to day operations managed by Molson Coors (UK). First imported into the UK from Bangalore in 1990, Cobra Beer is now one of the strongest and best known brands in the world beer category. Cobra is brewed to a traditional Indian recipe with a modern twist for an extra smooth taste and is a great addition to the UK’s most diverse beer portfolio at Molson Coors (UK & Ireland). Cobra Beers are also one of the most highly awarded. In the Monde Selection, one of the most prestigious quality awards in the world for beer, Cobra Beer has been awarded a total of 73 gold medals since 2001."

About Molson Coors Brewing Company

Molson Coors Brewing Company is a leading global brewer delivering extraordinary brands that delight the world's beer drinkers. It brews, markets and sells a portfolio of leading premium brands such as Coors Light, Molson Canadian, Carling, Staropramen and Blue Moon across The Americas, Europe and Asia. It operates in Canada through Molson Coors Canada; in the US through MillerCoors; across Europe through Molson Coors Europe; and outside these core markets through Molson Coors International.  In 2012, the company was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and named global Beverage Sector Leader. Molson Coors is constantly looking for ways to improve its Beer Print. 

For more information on Molson Coors Brewing Company visit the company's Web site, molsoncoors.com.

Respect for alcohol is one of the guiding principles of the organization and that is why Molson Coors was one of the signatories to the Responsibility Deal and works with its customers to encourage people to enjoy its drinks responsibly through support for Best Bar None (run by the BII) and Community Alcohol Partnerships (run by the WSTA).