Coming off a strong showing in 2017, Pilsner Urquell is bringing back its limited-edition tins this fall with four new designs slated to hit the market in early October.
The tins, each of which will be filled with four 500-milliliter cans of the Original Pilsner beer, will be available nationwide at select chain stores, big-box discounters, warehouse stores and independent liquor retailers until supplies last.
After selling out faster than expected last year, the brand this year ordered a record 120,000 of the tins for the U.S. market.
This fall’s release marks the third consecutive year the 175-year-old Czech brand dug into its rich archives to create new tins and can designs, each of which incorporates marks and designs used throughout the brewery’s history.
“The packaging is great because it’s functional, it carries our heritage and it’s collectible,” says Eric Wolfe, associate marketing manager for Pilsner Urquell. “These tins enable us to capture additional holiday display space, educate beer drinkers on our brand and promote new and incremental trial.”
The tins come to market at a time when cans of Pilsner Urquell continue to gain sales momentum and are becoming an increasingly important package for the brand. Four-packs of Pilsner Urquell cans are up 38.8 percent in sales dollars on a volume increase of 33.2 percent year-to-date through July 28, according to Nielsen all-outlet and convenience data. Pilsner Urquell can sales in bars and restaurants also are up in 2018, Wolfe says. Sales for the brand overall this year are flat with volume down less than 1 percent, per Nielsen.
First brewed in 1842 in Pilsen, Pilsner Urquell set the international standard for Pilsner beers, a style that has carried through to the modern-day beer market. In addition to top-selling beers like Miller Lite, Pilsners are back en vogue among American craft brewers as consumers snap back to simplicity and sessionability.
“We’re proud of our heritage as the Original Pilsner, and we have been brewing the same way, with the same ingredients in the same place since 1842,” Wolfe says. “These tins bring our history and credentials front and center, generating a lot of excitement and support around this program.”