Design

Ball Packaging Europe has supplied its 330ml Sleek Can to Netherlands-based contract filler DIS Sittard for a new sports drink, launched this week to coincide with the Beijing Olympics.

Sixgram has been developed by DIS Sittard and includes the energy supplement PeptoPro from DSM Food Specialities, which is said to promote endurance and performance and was developed especially for the Dutch Olympic team.

The drink is available in three flavours: blood orange, grapefruit and mandarin.

Dutch agency Sastra, based in Buchten, created the brand and design.

A DIS Sittard spokesman said: "Sixgram was originally sold only to sports academies but it will now be available through retailers, petrol stations and sports facilities across the Netherlands."

Ball Packaging Europe printed and supplied the fully recyclable can, which protects the sensitive ingredient PeptoPro from light and oxygen.

Marketing director Sigrid Küchmeister said the premium container turns sports drinks into the "eye-catcher on the shelf".

Ball Packaging Europe said sales of the Sleek Can have risen steadily since its launch in 2005 and it has increased its production capacities at Weissenthurm in Germany to meet demand.

Earnings in the company's metal beverage business for the first half of 2008 were $125m on sales of $977m.

Ball Packaging Europe has 12 production plants in Europe in the UK, Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland and Serbia.

Parent company Ball Corporation produces metal and plastic packaging for the beverage, food and household product industries.