Industry: Cans v. Bottles

With competitive materials such as aluminum, concrete and plastics steadily cutting into its traditional markets, the U.S. steel industry is going through a harrowing test of its metal. But in one great competitive battle—cans v. glass bottles—the steelmakers are on the attack.

Cans have taken 37% of the $430 million-a-year beer container market away from bottles, and now they are looming bigger in the soft-drink container business. Fortnight ago, Continental Can Co. reported that sales of its soft-drink cans were running 40% ahead of last year. Canned soft drinks were almost unknown nine years ago; they are expected to account for about 5% (or 1.8 billion cans) of the market this year. By 1970, predicts Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp.'s commercial research department, cans will have 15.2% of the business.

Strong Drinks. Though beer went into cans without trouble, it took years of research to find inside coatings that would resist the acids in soft drinks, (In early trials, grape soda came out of the can a nauseous white.) Once the problems were licked, the steel companies and canmakers spared no expense to publicize some advantages that cans have over bottles, i.e., they are unbreakable, lighter (and hence cheaper to ship), and do not have to be returned. To persuade soft-drink manufacturers that their ads ought to feature happy citizens swigging their soda pop from cans, both American Can and Continental Can offered an advertising rebate of 5¢ per case to those who switched to cans. Since local bottlers might not be able to afford their own canning equipment, American Can financed strategically placed canneries across the country.

Bottlemakers, who were slow to awaken to the can threat in the beer business, are fighting back harder on soft drinks. Individual bottle producers are giving soft-drink companies 10¢ a case ($3,500,000 a year) in advertising subsidies to push bottles, and the Glass Container Manufacturers Institute is spending $1,500,000 this year to boost the virtues of glass ("Glass is pure, never alters original flavors . . .").