Rieder
07/2025: Ried, the Austrian private brewery, has recently modernised its bottling lines – and as part of this process, it has introduced the new 0.33-litre lightweight bottle from Vetropack. Produced with Vetropack’s state-of-the-art thermal tempering technology, the new glass container is 30 percent lighter than conventional bottles – and it allows major savings on resources thanks to the reusage cycles.
Beer has been brewed in the Austrian town of Ried since as long ago as 1536. The Ried brewery (Brauerei Ried Getränke GmbH) has been organised as a cooperative since 1908. Today, it has a workforce of 55 employees and produces 45,000 hectolitres of beer each year. Its total beverage sales currently amount to 65,000 hectolitres, because it now produces lemonades (‘RiLi’) and even a mixed wine drink as well as beer. House specialities include the various wheat or ‘white’ beers (‘Weisse’) in the traditional swing-top bottle.
Ried also keeps up with the times when it comes to bottling technology: a new cutting-edge bottling plant was commissioned at the beginning of 2025. This report from Josef Niklas, who has been with the company for over 30 years and is now its Managing Director: “This is the largest investment ever made in our company’s entire history, with a total value of EUR 8.5 million. Thanks to this plant, we’re now able to fill as many as 18,000 bottles per hour. What’s more, we‘re tapping a new business segment – contract bottling – so we can make proper use of the machine’s capacity.”
100 % reusable bottling plant
While planning for the new plant was under way, the Ried brewery also decided to become a 100 % reusable bottling plant. One factor that played a part in reaching this decision was the launch of Vetropack’s thermally tempered 0.33-litre lightweight glass bottle, which is available in Austria as a standard bottle for the entire brewing industry.
«We believe in returnables, and we’re delighted that we can work with Vetropack to play our part in boosting sustainability.»
With this innovation, Vetropack is offering revolutionary glass packaging that sets new standards for sustainability. Manufactured from tempered lightweight glass, the reusable bottle is lighter, more robust and more efficient to transport than conventional bottles. With a weight of just 210 grams, six rows of 12-bottle crates can now be palletised instead of only five before – so even more CO₂ is saved in the supply chain. The new packaging reduces CO₂ emissions to around a quarter as compared to existing 0.33-litre non-returnable bottles!
Strong partnership with Vetropack: lightweight glass planned for more varieties
“For us, switching to the new bottle was simply the right thing to do,” Niklas comments. “We believe in returnables, and we’re delighted that we can work with Vetropack to play our part in boosting sustainability. Vetropack has been a very reliable partner for us for over three decades.” While Ried’s new bottling line was being commissioned, Vetropack also provided proactive support: this included a line audit using the Masitek shock logger to ensure ideal filling conditions for the bottle.
The ‘Rieder Märzen’ and ‘Rieder Radler’ varieties are already available in the new tempered 0.33-litre lightweight glass bottle. Going forward, the new bottle is also to be used for lemonades and – rather unusually, even for the market as a whole – for the different wheat beer varieties. So it will be fascinating to see how consumers respond to this very traditional beverage presented in an innovative packaging that offers a lightweight and highly sustainable alternative.
