Vöslauer is preparing for a one-way deposit

The disposable deposit for beverage packaging will come at the beginning of 2025 and will also apply to beverage manufacturers such as mineral water producers Vöslauer get ready for it.

In the future, the deposit bottles will be identifiable by their own logo on the label. Vöslauer would like to start putting the new labels on its bottles next January. As required by law, no more bottles with old labels will be produced from the end of March.

Deposit-free beverage packaging may still be sold in grocery stores until the end of 2025. The switch to the deposit system does not cause any particular additional costs for the beverage manufacturer, says Vöslauer’s managing director Herbert Schlossnikl.

More water in reusable packaging

Vöslauer would like to use the introduction of the disposable deposit of 25 cents per bottle to boost the sale of water in reusable packaging. The reusable share is currently 20 percent.

The company wants to double this number by 2030. The new deposit system should help, as customers will have to pay a deposit for every type of plastic bottle in the future. The Vöslauer boss’s hope is that more people will choose drinks in reusable packaging.

In addition to the classic disposable plastic bottles, Vöslauer also offers its water in refillable bottles made of glass or reusable PET. According to Schlossnikl, the latter have the best CO₂ balance – by far. This is because they offer the weight advantages of plastic and can be reused at the same time.

“Customers will be grumpy”

The start of the one-way deposit will not be easy. “We are aware that customers will be unsettled at the beginning. They will be grumpy with us, with our competitors and with politics. But that will go away quickly,” says Vöslauer’s marketing boss Yvonne Haider-Lenz.

It cannot be ruled out that Vöslauer will lose customers. “There will also be people who say goodbye to mineral water altogether and switch to alternatives,” says Haider-Lenz.

Schlossnikl is optimistic about the deposit system and expects that the desired return rates for disposable packaging can be achieved.

No sympathy for sausage stand operators

He has no understanding for the complaints of small retailers such as tobacconists and sausage stand operators, who will in future be obliged to take back the packaging if they sell it: “There is now a lot of noise being made about the issue and in practice it won’t be that bad. “

This is demonstrated by neighboring Germany, where the one-way deposit was introduced in 2003. There, too, the system initially met with a lack of understanding among the population, but today it works very well and achieves high collection rates.

Vöslauer has already had experience with one-way deposits in Germany. The neighboring country is the most important foreign market for the Lower Austrian company, which generates 21 percent of its sales by exporting its products.

No uniform EU regulations

Due to the different deposit regulations, separate batches with different labels are currently and will be produced for each country in the future. Schlossnikl does not believe in a uniform deposit regulation for the entire EU in the future: “Instead of harmonization, there are more differentiations in the individual countries in this area.”

Schlossnikl is positive not only regarding the one-way deposit, but also when it comes to sales forecasts. In this year’s financial year, Vöslauer expects an increase in sales of 120 million euros.

In the last financial year, the company generated 116 million euros. The increase is due to both price increases in 2024 and increased sales figures, it is said.

With a 40 percent market share, Vöslauer is the market leader in the domestic mineral water business. Every year the company, which employs 202 people, bottles 306 liters of water and other soft drinks.