13th September, 2012 by Becky Paskin

The typical reaction to the news that Absolut has created 4 million individually designed bottles for its Absolut Unique limited edition range, is that it is impossible.

However, as the Swedish drinks company explains in this video, the feat was not unachievable but simply a matter of completely overhauling its production line.

The machines in Absolut’s bottling plant were tasked with decorating the bottles, but instead of carrying out their regular task with uniformity, Absolut redesigned the machines to deliberately behave capriciously.

Erik Naf, director of packaging development at Absolut, said: “Most people thought that this is impossible or very close to impossible. When I first saw this idea I thought it was fantastic, but coming from the engineering side I saw a lot of question marks.

“We thought that to… achieve individual bottles like this would take some great effort. We virtually had to reprogram the machines – we had to make the machines create variation and create randomness whereas they were designed to create stability and control.”

The video below is a behind-the-scenes look at exactly how Absolut managed to create the four million unique bottles, including a peek at their bottling plant in Åhus.

The Absolut Unique range will be available in global travel retail from this month, and then in domestic markets from October.

Many thought producing 4 million individual Absolut Unique bottles would be impossible… this video shows it’s not