PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2014

BOTTLE MAKING 24 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 03/14 www.petpla.net Coca-Cola in Northern New England embraces PET Bottle-blowing on-site The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Northern New England (CCNNE) has begun producing PET bottles on-site for the first time ever, with a KHS Innopet Blomax Series IV machine. The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Northern New England (CCNNE) recently invested in the installation of a KHS InnoPET Blomax Series IV stretch blow moulder, which enabled it to produce PET bottles on-site for the first time in its history. This does not mean that CCNNE was not using PET bottles – it has been, for several years, but it sourced all of its PET containers exclusively from converter company Southeastern Container. Perhaps paradoxically, John Palermo, the former vice-president of Opera- tions at CCNNE and now chairman of the supervisory board at Southeastern Container, is partly responsible for this decision. “To date, the majority of PET bottles have been procured by the beverage industry in the USA from converters. However, I believe the future is in producing PET bottles on-site, buying the preforms from the converters,” he said, and went on to explain that the economics of the InnoPET Blomax machine, includ- ing the energy and material savings it offers, helped to reduce on-site PET bottle production costs. There Neal visited a number of beverage operations in Europe and gathered valuable impressions and experi- ence. They saw the newly-developed Series IV on display on the KHS stand at drinktec 2009 and came to believe that it had the ability to change the attitude to inline PET bottle production on the US market. is an environmental impact as well, as the 28-cavity machine eliminates approximately 1,800 truck deliveries each year. CCNNE first took note of the trend towards inline PET bottle produc- tion on the European market about ten years ago, when Palermo and CCNNE bottles the full range of Coca-Cola brand beverages. The bestseller is still Coca-Cola Classic with a share of about 22%, followed by Diet Coke (18%) and Dasani bottled water (9%). The products bottled at CCNNE are sent out from nine distribution centres in New England and New York State. The products bottled at CCNNE are sent out from nine distribution centres in New England and New York State