BOTTLE MAKING 20 PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 09/24 www.petpla.net English Mountain Spring Water Company boosted packaging quality with the installation of a blowing line from Flexblow Tennessee two-step by Ruari McCallion Ruari McCallion, PETplanet Insider’s Editor-at-Large, spoke to English Mountain Spring Water’s founder and CEO, John Burleson, about building a brand from a small base and the big step up in quality and consistency and the reduction in costs achieved with the installation of a PET bottle blowing line from Lithuanian company Flexblow. English Mountain Spring Water Company faced a range of challenges with its bottles, which it was buying in from external suppliers. Quality issues and lack of consistency were leading to losses of product, refunds to disappointed customers and a cost base that was inhibiting profitability and growth. At the time, the decision to bring bottle blowing in-house seemed a difficult one to make but it turned out very well. The line it bought from Lithuanian company Flexblow has pretty much eliminated quality problems and thus improved relations with customers, as well as helping to cut costs and make budgeting more manageable. The story hinges on persistence by Flexblow and a willingness to listen on the part of John Burleson, CEO of English Mountain Spring Water, who smiled as he recalls how the relationship developed. “I first met Flexblow at the NPE plastics show in Orlando, Florida, in 2018. Mr Martynas, the Service Manager, had been emailing me but I’d said that I wasn’t ready for a blow moulder at that time. Well, he took it upon himself to drive all the way from Orlando, overnight and all day, and he arrived late in the afternoon, as I was getting ready to go home,” he said. He reckoned that he couldn’t turn Martynas away as he’d driven so far and listened to what he had to say. Although John Burleson wasn’t ready to invest in a blow moulding line at that time, they agreed to keep in touch, which Flexblow did, diligently but not intrusively. Meeting customer needs “In 2022, we started getting serious. Gintautas [Gin] Maksvytis, the General Manager of Flexblow, came over from Lithuania with about four staff. They toured our facility and he said he really wanted us to have a Flexblow machine. After their visit, we conducted a follow-up to gather feedback. A packaging manufacturer in Georgia assured us that Flexblow produces robust and reliable systems. I still wasn’t sure but they put together a very attractive package and, in 2022, we finalised everything,” John continued. What English Mountain Spring Water got was a Flexblow Auto Quality, a pharmaceutical grade stretch blow moulding unit that had been shown at Pack Expo 2022 . Preferential heating catered for the company’s specific bottle shapes. Installation and final commissioning in August 2023 was the latest milestone on a journey that had started in 1992, when John became interested in bottled water as a business. His original intention was to be solely a contract supplier but prospective customers themselves wanted suppliers to have a brand and market presence themselves. By 1997, he had acquired a 5,000 sq ft (465m2) facility and was soon producing with two second-hand bottling lines. A five-gallon (US) line filled 100 bph; the second line filled one gallon HDPE plastic bottles. A PET line was added in May 1998. Building a reputation “We started selling to small, Momand-Pop operations, convenience stores owned by private individuals, rather than corporates, and the like – unconventional outlets, you might think,” John said. “One of our products was distilled water, displayed in glass door coolers that we provided and installed.” A virtually non-existent marketing budget meant that English Mountain had to build its reputation by hard work and word of mouth. Fortunately, Tennessee is the kind of area where local roots and neighbourly service count for a lot. “We were growing and the home delivery side was doing very well. Customer service was what we based our business around,” he said. “Our big break came in 1999 when we won a water tasting competition in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. It was an international competition; we competed against every Nestlé brand, Boss was there, brands from all over – some from Sweden and Belgium The Flexblow Auto Quality line was installed in August 2023
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