Caribbean Bottling Company

Appreciating the performance offered by the blower and understanding the savings the Sidel technologies can ensure – energy- and raw material-wise – CBC turned to Sidel once more in 2018. Due to a positive growth trajectory in the local beverage market, the company needed to increase its production capacity and decided to install a new PET complete line. “We were originally thinking about enlarging our plant and building an additional area to accommodate the new line. However, partnering with Sidel, we have been able to leverage a very compact layout and to locate the new line in an existing area of the factory,” says Gaetan. 

The new PET complete line also had to handle new lightweighted bottles in various formats while optimising energy consumption. Gaetan adds, “The support we received from Sidel proved instrumental to cater to the specific conditions experienced by our bottles throughout the value chain from production to distribution. Thanks to this partnership, CBC shifted from ‘just making a bottle’ to ‘efficiently and effectively making a bottle’.” 

The entire line’s efficiency will be tracked and optimised with Sidel’s EIT® (Efficiency Improvement Tool) system, helping enhance productivity through real-time access to relevant and actionable information on performance, quality, efficiency, losses, and other production-related possible failures. 

Packaging design for efficiency and stability 

Developing a bottle which is able to withstand challenging distribution conditions while protecting the product, improving the consumer experience and securing an affordable price was a key requirement for CBC. Gaetan highlights, “Typically, those drinks are sold frozen along the streets by local retailers. So the bottle is intended to resist below zero temperatures, yet without compromising on stability and attractiveness.” This is where the proven Sidel RightWeight™ bottle concept came into play, as Marcel explains, “At Sidel, we are increasingly concentrating our innovation efforts around the RightWeight approach, making sure that the packaging is fit for purpose. This means making sure that the bottle is robust enough to withstand transportation and distribution challenges and deliver performance from the onset of its production right to the moment it reaches the consumer. The way we branded this concept is quite powerful because it clearly reflects the need to match a great performance level while reducing the TCO.” 

By partnering with the customer’s marketing team and embedding their understanding of the local market, Sidel packaging experts re-designed the existing CBC bottle’s look and feel, strengthening the competitiveness and productivity of the Haitian bottler without jeopardising the high quality of the product. What is most important, they did that while achieving a distinct container’s shape and great savings on PET material: a real win-win for Caribbean Bottling Company.

[1] culligan.ht