Campbell Soup Co., Camden, NJ, is venturing into the vending machine market with V8 and V8-Fusion brand juices packaged in 12-oz hot-filled PET containers, supplied by Amcor PET Packaging (www.amcorpet.com).

The bottle has been custom-designed for vending machine applications. The opportunity to expand into vending machine markets has been made possible through Campbell's new business alliance with The Coca-Cola Company.

Campbell Soup Co. associate brand manager Jina Sohn says, "We were looking for ways to move into distribution channels where we have little presence today. Now that our bottle is vendable, our beverages can be available wherever vending machines exist-schools, malls, offices, retail outlets, hospitals, etc. Through our alliance with The Coca-Cola Company, we are able to provide more nutritious, 100% juice options."

The Campbell team worked very closely with Amcor and The Coca-Cola Company to develop the attractive, easy-grip V-8 vending machine bottles. According to Sohn, "After working with Coca-Cola to determine specific vending requirements for the packaging, we partnered with Amcor to take advantage of their Imagine(tm) process. This allowed us to design and develop a container that not only looks and feels good, but also performs at the manufacturing level in a rigorous filling environment. Consumer tests have shown that V8 and V8-Fusion users significantly preferred this new bottle."

The 38mm plastic twist closures with standard barrier liners are supplied by Silgan White Cap Americas (www.silganclosures.com). A 24-head Fowler/Zalkin capping machine (www.fowlerproducts.com) applies the caps. Shrink film labels are supplied by Fort Dearborn Co. (www.fortdearborn.com).

Six flavors of the V8 and V8 Fusion made their debut in these new bottles in August 2008. In addition to individual single-serve, the new bottles also are being marketed in 4-count carrier packs and 12-count cases.