Wine's single-serve PET bottle serves new venues

The monolayer bottles are blow-molded especially for the Canandaigua NY company by Schmalbach-Lubeca (Manchester MI).

“The single-serving bottle is lightweight easy to hold and conveniently sized” says marketing director Rob Vlosky. “It opens up a range of new consumer enjoyment opportunities and it’s a great addition for venues where glass [bottles] are not allowed.” Those include beach or poolside locations golf courses resorts concerts and sporting events. In late April the recyclable bottles debuted in Yankee Stadium. The wine also sells in convenience stores grocery chains and liquor stores for $1.99 to $2.49.

The pressure-sensitive 2-mil biaxially oriented polypropylene front label is decorated in seven colors by Spear (Mason OH) using a combination letter press and rotary screen printing. The matte-finish

2-mil BOPP back label is screen-printed in three colors. The bottle is topped with a standard 28-mm PP closure that duplicates those found on Arbor Mist’s 750-ml and 1.5-L bottles. Arbor Mist launched in 1998.

Vlosky says that the use of PET and the bottle design culminates two years’ development including shelf stability tests and consumer research. “We are the first fruit-flavored varietal wine to go into a PET package so that was a new area for us” he discloses. Another challenge for Canandaigua Wine was to make sure it had the proper bottling equipment. “That required extensive production work but has worked fabulously” Vlosky adds without elaboration. —RL

At press time it was announced that the PET container assets of Schmalbach-Lubeca were acquired by Amcor Ltd. (Melbourne Victoria Australia). Included in the agreement were Schmalbach’s White Cap closure assets. For more information call Amcor PET Americas Inc. 905/286-2110.