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Black Bear hugs new labeler

Regional beverage bottler adds a p-s labeler that increases packaging speeds compared to its former paper label applicator.See in-plant video

Bottles index single file from front to back through a timing screw (left) before a label is wiped on.
Bottles index single file from front to back through a timing screw (left) before a label is wiped on.

Last spring’s addition of a pressure-sensitive labeler is helping regional beverage bottler Black Bear Bottling Group LLC compete with the big boys in its midwestern sales territory.

The Oak Creek, WI-based maker of carbonated soft drinks, water, and lemonade invested in a new Model 3125 labeler from Label-Aire (Fullerton, CA). Before adding the labeler, “we were using a cold-glue applicator that worked with paper labels only,” explains company president Peter J. Caruso. “We still have it [for private-label or co-pack customers who request paper labels], but now with the Label-Aire we use pressure-sensitive labels. That gives us the ability to use more graphics and offer a more professional-looking beverage package.

“Another reason we bought the machine,” Caruso continues, “is that it works much faster. The maximum speed we could achieve with the cold-glue machine was 105 bottles a minute.” That handicapped the line, since the filler could run at 165 bpm. Now the filler can run at that higher speed, says Caruso, “since the Label-Aire can easily do 200 a minute.”

Caruso credits distributor QLC (Hartland, WI) with supplying the labeler. QLC, which specializes in pressure-sensitive labeling equipment, “was instrumental in helping us acquire a labeler that’s provided us with many benefits,” says Caruso.

New plant, too

Caruso explains, “We’re a midwestern bottler at this point, selling within about a 500-mile radius of our plant. About 80 percent of our sales are at retail. Half of that is for our own brands of soft drinks, lemonade, and our Claire Baie bottled water. The other half of retail sales is for brands we co-pack for other companies.” The final 20% of production is either a 5-gal vending tank of ready-to-drink mix sold to churches and festivals, or a bag-in-box configuration of syrup sold to bars and restaurants.

Black Bear operates out of an 80ꯠ-sq’ plant in Oak Creek that houses one bottling line. The firm moved into the facility after outgrowing its 10ꯠ-sq’ home in nearby St. Francis, WI. Oak Creek’s production area is nearly as large as the entire St. Francis plant.

The line at Oak Creek is used primarily for 20-oz PET bottles, though it also runs 12-oz nonreturnable glass bottles and 1-L PET containers. Much of the equipment was used for years at the St. Francis plant. The exceptions are the new labeler, and a used tray former and heat shrink tunnel.

Label advantages

Label graphics usually range from two to four colors. The more colorful labels are used for co-pack customers who request them and for Black Bear’s premium Caruso’s Legacy-branded root beer and cream sodas sold in amber glass bottles. “We developed these beverages about four years ago as a tribute to [my] grandparents, who bought this business in 1961,” he says. “We feel it’s a very rich-looking label, with an image of Grandma and Grandpa on the label.”

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