Originally, White Rock had used glass bottles sourced from Italy that were shipped to Montreal, Canada, where a powder coating was applied to create the blue hue. The bottles then were shipped to the United States for filling.
Joe Werda, White Rock’s director of operations, explains, “The length of the supply chain was mandating the amount of inventory we had to hold. The European-sourced glass bottle, coupled with the decoration (tinting), made it an expensive package. We felt that we could get a high-quality PET container to effectively represent the brand and give us significant cost savings.”
After considering PET alternatives, White Rock decided to partner with Amcor on this project.” We chose Amcor because of its ability to work with unique bottle designs,” says Werda. “We gave them a design that we knew was difficult to replicate in plastic. Our goal was to end up with a bottle that was close enough in appearance to the glass version, but in PET.”
The bottle design features several unique elements: It tapers in from the shoulder to the base, the base is footed, and the bottle height is taller than other commercial 1.75-L PET bottles. The empty bottle weight is 100 g.
Getting the right color was another challenge. After several attempts, Amcor manufactured a bottle with a blue color that was so pleasing that White Rock also decided to use the color for its 750-mL and 1-L-size glass bottles, in addition to the new 1.75-L PET bottles. The distiller will also roll out Pinnacle Vodka in 375-mL blue PET bottles by late summer.
—Judy Rice
