Aimed at teens, the new juices are available not in supermarkets but at the places where teens hang: the ice barrels and refrigerated display cases of the nation's C-stores and delis. Snapple (recently sold by Chicago-based Quaker Oats to the Triarc Beverage Group of White Plains, NY) in single-serve sizes had previously been available only in glass. But active teens require the portability and shatter resistance of plastic. So this package was developed, and these flavors-Apple-cherry, Strawberry and Grape-watermelon-are available only in this package. Suggested retail price is $1.29. Launched in April, Snapple Squeeze is now available in most of the U.S. Snapple is quick to point out, however, that no wholesale conversion to PET is planned. Continental PET Technologies (Florence, KY) supplies its hot-fillable ThermoPET(TM) bottle for Snapple Squeeze. The bottle has about a 35% post-consumer content. The five-layer structure is PET/PET/PCR PET/PET/PET. Hot-filling is done by bottlers whose lines are already handling Gatorade, a former Snapple sister brand. According to Oriatti, changes to the filling lines were negligible. Shelf life is shorter than for Snapple's products in glass bottles. But it's comparable to that of glass bottles of diet Snapple, which contains an artificial sweetener instead of high-fructose corn sweetener. "We're used to distributing under such [shelf life] conditions," says Oriatti. Topping off the bottle is a push-pull sports cap from Creative Packaging (Buffalo Grove, IL). The sleeve label is a two-layer lamination of white polypropylene on the inside and on the outside a clear PP that is reverse printed in eight colors. Lawson Mardon Label (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) supplies the label. There's more news from Snapple/Triarc. Wendy, the comedienne with the heavy New York accent who symbolized the quirkiness of the brand as it went from nowhere to 1993 sales of $515 million, is back. She's also touting her own orange tropic flavor: Wendy's Tropical Inspiration. The 16-oz glass bottle with lug closure is standard stuff. But unlike the other 50 or so Snapple flavors, which carry pretty ordinary-looking wraparound paper labels, this one has a full-body shrink label that's gravure-printed in seven colors. The polyvinyl chloride label is supplied by American Fuji Seal (Bardstown, KY).
