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Beverage company invests in new bottles, labeler

Since its inception in 1992, Tradewinds beverages has seen three different bottle designs, with the most recent hitting store shelves in mid-April.

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Tradewinds Beverage Co., Cincinnati, OH, makers of 12 flavors of juices and teas, hopes this last design will stick.

The redesign was not a major overhaul; A color block was added where the flavor is identified, as well as drawings of fruit corresponding to each flavor. Each was given its own color to differentiate one from the other, whereas previously all the teas had a yellow label. And Anchor Glass (Tampa, FL) created a new mold to allow for a wider, 38-mm neck diameter, and to include embossing on the bottle's neck and shoulders.

Spear (Mason, OH) screen-prints the three pressure-sensitive labels. The front and back labels are made of 2-mil biaxially oriented polypropylene film. The front is printed in six colors, the back in two or three. The neck label, printed in five colors, is made of vinyl because it is more conformable to the bottle's neck.

The bottles are filled, labeled and capped at Pri-Pak (Lawrenceburg, IN). Tradewinds bought a new labeler from Spear and installed it at Pri-Pak in May. The labeler, designed by Spear and manufactured by Italian company Kosme, is currently the fastest p-s labeler in the world, capable of running to 500 bottles/min, according to Tradewinds marketing and operations manager Casey Lichtendahl. The machine's unique design consists of three p-s label heads, as well as a shrink-sleeve unit for tamper evidence.

Lichtendahl sees the machine as a money saver because it means the firm no longer has to inventory prelabeled bottles. Plus, whenever contract packager Pri-Pak uses the machine to label products for other customers, Tradewinds receives payment from Pri-Pak for equipment costs.

Tradewinds' beverages are available in 31 states with a concentration in the Midwest. The 16-oz bottles retail for 99¢.

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