The soft drinks manufacturer has installed four blowmoulding machines

The soft drinks manufacturer has installed four blowmoulding machines
By Christopher Cundy

Soft drinks manufacturer Britvic is installing two blow moulding machines in its Norwich factory, bringing the total to four.

The move to in-house bottle-making at the plant will come as a blow to the hopes of suppliers like Fibrenyle, which won a contract to supply bottles for Britvic’s Juice Up range three years ago.

The SIG Corpoplast lines are producing PET bottles for Robinson’s drinks such as the Fruit Shoot. The latest machines will be dedicated to 1-litre bottles of Robinson’s squash.

SIG Corpoplast has supplied all the blow moulding machines to Britvic, which installed the first two Blomax series III machines with 12 blow stations in April this year. The latest, SIG’s 100th delivery of the series III model, has 16 blow stations. The total investment in Britvic’s blow moulding operation is around Ј8m (E11m).

Britvic’s move to in-house bottle blowing was driven by the cost savings it could achieve. Project manager Chris Spray said that instead of buying and transporting empty bottles, the company now purchases just the preforms. Despite the cost of the equipment, the venture has proved worthwhile. “The paybacks [on the capital investment] are within a year,” he said.