Beverage giant Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) today officially opened two new “blowfill” lines at the company’s Thebarton production facility in Adelaide, South Australia.
The “Blowfill” technology represents a $35m investment in CCA’s South Australian operation and will enable the drink maker to design and manufacture its own PET beverage bottles using fewer raw materials at the Thebarton plant.
The company has invested approximately $450m to installing “blowfill” technology at all of its production facilities across Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Papua NewvGuinea and Fiji.
The completion of the two new lines at the Thebarton facility is the beverage manufacturer’s largest single investment in “blowfill” technology to date.
According to CCA managing director Warwick White, “blowfill” technology will fundamentally change the nature of manufacturing in the business.
“The introduction of this technology has enabled us to redesign and lightweight our entire small carbonated soft drink and water PET bottle range,” White said at the official opening of the new lines at CCA’s SA plant this morning.
“With innovation comes benefits which, in this case, are good for CCA, our customers and the communities we operate in. They include significant cost savings, production efficiency gains, increased product shelf life and stacking ability,” he said.
The new technology is expected to reduce the company’s carbon footprint of beverage containers by over 20% and help the beverage and bottle maker meet its environmental sustainability goals in both energy and water savings.
“A significant portion of these savings will come from bottle redesigns that use less PET resin, with others from the elimination of the need to transport empty bottles to CCA bottling facilities, and energy savings to the line,” White said.
“This investment continues our lightweighting journey – a journey which has already seen CCA achieve a 20% increase in packaging raw material efficiency since 2004.”
CCA estimates that more than 9000 tonnes of PET resin will be saved per year when all its production lines have installed “blowfill” technology.
The two new “blowfill” lines at the Thebarton facility were officially opened today by White and member for Croydon, Michael Atkinson MP.
The Thebarton facility has been running since 1952 and currently produces approximately 110 million PET bottles per year.
CCA employs approximately 450 South Australians. Its beverage range include brands under licence from The Coca-Cola Company (major brands include Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Zero, diet Coke, Sprite, Fanta, Glaceau vitamin water, Powerade Isotonic, Mother energy drink), along with CCA-owned brands.