Over the course of the next eight years, Alpla Mexico – a subsidiary of Austrian bottle, preform, closure and tube manufacturer Alpla Werke Alwin Lehner (Hard / Austria; www.alpla.com) – is to supply 900m bottles per year to Arca Continental (Monterrey / Mexico; www.arcacontal.com), Latin America’s second-largest Coca-Cola bottler. Under the terms of the agreement, Alpla will set up shop in Arca Continental’s facilities and produce most of the bottles inline, which not only will reduce shipping and stocking costs but also optimise delivery time and bottle quality.

The machinery needed to produce the bottles is provided by beverage packaging equipment supplier Sidel (Le Havre / France; www.sidel.com), with whom Alpla has been cooperating for 25 years. Specifically, the 900m bottles per year will be produced on 11 SBO Universal2eco blow-moulding machines and 1,200 moulds. Each individual machine is capable of turning out 2,200 bottles per hour, and can produce different bottle sizes, from 250 millilitres to 2 litres. Alpla had placed the order for the machinery in August last year and the new equipment is due to be installed in six different plants throughout Mexico, with start-up scheduled in the coming weeks.