COCA-COLA Europacific Partners (CCEP) has collaborated with Sidel to convert its machinery to produce lighter bottles with tethered caps.
CCEP’s East Kilbride factory was the first facility in Europe to have its line converted last year, with the drinks brand required to implement tethered caps on its bottles by July 2024 in line with single-use plastic (SUP) law.
Having worked with French headquartered Sidel for over 30-years, CCEP called upon its expertise in the field to help with the transition across its factories. This also led to an opportunity being spotted to make the bottles more sustainable, with the packs weighing one gram less thanks to a lighter bottle neck.
An initial ‘definition and planning’ stage was undertaken at the start of the project, with CCEP having to rationalise the solutions to implement in terms of caps, preforms, and OEM technical modifications to its machinery.
During the planning phase, pilot tests for the new packs were handled on two different lines – including at Sidel’s Barcelona facility, which was converted to accommodate both tethered capping and the new, lighter neck GME30.40 bottles.
Sidel explained that the tests enabled it to work closely with CCEP to assess the new specifications, along with monitoring the new equipment configuration, to ensure optimum efficiency on the line, validate quality requirements of the new necks, and allow CCEP to conduct a small-scale market evaluation to gauge consumer acceptance.
Once pilot tests were finalised in Barcelona, Sidel was given the green light to convert all of CCEP’s Sidel lines within its European factories. Line conversions have varied between factories, the firm said – with some requiring ‘significant’ development for a change to tethered cap and new neck, including adaptation of different equipment such as the preform feeder, blower, capper, cap feeder, and labeller.
However, Sidel added that CCEP was able to rely on its strength in the field to carry out the detailed study of every machine’s configuration in each plant to address their respective unique set-up.
With a ‘large number’ of lines across the EU requiring conversion, CCEP was among the first organisations within the CSD market to switch to tethered caps. The first line to be converted was completed in April 2022 in East Kilbride, which produced CCEP’s 1.5L bottle, before a second single-serve line was completed at the end of 2022.
Geert Marse, technical packaging lead at CCEP, said, “The combined project management between CCEP and Sidel was key to the success of the project. Anticipation, planning and collaboration between stakeholders was vital in readying these lines.
“We released the first sellable bottles on the Great Britain market in May 2022, as we had scheduled. The pilot in Barcelona helped us to learn and identify any potential issues together.”
In some cases, Sidel combined line conversion with line overhaul, while CCEP conducted maintenance to deliver optimised product execution and the highest level of line performance.
Geert Marse continued, “The majority of converted lines achieved line efficiency objective. We are fully satisfied with the preparation, including line status assessment, the pilot line tests and the great collaboration in working together to make this project successful.
“To support this switch Coca-Cola launched a broad communication campaign to explain how to use this new cap and to help gradually change consumer habits, collecting all consumers feedback and taking corrective actions if needed.”
