When Carlos Serrano joined the staff of Coca-Cola Norbega, the bottler of Coke products for Northern Spain, as the manager for aseptic technology, one of his primary tasks was to move from hot fill and provide an aseptic production line that would meet Coca-Cola’s stringent hygiene standards while reducing the weight of the bottle. Among the products the plant produces are the Aquarius sports drink and various Nestea RTD tea products.

Serrano approached Italian supplier Procomac as the main contractor to provide the entire line—blow molders, air conveyors, rinsers, filters, the capping machinery and inspection systems—as well as the complete packing process, including palletizing, labeling and shrink wrapping.

“We started the first validation steps in April 2006 in the pilot plant at Procomac,” says Serrano. “On July 3 we performed the bulk of the validation process by filling three runs of 10,000 bottles, which, after a suitable incubation time, were visually inspected, one by one.”  Coca-Cola Madrid passed the validation protocol tests on Aug. 1, 2007.

The product has allowed the facility to produce a new bottle shape with the traditional marketing appeal of the famous contour bottle. It also has enabled the company to reduce the weight of Aquarius bottles by 35.5 percent and the 1-liter size Nestea by 44 percent. And, the company can now offer the local Nestea V&T green tea brand, which was impossible to produce with hot fill technology.

From Beverage World March 15, 2008