Bottling beverages at 36,000 bph with new PET line

A growing focus on healthier beverage choices and the increased demand for convenient ‘on-the-go’ products has seen the global bottled water market experience a stable annual volume growth of 6% during the last five years, reaching 214 billion litres in 2015.

Premium beverage manufacturer USHydrations is utilising this expanding market by acquiring a complete PET line from Sidel, equipped with a Matrix Combi, for its headquarters in Pittston, Pennsylvania. The facility has easy access to several major interstates and many large distribution centres, reaching over 100 million consumers in the area.

USHydrations leverages natural springs from the pristine mountains of Pennsylvania to produce over a million bottles a day, but aims to significantly increase this in the future. Sidel’s complete line solution and data management system will help the company measure the performance of the line and identify causes of downtime, which will help maintain or increase the uptime. It offers full flexibility and an optimal and ergonomic line design with a reduced footprint adapted to USHydrations’ needs.

Prashant Shitut, USHydrations’ President and CEO, explained what motivated him to choose Sidel for the company’s most recent complete PET line: “What attracted us to the Sidel Group was their reputation, innovative technology and flexible solutions, combined with the strong service support in North America.

“More and more, beverage brands are looking for extensive packaging options. They require solutions able to handle single- and multipack configurations for greater versatility. Sidel’s complete line will clearly allow us to tackle this opportunity in a very efficient way.”

Installation of the line began in April 2018 and it will be able to bottle soft drinks and water, both still and carbonated, at a speed of 36,000 bottles per hour (bph).

“The last few years have been fantastic for the company, from a financial and operational perspective. In 2019, the plan is to produce around two million bottles a day and Sidel will help us accomplish this mission,” Shitut concluded.