Dortmund (Germany), November 2016 (PresseBox) – Beverage bottler Coca-Cola is growing fast in India. In part this is thanks to an innovative form of beverage packaging which Coca-Cola Atlanta and KHS Plasmax have developed especially for the regions which are not in the immediate proximity of production sites. The resulting PET bottle satisfies the demand of a challenging market for freshness and product protection.

In the summer Coca-Cola Hindustan procured two more FreshSafe® PET TriBlock lines. In combination with these lines the interior glass coating process is now being used on the growth market of India with a great deal of success. The joint development project masterminded by Coca-Cola Atlanta, Coca-Cola Hindustan und KHS has produced a new type of packaging known as an affordable small sparkling package or ASSP. This special PET bottle holds 250 ml, weighs less than 10 gm, has an adapted bottle neck, is fully recyclable and offers a high level of beverage protection. With FreshSafe PET® the PET bottles are given an ultra-thin interior glass coating. This enables the beverage bottler to increase the shelf life of its beverages about fivefold.

As the second most heavily populated country on the planet India has over a billion potential customers spread out over a surface area of more than three million square kilometres, thus presenting beverage producers with two major challenges: firstly, products must be affordable for large sections of the population and secondly, they must stay fresh for a particularly long period owing to long distances for transportation.

The ASSP meets these criteria. The FreshSafe PET® coating and narrow bottle neck prevent carbon dioxide from escaping out of the bottle, extending the beverage shelf life by a full five months. “With the use of our innovative technology we have managed to combine economic and ecological issues, thus also establishing more sustainable beverage production processes in newly industrializing countries thanks to longer shelf lives,” says Bernd-Thomas Kempa, managing director of KHS Plasmax GmbH.

After just a few weeks on the market it seems that the new bottle concept is already destined to be a great commercial success. Thanks to this result KHS and Coca-Cola are now working on additionally expanding their production options.