Leading soft drinks company Britvic has reduced the amount of glass in bottles of its much-loved juice drink J2O as part of its ongoing work to reduce packaging and energy use within its corporate responsibility programme.
The new 275ml J2O bottle is 20 grams lighter, with each bottle reduced from 200 grams to just 180 grams, saving around 4000 tonnes of glass per annum (at current production levels), the equivalent to 20 million bottles of J2O a year.
The new design has also led to improvements in filling line efficiencies, due to the bottle being lowered in height, as well as energy savings of around 10% as less glass is used during bottle blowing. Additionally the lighter bottles require less fuel to transport due to the reductions in weight.
These latest savings are in addition to a reduction of 26 grams of glass, or 5000 tonnes per annum made to the J2O bottle in 2004.
John Gibney, Britvic’s finance director and corporate responsibility programme sponsor said: “We are proud that J2O has been reducing its impact on the environment for some years now and we remain focused on further packaging reductions as well as energy, fuel and water usage reductions across all Britvic brands and at all our manufacturing sites.
“With J2O representing a leading juice drink brand with 13 bottles sold every second in the UK, we are pleased to be playing our part in reducing the impact of our operations and ensuring a sustainable future for our consumers.
There will be no visible change to the J2O bottle as, despite the height having been reduced by 5mm, the volume remains the same. The bottle has also maintained its durability and strength ensuring that it can be stacked and stored as usual, which is critical for Britvic’s customer needs.
The new J2O lightweight bottle represents another significant step towards Britvic’s target to remove a total of 5,000 tonnes of packaging by December 2010 as part of the government-backed Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP). Britvic was the first soft drinks company to sign up to WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment which aims to design out packaging waste across the industry.
J2O was launched in 1998 and has risen to become best selling bottled drink in UK pubs and bars, outselling all bottled drinks, including many well known global alcohol brands and the No1 juice drink in the premium drinks category in supermarkets and convenience stores . J2O sales are worth over £300 million in the UK soft drinks market.
ENDS
1. This work has led to improvements at Britvic’s glass suppliers such as Quinn Glass, including reduced energy use per bottle, more bottles per tonne of glass, lower transport costs and as a result, lower carbon footprint.
2. The attention to filling line design and control during the course of this project gave additional benefits including reduced impact speeds between bottles (up to 40%) and reduced bottle breakages leading to lower glass wastage.
3. Britvic is one of the two leading branded soft drinks businesses in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The Company is the largest supplier of branded still soft drinks, and the number two supplier of branded carbonated soft drinks. Britvic’s broad portfolio of leading brands includes established names with high brand recognition such as Robinsons, Tango, J2O and Fruit Shoot. Included within the portfolio are Pepsi, 7Up, Gatorade, Lipton Iced Tea and V Water, which Britvic produces, markets, sells and distributes under exclusive appointments from PepsiCo. This brand and product portfolio enables Britvic to target and satisfy a wide range of consumer demands in all major soft drinks categories, via all available routes to market.
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