Tetley Canada Launches New Iced Tea Line In Long-Neck Powerflex™ PET Bottles From Amcor

Manchester, MI — (August 29, 2007) — Tetley Canada enters iced tea category in 16-ounce long-neck PowerFlex™ polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles from Amcor PET Packaging. Additionally, the four-flavorTetley Iced line is available in 64-ounce bottles, also from Amcor.

“For the past year we have been on a parallel path developing both the product formulation and evaluating bottle options. As the number one tea brand in Canada, our goal was to gain a larger presence in the cold tea segment. We wanted to develop a product that was unique. We wanted to go toward a more natural, true tea and get away from a beverage that was highly sweetened. So, it was important to find a bottle which would help us communicate that image,” explains Kurt Hatherly, channel development manager, Tetley Canada.

“We also wanted to come up with premium packaging without the expense of a proprietary bottle. We went back and forth between PET and glass, trying to come up with the best choice,” he notes.

Up until now, many beverage bottlers did not have a PET alternative that met both their hotfill and their aesthetic requirements, thereby forcing their premium brands (juices, teas, isotonics, etc.) to stay the course in glass containers. However, the launch of PowerFlex™ permanently changes the playing field.

Amcor’s PowerFlex™ bottle features a revolutionary patented panel-less design which takes hot-fill (185° degrees Fahrenheit) bottle options to a new level. Amcor’s structural design not only eliminates the panels, but unlike recently launched competitive containers, PowerFlex™ has a large, completely smooth label panel – free of any kind of ribbing.

Amcor’s technical staff, through a combination of design and manufacturing innovations, has created a patented bottle that absorbs vacuum via a specially designed base. A unique diaphragm within the base draws upward as the liquid cools. It has the geometric characteristics to enable the inverted cone shaped diaphragm to deflect upward as the vacuum is created.

Amcor/Tetley

“We also didn’t like the panels on other hot-fill bottles. We were looking for a solution that would work well with the label we were envisioning,” Hatherly says.

“Bottles with panels create constraints that dramatically limit design options and therefore a brand owner’s ability to use the container to creatively market the product,” explains William Featherstone, vice president, sales, Beverage Division, Amcor PET Packaging.

“Because you no longer have panels in the sidewall, this makes the bottle easier to label. You don’t have to worry about mislabeling—missing the vertical bars in applying labels. Nor do you have to worry about the ripple effect labeling over panels can cause,” Featherstone explains.

The geometry of the straight wall design gives PowerFlex™ great top load characteristics. The straight wall has no points of stress concentration which removes the potential of bending. Also, unlike competitive technologies, PowerFlex™ bottles can be run easily on existing glass filling lines with little or no equipment modification.

Tetley selected one of two stock PowerFlex™ bottles—a 16-ounce, long-neck design with a 38mm finish. (The other stock option is a 16.9-ounce dome-shouldered bottle.) This allowed the company to launch quickly without incurring any additional tooling costs. Optional customization features, such as embossed logos or patterns, can be added in the future, if the company chooses.

We wanted to get away from the traditional ‘belly wrap’ label found on most bottles, so we dedicated a lot of effort to designing the right label,” Hatherly says.

The end result was a transparent structure which features a blue and green color palette on the lower portion and tea leaves interspersed on the shoulder and neck. The label, designed by Corporate Visuals, Toronto, is 7-color, flexographically printed.

“The PowerFlex bottle, in conjunction with the transparent shrink sleeve label gives consumers the quality perception of glass, with the convenience of PET. Our research showed that consumers liked it and it could demonstrate a point of difference,” Hatherly says.

Tetley Iced tea line is available in four varieties: Iced Green Tea, Iced Green Tea + Pomegranate, Iced Black Tea + Mediterranean Lemon and Iced White Tea + Blueberry. The label proclaims: “Welcome to a new taste experience. The tea experts at Tetley have created a light, refreshing iced tea that is crafted with our premium teas, raw cane sugar and natural fruit flavours.”

The company launched the 64-ounce family size in May and is just now entering the Canadian market with the single-serve PowerFlex bottle. Initial retail targets include convenience stores, with plans to expand into wholesale club stores and vending.

“Amcor was great to work with on this project. They provided us with support along the way so that we could meet our launch goals,” concludes Hatherly.

Headquartered in Great Britain, the Tetley Group sells more than 60 Tetley branded products to more than 40 countries worldwide. Tetley is the second largest tea bag brand in the world; it is the number one tea bag brand in Great Britain and Canada and has significant market share in the United States, Australia, Poland and France. Tetley has a customized portfolio of offerings for each country, ranging from black, green, fruit and herbal teas, iced ready-to-drink teas and an extensive range of exotic specialty tea. For further information, visit www.Tetley.ca