IDM ¦ Packaging
Bickford’s Australia
Boosting flexibility through dry preform sterilisation
Bickford’s, a family-owned and treasured Australian brand,
put their trust in Sidel for the very first time and installed
a complete, flexible PET line, handling both sensitive beverages
and carbonated soft drinks (CSD). Riding the wave
of healthy living, Bickford’s was not only able to expand
their portfolio but also to improve production efficiency and sustainability.
All in all, this significantly optimised their Total Cost of Ownership
(TCO), while relying on new bottle designs.
Bickford’s is one of the oldest and most valued Australian
brands, holding a premium positioning in the market with exports
to 32 countries worldwide. Founded in 1839, they are an independently
owned business, with head office and operations based in
Adelaide (South Australia). Their offer is diverse: producing CSD,
cordials, flavoured water, still and sparkling water as well as juices,
dairy and non-dairy drinks, syrups and alcoholic beverages, such as
beer, wine, spirits and cider.
In Bickford’s home of Australia, as in many other countries, one
can observe increasing health consciousness and wellness concerns
as key drivers for the growth of beverage categories such as bottled
water, especially flavoured options. Juices, nectars, soft drinks,
isotonics and teas (JNSDIT) are also affected by this change in consumer
behaviour and are predicted to show a positive trajectory in
the next three years. Notably, Australia also has a strong coffee culture.
Although the focus on RTD coffee clearly is about taste and
functionality with customers seeking a quick energy boost, future
products might shift towards health-promoting benefits.
Furthermore, given the keen competition within these segments
as well as the premiumisation trend across the board, new
product developments are increasingly focusing on flavour variety,
accompanied by the introduction of new packaging formats for
further diversification in the market. In the beverage industry but
in particular in water, JNSDIT and CSD segments, PET is projected
to remain a popular packaging material in the future.
A first: Bickford’s opts for aseptic PET
bottling with dry preform sterilisation
To accommodate those opportunities, grow their share and diversify
their portfolio, Bickford’s started to search for a very flexible
production line, able to handle both still and sparkling, as well as
low- and high-acid products with two different short bottle necks
and two distinct decoration possibilities. For this particular challenge,
they turned to Sidel – the leading expert in aseptic PET applications
12 · May 2020 ¦ international-dairy.com
(photo: Sidel)
and packaging design – for the first time in their long history.
In fact, this also marks the very first time the Australian player
invested in aseptic technology with dry preform decontamination,
which has not yet been widely adopted in the country.
“Previously, we were mainly familiar with hot-filling PET applications.
We decided to partially shift to aseptic PET bottling because
we wanted to optimise our production set-up and achieve
a better TCO, which is of course critical if you plan to attract more
consumers,” says Angelo Kotses, Bickford’s CEO and owner. “Plus,
we really wanted to diversify our product portfolio by introducing
new references, including dairy products and plant-based alternatives,
and by moving some drinks formerly packaged in glass and
can to PET,” he goes on. For such a large-scale project, Bickford’s
needed a full solution partner; one that is an expert in packaging
development, bottling machinery, production and services. This is
why Sidel was the logical choice. The Australian brand decided to
inaugurate this cooperation by investing in one complete, versatile
PET line, managing both sensitive products and CSD through an
Aseptic Combi Predis and a Combi SF300, respectively.
This move helped Bickford’s enjoy great freedom in terms of packaging
design. They can now benefit from the wide branding surface to
apply both sleeve labels and pressure sensitive labels (PSL). Moreover,
thanks to Sidel’s proven dry preform sterilisation technology, the Aus-
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