Pepsi Bottling Ventures is investing US$25 million to install new equipment in its Raleigh, North Carolina, plant to reduce shipping costs for its bottled water, reported The News & Observer.
The Raleigh company is buying blow-molding equipment that will enable it to buy bottles that resemble a test tube, then heat them until they expand into regular shaped - bottles so that one truckload of unheated bottles will be the equivalent of 10 tractor-trailer loads, said company spokesman George Suddath.
"That will reduce over 600,000 miles of tractor-trailer traffic a year for us," he said.
The move comes as sales growth slows for traditional bottled water amid the national economic slump, mounting criticism about the environment and increasing competition. Flavoured and "enhanced" waters such as vitamin drinks are eating into plain bottled water's market share, Morgan Stanley beverage analyst William Pecoriello told The Associated Press.
Company's sales volume - including carbonated soft drinks and bottled water - has risen 12 per cent since 2005, but bottled water consumption is only up two per cent.
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