Romanian wine group Cramele Recas is set to extend its use of Polyethylene Terephthalate [PET] bottles after “promising” results from an ongoing trial.
The company, which claims to be the country’s largest exporter of wine, kicked off the pilot earlier this year in Germany. The project centres around the positioning of PET bottles next to glass ones “in an effort to see if there would be any customer resistance”.
The plastic used by Cramele Recas has been collected from the Danube River for recycling into bottles.
“When compared to glass production, which involves massive factories that need to run 24/7, the production machines for the PET bottles can be turned on and off easily, according to demand,” the company said. “The PET machines are also able to produce a wide range of sizes and shapes very quickly and easily.”
Cramele Recas also added that “no large investment” has been required to make the switch, although specific details on the duration of the pilot and the subsequent strategy were not disclosed.
Earlier this month, a conference in California heard how wine continues to be “competitively disadvantaged among younger LDA [legal drinking age] and multi-cultural consumers” in the US compared to beer and spirits.
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