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The new PET bottle from Sidel is designed to offer an increased competitive advantage for liquid dairy manufacturers. The bottle has been designed for products such as drinking and probiotic yoghurts with capacities between 65ml to 150ml. Sidel also reports that the bottle would suit applications within the juice, nectar, soft drinks, isotonics and tea sector. Laurent Naveau, packaging innovator leader for Sidel, commented: “This new format has been launched to support the liquid dairy product industry where the use of PET packaging has increasingly become an attractive alternative. Part of Sidel’s continuous packaging optimisation programme, this bottle is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and costs while also offering new marketing opportunities and high production performance for manufacturers.” Sidel claims that with the new ultra-light bottle, manufacturers can benefit from PET’s heightened sustainability credentials. Manufacturers can achieve a significant cost reduction when moving from polystyrene or high-density polyethylene to PET. The company also says that the new PET bottles are highly customizable by manufacturers leading to a greater shelf appeal than current products. Sidel’s new “ultra-small bottle” is based on a uniquely designed preform, which, they claim, ensures a wide process window even with reduced heating zones. This offers optimum material distribution guaranteeing a high-bottle performance. Laurent Naveau added: “Sidel’s packaging experts have developed a preform that achieves great bottle quality. The accurate material distribution on the bottle ensures that its performance is secured even with lower blowing pressure and a reduced quantity of material. We’re excited to work with producers within the liquid dairy product sector to realise the full scope of our new ultra-small and light design range.”