McCormick Distilling Co. has commercialized what it claims is the first liquor bottle with a built-in handle — a 1.75-liter PET vodka bottle made by Amcor PET Packaging.No one had created a commercial PET liquor bottle with a handle before because of the difficulty of blow molding around a separate grip, the firm said.
“With a lot of competition in the value-priced category, we were looking for a way to differentiate ourselves,” said Jim Zargo, McCormick Distilling's president and chief operating officer.
Amcor's project engineer, Jonathan Zjarman, said the grip must be placed perfectly inside the mold. A proprietary reheat-blow molding machine was built for the project.
Amcor blow molds the bottle at its factory in Nicholasville, Ky.
After two years of development, the bottle was launched at the beginning of the year. McCormick Distillers developed a special Web site heralding the handled bottle.
McCormick Distilling is headquartered in Weston, Mo. Amcor PET Packaging is based in Ann Arbor, Mich.
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