Apex Plastics is taking over a longtime distributor of its bottles serving the freshly squeezed juice market in the Midwest.
Brookfield, Mo.-based Apex finalized the purchase of Juice Merchandising Corp. in early September, in conjunction with the retirement of its owner, Bill Bushman.
Apex has been supplying high density polyethylene, and later PET, bottles to JMC customers since 1997.
The purchase consolidates the manufacturing and marketing of the bottles under Apex control.
The purchase of JMC now allows Apex to take over the direct sale of the bottles to grocery stores that offer freshly squeezed juice as well as distributors serving those stores.
"It was a line of business that had been doing well and a partnership that had been working," Apex President Damon Neff said.
Apex currently provides HDPE bottles in 8-, 16-, 32- and 64-ounce sizes as well as a 59-ounce PET version. Plans are to expand the PET line to include the other smaller sizes as well, and Apex hopes to have samples ready for customers to consider by the end of October.