Amcor Rigid Plastics has announced plans to invest $20m to expand its southeastern US bottle manufacturing operation in Orlando, Florida, in a bid to address growing market demand for beverage and pharmaceutical packaging.
According to the rigid plastic packaging company, the expansion enables it to centralize preform manufacturing and warehousing and allow the company to deliver key sustainability advantages including improved logistics and shipping efficiencies.
Recently, Amcor relocated from an existing 168,000ft2 plant near the Florida Turnpike to a new leased 500,000ft2 facility within the Airport Industrial Park of Orlando.
The facility, which is operational at present, produces hot fill and cold fill PET bottles for beverages such as sports drinks and orange juice, along with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pharmaceutical containers.
Amcor North American beverage business unit vice president and general manager Larry Weber said the company will bring its multi-technology and multi-material offering to the new expanded facility in Orlando.
"Our focus is to meet the expanded needs of our customers while also attracting new business," Weber said.
At Orlando, the company will manufacture a majority of its preforms in house, thus doing away with the previous costs associated with shipping in preforms.
The new expanded facility is set to eliminate the need for three offsite warehousing sites.
