Classic sodas get retro bottle

-- Packaging Digest, 7/1/2007

Northeastern soft drink bottler Polar Beverage, Worcester, MA, offers private-label sodas and partnership brands throughout the country. To quench the thirst of today's consumer with a flourish of "retro flair," Polar Beverage launched a new product line in May called Polar Classics. Its bottle of choice? An 11.5-oz glass long-neck from Vitro Packaging, Inc. (www.vitro.com). After 10 years away from glass packaging, Polar Beverage understands that today's marketplace is craving packaging that's different and innovative. Polar wanted to create high shelf impact while presenting consumers with a vintage, retro image. VitroSolutions assisted with the creation of a new glass container presentation for Polar Beverages' Root Beer, Diet Root Beer, Vanilla Cream, Orange Cream and Black Berry soda flavors. The tapered bottle has a distinctive, bulb neck and a twist-crown finish that harks back to the 1950s and 1960s. Rounding out the presentation are visuals for the Polar Classic brand incorporating Vitro's three-color Applied Ceramic Lithographic screen-printing process. The decoration features an oval, front-panel label design and the bottler's polar-bear graphic motif. VitroSolutions also provided a crown closure and paperboard six-pack carriers.