By Klieon John
St. Kitts Reporter.
The classic glass Sparkle Soda bottles that have become a trademark of carbonated beverages on the island are soon to be extinct. Workers at the St. Kitts Bottling Company, manufacturers of the product, say the 500ml bottle should be off the shelves within the next month, to be replaced by a 20floz plastic bottle.
It was introduced to the public on Saturday November 3, 2007 at the Kittitian Expo held at the Marriot Hotel and was shipped to retailers that same morning. Currently, it is being sold at EC$ 2.00, the price it was usually sold at in the glass bottle.
Flavors currently being sold in the plastic bottles are red, lime, banana, cream soda and orange. Persons are already enjoying the ‘new’ drinks at various vendors throughout the island, many of them oblivious to the fact that this is the same drink in a different bottle. Many speculate that the prices will go up, claiming that they are too much cheaper than the other plastic bottled drinks to stay at that price.
“I hope nobody expects these to stay at $2.00”, says a student at the Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College.
“The other drinks are costing $3.50 and $4.00 and people wouldnít stop buying them, despite how expensive they are. Everybody is going to start buying these, which are cheaper and then when they have people hooked, they are going to jack up the prices. You can’t really expect them to be selling these for $2.00 for long. Iím sure that the plastic bottles cost more to manufacture seeing as we donít recycle plastic here. With the glass ones at least they could say they were getting back most of the bottles so they save a lot on making them. That won’t happen with these plastic ones so the price must go up!
“I have to say though that I am happy they are switching from glass to plastic. It’s safer, more convenient and lighter. Plus it’s the same taste as the original bottles, which to me is much better than the others. All I have to say is Lord, please do not make them too expensive!”
Gene Howell, director of operations at the St. Kitts Bottling Company, spoke exclusively with The Observer about the change-over from glass to bottle, saying that there was practically no choice in the matter.
“The reason is mainly because the glass bottles were being pushed out of the market by large volumes of imports of plastic. We recognized that we could not remain competitive much longer relying on glass bottles, when most other CARICOM countries are shipping plastic bottles.”
Also, because of the many expenses associated with glass bottled products such as handling, recollection, sorting and cleaning, it became impractical for the company to continue production of glass bottles. Another benefit is the reduction of labor necessity, as it would now take a handful of persons to operate the new machinery as opposed to the fifteen or fourteen it took to manage the old system.
This new system of machinery ran up a bill of approximately eleven million dollars in order to properly upgrade the plant, and according to Howell, there are more additions to be made.
Meanwhile, retailers are already being sold cases of the drinks for the same price of EC$34.00 for every case of 24. This, however, he confirms will increase in the near future and is due the increasing cost of production of the plastic bottles. Thus, the individual cost per bottle will go up, most likely when the glass bottles are completely off the shelves, which may be as soon as the end of December or early January. Currently, the plastic bottles contain 20floz whereas the old glass bottles contained 10floz and 16floz in the small and large bottles respectively.
The taste however, remains the same as before, says Howell.
“The taste has not and will not change. Everything is mixed according to a formula and as in, for example, the case of Coke products, they cannot be changed and this is ensured by rigid computerization. In fact, according to how many bottles we produce, we have to take some of them off the line and send them to a lab to be tested to make sure they have in the right formula. For our international products, like Coke, the franchise pays Kittitians and Nevisians to send the product to Mexico to be analyzed and we are held accountable for any variations in the formula. They have, in fact, shut down some plants in the Caribbean because of this.”
The decision to switch from glass to plastic bottles is expected to greatly boost production returns and be appreciated by consumers as they are more convenient and portable. Also, it is now possible to place nutrition information on the bottles, something which prevented shipment to United States territories due to their policy of not accepting imported goods without this feature.
Just in time for carnival season, persons may now be able to ‘jam’ through the crowds with their plastic bottles of Sparkle soda.
