Rio Bucovina, the Romanian producer and distributor of natural mineral waters and soft drinks, recently reduced energy usage by up to 47% by installing a new Sidel SBO10 Universal 2eco blow molder at its production facility in Vatra Dornei.
At the same time, it also collaborated with the Sidel Services packaging team on a stylish bottle design for its still water.
Through developing the new design, which included adopting the international 29/25 short-neck bottle standard across the range of sizes, the weight of the bottles was reduced by up to 45%.
Rio Bucovina is now producing the lightest bottles in the Romanian market.
The company is one of the top three producers of natural mineral water in Romanian fast moving consumer goods market.
It produces beverages and foodstuffs at its two production sites, including Bucovina still and carbonated natural mineral water, and La Vitta branded water.
The company also produces soft drinks under the brand names Rio, La Vitta, Malibu and BonTon, and an energy drink with the brand name Golden Horse.
Besides these, Rio Bucovina distributes a wide range of food and other items.
Flexibility, reliability, energy savings
Following previous working relationship and projects of more than 20 years, Rio Bucovina bought Sidel’s SBO10 Universal 2eco for its flexibility and its reliability.
“The SBO Universal 2eco, along with its Ecoven, has substantially cut costs for us, reducing the new line’s energy consumption by 47% when compared to other blow molders we might have chosen,” said Cristian Serban, business development director of Rio Bucovina.
The Ecoven technology requires fewer heating modules and lamps, with the preform-heating time reduced by up to 15%.
Power consumption of the ovens is therefore substantially decreased and the use of installed power lowered.
Besides providing a wide process window, the Ecoven’s large heating reserve and fast heating ensures there is no slow-down in production, whatever kind of preform is used.
It also delivers excellent heat treatment precision, which ensures identical bottle characteristics and quality.
Rio Bucovina also benefits from the air consumption reduction of the SBO Universal 2eco range due to improved efficiency in the air circuits, integrated cylinders, solenoid and flow limiters.
This equates to additional savings in production costs.
Light bottles
Rio Bucovina also launched redesigned Bucovina bottles, characterized by their very modern and elegant approach. Compared to the previous bottles, the new designs weigh 31.5 g compared to 43 g for two liter bottles; 24 g compared to 39 g for 1.5 liter bottles; and 12 g compared to 22 g for 0.5 liter bottles.
Bottled water dominates the Romanian market
In Romania, bottled water is in demand because it is inexpensively priced and is perceived as a ‘natural’ soft drink, says Sidel.
It is also seen as a much healthier and reliable option in comparison to the quality of tap water generally available throughout the country, especially in Bucharest and other large cities.
Domestic manufacturers, most of whom have been supplying the country with bottled mineral water for decades, dominate the market through tradition, brand recognition and affordable pricing.
Sales of water have been undergoing an annual growth of around 5% over the past two years, which has mainly seen the consolidation of leading brands.
This moderate growth is the result of penetration into households of all income levels.
Although carbonated or ‘sparkling’ water has a larger, established consumer base, mostly through the heavy consumption of traditional ‘spritz’ – the combination of carbonated water with wine – still bottled water has moved ahead in terms of volume growth over the past couple of years.
However, the decrease in Romanian consumers’ spending power has led to their growing acceptance of cheaper water.
