Global packaging company Elopak opened its first ever U.S. carton converting plant in Little Rock, Arkansas. The state-of-the-art factory costs USD 100 million and will produce Pure-Pak^® cartons for liquid dairy products, juices, plant-based drinks, and liquid eggs.

Elopak CEO Thomas Körmendi was joined by local officials for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the factory site in Little Rock.

“Demand for our low-carbon, sustainable cartons in North America has been growing at an unprecedented rate for several years. This new factory will serve both new and existing customers across the United States, reaching millions of Americans every day,” said Körmendi.

“I am sincerely grateful to the whole team at Elopak Americas, as well as local officials, for helping us to deliver this factory on budget and on time. This plant is a cornerstone of our ‘Repackaging tomorrow’ strategy to double revenues by 2030. Today, I am very excited that we have taken a big step towards achieving that goal,” he added.

Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders highlighted Elopak’s investment in the state: “Arkansas beat out several other states for this project, showing that cutting taxes, investing in education, and building up our workforce is the key to bringing new companies to our state. Thank you to Elopak’s leadership for your investment in not only the United States, but in the Natural State,” she said.

After the ribbon-cutting, Elopak hosted guests and media for a reception, featuring speeches by Thomas Körmendi, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr., Executive Director of Arkansas Economic Development Commission Clint O’Neal, Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde, Port of Little Rock Chairman Clay McGeorge, and Elopak Americas President Lionel Ettedgui. This was followed by a tour of the new factory.

The company first announced plans to build a U.S. production plant in June 2023 and construction started in March 2024, taking just under a year to complete. In September 2024, Elopak announced it was bringing forward plans to add a second production line at the plant after initial capacity sold out before the factory even opened. This line will be fully operational in 2026 and will contribute a further USD 110 million in annual revenue.

Elopak selected the Port of Little Rock for its new factory owing to the site’s unrivalled connections to road and rail transportation, as well as proximity to the city’s airport. The factory employs 100 people who will create top quality cartons. All carton folding, scoring, packing and loading is 100 % automated, improving efficiency and optimizing employee safety. Like all Elopak plants, the factory will use 100% renewable electricity.

“We have built a unique and strong foothold in the North American market. Elopak now has several production plants covering the continent from north to south,” concluded Körmendi.

Döhler North America is expanding its presence with the strategic acquisition of Premier Juices, strengthening its offerings in natural fruit-based products and solutions. This move further enhances Döhler’s ability to support its growing customer base across the beverage, food, and life science & nutrition industries with a broader portfolio of products and services. It also reinforces Döhler’s position as the leading science-based and technology-driven natural ingredients platform shaping the future of nutrition and longevity.

Enhancing capabilities to benefit customers

Döhler North America’s portfolio includes natural flavours, colours, and health ingredients, along with a wide range of plant-based products, ingredient systems, and end-to-end solutions. Premier Juices’ expertise and portfolio of fruit products – including lemon, lime, mango, passion fruit, pineapple, guava, cranberry, grapefruit, apple and more, enhance Döhler’s established leadership in the market and the ability to deliver a broader and more comprehensive offering.

By integrating Premier Juices’ blending, packaging and quality control solutions, Döhler North America expands its capabilities with tailored formats for the food, beverage and life science & nutrition industries, as well as foodservice and private label businesses.

With access to an enriched product portfolio, enhanced warehousing, and superior technical support, customers now have greater opportunities to develop successful products and unlock new market potential.

A strategic step in U.S. market expansion

This acquisition further solidifies the market presence of Döhler North America by adding strategic operations in Delaware – a key logistics hub improving supply chain efficiency. With optimised distribution networks, Döhler North America is positioned to provide even greater service reliability and flexibility to customers across the region.

With this expansion, Döhler North America reaffirms its commitment to developing and delivering natural products and integrated solutions that meet customer needs and evolve with consumer preferences.

Molson Coors Beverage Company is expanding its U.S. non-alc portfolio through a new strategic partnership with Fevertree Drinks plc, one of the world leading suppliers of premium carbonated drinks and mixers.

Starting February 1, 2025, Molson Coors will assume exclusive commercialisation rights to Fever-Tree’s award-winning lineup of tonics, ginger beers, cocktail mixers and more in the U.S. and will be responsible for co-manufactured production, marketing, sales and distribution of the brand in the U.S. The move is a significant step forward in Molson Coors’ strategic ambition to build a total-beverage portfolio for a wide range of consumer preferences across traditional alcohol occasions and non-alc occasions alike.

“Our strategic partnership with Fever-Tree in the U.S. is a meaningful step in Molson Coors’ journey to becoming a total-beverage company with a winning portfolio of drinks for a wide variety of consumer occasions. We’ve made progress here, and today we are building on that progress in a significant way with Fever-Tree as the latest and largest non-alc brand to join our portfolio,” Molson Coors Chief Executive Officer Gavin Hattersley said. “The U.S. is our biggest global market by revenue, and the same is true for Fever-Tree, so we believe this partnership provides ample opportunity for our teams to build on the strong success Fever-Tree has achieved to date. Our customers have been asking for a brand just like Fever-Tree from us, and by leveraging the scale, strong relationships and expertise of our team at Molson Coors, I’m confident in the road ahead for Fever-Tree as part of Molson Coors’ growing set of non-alc offerings in the U.S.”

Established in the UK in 2004, Fever-Tree has become a proven leader in a high-growth, above premium space. Drinks International voted it the ‘Number One Top Selling Mixer’ and ‘Number One Top Trending Mixer’ for 11 years running, while the New York International Spirits Competition voted it ‘Mixer Brand of the Year’ for four years running. In the U.S., Fever-Tree’s largest global market by revenue, the brand has consistently built on its first-mover advantage, and in doing so has become the #1 tonic and ginger beer brands nationwide, per Nielsen [since 2007].

Molson Coors plans to build on the position Fever-Tree has already established in the U.S. by leveraging its core strengths, commercial scale and supply chain expertise to expand distribution, grow brand awareness, and create a solid runway for long-term growth in the U.S. market.

Underpinning the partnership and reflecting Molson Coors’ long-term focus on – and belief in – the opportunity, the company has agreed to acquire an 8.5% stake in Fevertree Drinks plc, resulting in Molson Coors becoming Fever-Tree’s second largest shareholder.

The partnership with Fever-Tree builds on Molson Coors’ strong recent momentum in the advancement of its Beyond Beer and premiumization strategy. The company took a majority stake in ZOA Energy in November 2024 and has since expanded distribution into new accounts and channels. Additionally, Molson Coors is preparing to bring Naked Life, Australia’s #1 non-alc RTD cocktail, to the U.S. this spring.

Molson Coors and Fever-Tree’s strategic partnership is subject to customary closing conditions.

U.S. concentrated orange juice imports

In April 2023, supplies from abroad of concentrated orange juice decreased by -61.3 % to 16K tons for the first time since January 2023, thus ending a two-month rising trend. In general, imports showed a deep setback. The most prominent rate of growth was recorded in December 2022 when imports increased by 206 % against the previous month. In value terms, concentrated orange juice imports declined rapidly to $48M (IndexBox estimates) in April 2023. Over the period under review, imports showed a perceptible reduction. The pace of growth appeared the most rapid in October 2022 with an increase of 130 % m-o-m.

Imports by country

In April 2023, Mexico (9.2K tons) constituted the largest supplier of concentrated orange juice to the United States, with a 56 % share of total imports. Moreover, concentrated orange juice imports from Mexico exceeded the figures recorded by the second-largest supplier, Costa Rica (4.1K tons), twofold. From April 2022 to April 2023, the average monthly rate of growth in terms of volume from Mexico amounted to -8.1 %. The remaining supplying countries recorded the following average monthly rates of imports growth: Costa Rica (-2.3 % per month) and Brazil (+12.0 % per month). In value terms, Mexico ($29M) constituted the largest supplier of concentrated orange juice to the United States, comprising 61 % of total imports. The second position in the ranking was held by Costa Rica ($11M), with a 23 % share of total imports. From April 2022 to April 2023, the average monthly growth rate of value from Mexico amounted to -5.2 %. The remaining supplying countries recorded the following average monthly rates of imports growth: Costa Rica (+0.9 % per month) and Brazil (+11.3 % per month).

Import prices by country

In April 2023, the concentrated orange juice price amounted to $2,920 per ton (CIF, US), surging by 18 % against the previous month. Overall, the import price showed a pronounced increase. The growth pace was the most rapid in July 2022 when the average import price increased by 117 % month-to-month. As a result, import price attained the peak level of $4,563 per ton. From August 2022 to April 2023, the average import prices failed to regain momentum. Average prices varied somewhat amongst the major supplying countries. In April 2023, the country with the highest price was Mexico ($3,139 per ton), while the price for Brazil ($2,507 per ton) was amongst the lowest. From April 2022 to April 2023, the most notable rate of growth in terms of prices was attained by Costa Rica (+3.2 %), while the prices for the other major suppliers experienced mixed trend patterns.

Source: IndexBox Market Intelligence Platform

Ball Corporation announced today plans to build a new U.S. aluminum beverage packaging plant in North Las Vegas, Nevada. The multi-line plant is scheduled to begin production in late 2022 and is expected to create nearly 180 manufacturing jobs when fully operational.

“Our new North Las Vegas plant is Ball’s latest investment to serve accelerating demand for our portfolio of infinitely recyclable aluminum containers,” said Kathleen Pitre, president, Ball beverage packaging North & Central America. “The new plant is supported by numerous long-duration contracts for committed volume with our strategic global partners and regional customers and will enable us to serve customer and consumer needs for more sustainable aluminum beverage packaging while furthering our Drive for 10 vision.”

Ball plans to invest nearly $290 million in its North Las Vegas facility over multiple years. The plant will supply a range of innovative can sizes to a variety of beverage customers. Infinitely recyclable and economically valuable, aluminum cans, bottles and cups enable a truly circular economy in which materials can be and actually are used again and again. In fact, 75 percent of all aluminum ever produced is still in use today.

Ball chose the North Las Vegas location for its new facility due to its proximity to customer can-filling investments, increasing regional demand, the infrastructure in place, the regional labor base and the cooperation of state and local officials.

The U.S. liquid refreshment beverage market grew more quickly in 2015 than in 2014, according to newly released preliminary data from Beverage Marketing Corporation. The market’s growth was the strongest seen in several years. Beverage-specific factors, such as the remarkable vibrancy of the sizeable bottled water segment, as well as more general ones, such as the continuing economic recovery, contributed to the overall increase in liquid refreshment beverage volume, which approached 32 billion gallons in 2015.

Bottled water had another notable year. The category’s core characteristics – healthful, natural, zero-calorie – increasingly resonate with U.S. consumers. Pricing remained aggressive, which also contributed to bottled water’s performance. Its growth actually accelerated, which is unusual for a category its magnitude. Volume enlarged by 7.9 %. Bottled water could become the number-one beverage by volume as soon as this year.
Niche categories continued to outperform most traditional mass-market categories. Energy drinks and, especially, ready-to-drink (RTD) coffee advanced muscularly during 2015. Bigger, more established segments such as carbonated soft drinks and fruit beverages failed to grow once again.

RTD coffee outperformed all other segments with a 16.5 % volume increase in 2015. Nonetheless, the segment accounted for a tiny share of total liquid refreshment beverage volume. It was the smallest, behind value-added water, which registered growth after having registered a significant decline the year before. Energy drinks advanced by 9.8 %, but also remained modest in size. Predictably, no energy drink, RTD coffee or value-added water brand ranked among the leading trademarks by volume (no fruit beverage brand did either.).

Sports beverages, on the other hand, had Gatorade (including all brand variations) as the sixth largest liquid refreshment beverage trademark during the year. Exceeding 1 billion gallons for the first time in 2011, trademark Gatorade dipped below that level subsequently, and returned to that level in 2015.

Carbonated soft drinks remained the biggest liquid refreshment beverage category, but they might not for much longer as they continue to lose both volume and market share. Volume slipped by 1.5 % from 12.8 billion gallons in 2014 to 12.6 billion gallons in 2015, which lowered their market share to less than 40 %. Carbonated soft drinks accounted for five of the 10 biggest beverage trademarks during 2015, with Coca-Cola and Pepsi-Cola retaining their usual first and second positions, but only one of the leading brands, Sprite, managed to grow during the year.

Bottled water had four entries among the leading trademarks in 2015, and every one of them grew well in advance of the overall liquid refreshment beverage category.
Four companies accounted for all of the leading refreshment beverage trademarks. Pepsi–Cola had four brands. Coca-Cola had three while Nestlé Waters North America (NWNA) had two and Dr Pepper Snapple Group (DPSG) had one.

“Consumers have spoken,” said Michael C. Bellas, chairman and CEO, Beverage Marketing Corporation. “They’ve made their preferences clear. The rapid growth in bottled water and functional and niche alternatives like energy drinks expresses a shift away from most large traditional beverage categories.”

New York City-based Beverage Marketing Corporation is the leading consulting, research and advisory services firm dedicated to the global beverage industry.