How to choose a contract bottler

A contract bottler is a company that packages your beverage product into your desired packaging format. They are responsible for the final sign-off on the products liquid before packaging it into the desired bottle size, colour and shape alongside any labelling and boxing requirements. When trusting a third party to package your product, it is important that you are satisfied with the company’s operations. Here are the things to check for:

Quality Assurance procedures:

First and foremost, the company you select must be adhering to the set quality standards. Here at Idyll, we adhere to IFS (International Food Standards) and BRC (British Retail Consortium) and are regularly audited against these standards. These standards are important to ensure the company is operating in a way that ensures the safety of the product being produced, especially if the product is a consumable. All manufacturing facilities should also follow GMP (goods manufacturing process) requirements.

Beverage production experts:

Ensure the contract bottler you choose to package with has a talented team of beverage manufacturers. There are a number of varying environmental conditions that can alter the liquid product when it is transported to the contract packer and it’s important that the contract packers’ beverage manufacturing team understand what the product should taste, smell and look like.

Quality manufacturing facilities:

There is value in having top-quality bottling lines. There are a number of key elements on a bottling line that must be fully maintained and properly operated in order to ensure the product running through the lines and into the bottles has its quality maintained. For example, the bottling lines at Idyll have a critical control point (CCP) that blows air and then nitrogen into the bottles before they’re filled with liquid. This is important to ensure there is no stray particles left inside the bottle before it’s filled with liquid. We also have top-quality labeling machines that ensure there are no bubbles once the label has been applied to the bottle, and that the distance between the front and back label on either side of the bottle is also equal. These pieces of equipment are a vital asset for a quality contract bottler.

Sound logistics processes:

Even if a contract bottler can adequately produce your beverage product, it is vital that these products are stored correctly, that finished products aren’t damaged and that their logistics facility is efficiently organised to ensure that your products can be despatched as you require. Poor organisation within a logistics facility can make obtaining the finished products difficult. Idyll operates an offsite warehouse, meticulously organised with Paperless Warehousing technology.