CCE shift

[fusion]

Late February 2003, the Mid-Atlantic division will be the first to roll out a new package, the 24oz 6pack. I suspect that they've seen Pepsi make too much money/volume off the package, and now they're ready to jump into the game. 8 pack 16.9oz will be going away, and I believe we will be reintroducing the 6 pack 16.9oz.

Fridge packs won't come until August, though.

Other than the recent package/graphic changes from KO, PEP, and Cadbury.. anyone else know of any changes for the coming year from the big boys?

[karks88]

Very cool! It's about time Coke rolls out some different packaging. We had fridge packs here for like one week and then the went away. Must have been testing them.

[fusion]

Unless they had to buy a shipment from the Lakeshore (Chicago) division instead of their usual production facility. I know we've been getting a lot of stuff from Twinsburg OH lately. And they have the 2 liter shells like Pepsi, and they don't stack with ours. What a pain.

[Goldmember]

A Red Bull rep in my region informed me that Coke is coming out with an 8.3 oz can this year of Classic(perhaps similar to the aforementioned slim can), although Im not sure how reliable his info is.

He seemed to be concerned about it popping up in his precious Red Bull glide racks.

If its true, it sounds like he should be concerned.

[Terry K]

Originally posted by fusion:
Unless they had to buy a shipment from the Lakeshore (Chicago) division instead of their usual production facility. I know we've been getting a lot of stuff from Twinsburg OH lately. And they have the 2 liter shells like Pepsi, and they don't stack with ours. What a pain.

I'm going to guess that a lot of CCE facilities are shifting *where* they get product from due to the launch of Fridge Pack. For example, the two plants we see here in the midwest (LX Lenexa, KS, and WI (We think this is Wichita KS) seem to be aligning themselves to handle the switch to Fridge Pack. Historically, only WI has been running Dr Pepper, but now LX is. I recall reading that in Atlanta and Philly, they had to stockpile a month or two worth of product in advance, as the entire plant would have to be shut down. In the case of Consolidated, they have enough facilities to shuffle things around while their plants got situated.

Where Fridge Pack is going to be a real problem is for bottlers like Ozarks Coke who pull canned product in from LX, WI, EE, OC, and CV (EE and OC are Oklahoma Coke/Great Plains) If EE and OC don't go Fridge/Cool 12 when LX and WI do, there's another issue in and of itself.

I suspect that they're getting ready to convert LX and WI individually to Fridge pack considering they run the same products.

In the case of Twinsburg, I suspect this to also be the case. TB seems to be a popular one seen in a LOT of the upper midwest and parts of New England. I'd guess CCE is trucking in stuff from plants lower on the scale until they get things configured for Fridge Pack

[bigrich]

I have traveled lately through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. CCE Indianapolis(HO), CCE Cincinnati(CN), still uses old style boxes. I traveled through Central Illinois, where they were getting product from Chicago Regional(RX) in the old style boxes from one of the 3 lines(RX) has and St. Louis (SL). It appears that it has taken sometime to convert all 3 (RX) lines to fridgepack. This time all the Chicago and St. Louis product was gone and replaced by Indianapolis product. In Iowa they had been getting product in old packaging from Lenexa (LX), St. Louis (SL), and Chicago (RX). This time they had fridgepacks from (RX) and (PA). I am not sure where (PA) is. CCE must go into a market area and completely shipout and clean-up its stock, area by area, leaving nothing behind. They probably re-ship the old style packs to another area going through conversion.

[ 12-29-2002, 08:16 PM: Message edited by: bigrich ]

[SURGE]

Don't trust them redbull guys. But who knows Coke might do it. But why? Is there any good reason? I doubt that they will replace 12oz in 12 packs with these since they just spent millions on the launch of Fridge Packs. So what is the use of a 8.4oz can?

[BottleBoss]

Well,
The ice cream manufactures here in the east coast have stopped producing half gallon sized containers for their ice cream. They are now 1 and 3/4 quarts. For the same price as the half gallons of course. At least I think thats how it goes. Perhaps Coke wants to make the size of the drink smaller so they can charge the same price for it. Who Knows!

[CCEmerchandiser007]

Fridge Packs break too easily!!! They're proably not going to last very long out there the only good thing about them is you ca put out 2 times more out on the shelves than when the regular 12 packs were out which I miss !! They didn't fall apart as easily as the fridge packs!!! Now They're not allowing me to use packaging tape to tape up the fridge packs I wonder why not?? Heck we need packaging tape even more than we did when the regular 12 pks were out!!!

[Terry K]

Originally posted by bigrich:
I have traveled lately through Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. CCE Indianapolis(HO), CCE Cincinnati(CN), still uses old style boxes. I traveled through Central Illinois, where they were getting product from Chicago Regional(RX) in the old style boxes from one of the 3 lines(RX) has and St. Louis (SL). It appears that it has taken sometime to convert all 3 (RX) lines to fridgepack. This time all the Chicago and St. Louis product was gone and replaced by Indianapolis product. In Iowa they had been getting product in old packaging from Lenexa (LX), St. Louis (SL), and Chicago (RX). This time they had fridgepacks from (RX) and (PA). I am not sure where (PA) is. CCE must go into a market area and completely shipout and clean-up its stock, area by area, leaving nothing behind. They probably re-ship the old style packs to another area going through conversion.

PA I believe is Eagan, MN. They supply Schweppes Ginger Ale here to CCE and still in old 12 packs.

The more and more I read of this thread it appears as if Fridge Pack will be hitting here as soon as LX or WI converts.