Gloucestershire-based Lucozade Ribena Suntory (LRS) has invested £13 million in a new high-speed bottling line for its factory in Coleford, making it one of the most efficient factories under the Suntory brand.

The new line (www.lrsuntory.com) , which can fill 55,000 bottles per hr, has been designed to use 40% less energy and water than the line it has replaced, due partly to a new dry aseptic technology that uses heat and pressurised air instead of water to clean bottles before they are filled.

These efficiency improvements represent a 4.4% reduction of energy and water consumption for the Coleford site as a whole.

The investment saw about £10 million spent on new production and processing equipment, with a further £3 million spent directly with local contractors that built and installed the supporting infrastructure for the new line.