Five days before the Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co (Brunnenstr. 1, D-54568 Gerolstein) made a start on filling mineral water into returnable bottles in PET the Genossenschaft deutscher Brunnen eG (GDB, Kennedyallee 36, D-53175 Bonn) abandoned its cautious attitude to PET bottles in the returnable-bottle pool for mineral water. As of January, five big mineral spring companies will be commencing practical trials and, in mid-1999, the 240 German mineral springs will take a decision regarding the introduction of this new bottle type in the GDB returnable-bottle system.

The 1 l- test bottle is blue, weighs 56 g and, according to the GDB, will withstand 15 trips with a washing temperature of 59 °C. The chief supplier is Schmalbach-Lubeca AG (PO Box 101257, D-40832 Ratingen); no further details of suppliers are being released at present on account of the coordination processes that are still running.

With its more than 2.4 bn returnable bottles, the GDB owns the biggest pool of returnable bottles for mineral water in Europe. The 240 German mineral springs are mainly small and medium-sized companies. A nation-wide switch to PET bottles could lead to considerable restructuring in the mineral water branch. Or to put it differently, a large number of small companies will not be able to afford to convert their filling lines. Gerolsteiner, the biggest mineral spring company with a market share of 10%, estimates the investment required for new filling plant at DEM 23m.