Philip Sanner, group sales and marketing director for Petainer, told PlasticsToday the company is executing on its strategic plans and is "staying ahead of the game."

"Investment like this are mainly based on gaining technological advances, in order to continue to stay on the forefront of strategic investments and changes," Sanner said. "Reinvesting into our infrastructure and people allows us to position ourselves on strategic platforms that will allow us to increase our agility."

Petainer, headquartered in the Czech Republic, has manufacturing plants in Sweden, the Czech Republic and Germany. The company also features an R&D center in Sweden and sales offices in Germany and the UK.

Earlier this year, Petainer announced that the company had created the "greenest ever" refillable bottle. This refillable PET bottle is manufactured with more than 25% post-consumer recycled PET plastic. The company claims it has the same performance characteristics as a refillable bottle made entirely from virgin material.

Research has demonstrated that refillable bottles, which are returned to the retailer by the consumer once emptied then sent to the beverage manufacturer for washing and refilling, have a lower carbon footprint than one-way bottles that are thrown away after use, the company stated.

"They are 'eco-friendly' because they use up to 90% less virgin material per filling," Nigel Pritchard, group chief executive of Petainer, said at the time. "This performance is improved even further by the introduction of post-consumer recyclate, which means that the bottles now require less energy and other resources to manufacture."

Petainer, which manufactures both refillable and one-way bottles in PET, demonstrated that one-way bottles can be manufactured with about 100% recycled material.

"Petainer is clear about the need for innovation, we are looking for new and better ways to do our businesses, making sure we have a better environmental footprint," Sanner said. "Petainer is leading in the development and production of packaging materials made from sustainably managed resources, we do more than meet industry standards—we seek to raise them."