On March 3, 2014, Kiyosuzakura Brewery Corporation (Head office: Kiyosu-city, Aichi Prefecture; President Ichiro Shibayama) launches “Rakuen Plum Wine with Brandy PET” with a small quantity of 325 ml, using a high-barrier PET bottle* developed by Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President Takumi Ubagai), for the first time as a container for its products. The new product is plum wine using home-grown plums only and mellow brandy in a new bottle size (325 ml), using the high-barrier PET bottle that is easy to carry with a good performance in preserving product quality.

   Kiyosuzakura Brewery is a Japanese sake manufacturer, whose origin goes back to 1853, boasting the largest shipment volume of Japanese sake among the four prefectures of the Tokai region, with long-selling products such as “Kiyosujyo -nobunaga- onikoroshi”. The brewery recently focuses on developing new products of distilled spirits shochu, wine and plum wine while actively adopting new packages. It has switched glass bottles to cartons for its products for the first time in the industry. The product “Rakuen Plum Wine with Brandy” has been sold in cartons of 1.8 L and 500 ml pack size. The brewery determined to sell the product with a smaller quantity of 325 ml, newly adopting a PET bottle which is easy to carry and safekeeping after opening. The size of the PET bottle makes it suitable for not only for home drinking but also for outdoor drinking such as cherry-blossom-viewing parties.

   For its new product, Kiyosuzakura Brewery adopts a high-barrier PET bottle manufactured and sold by Mitsubishi Plastics. This is a highly functional PET bottle that is about 10 times better at preventing oxygen permeation than general PET bottles by vapor-depositing a thin carbon film on its inner wall, and thus can sufficiently prevent deterioration in product quality. Mitsubishi Plastics started full scale marketing of high-barrier PET bottles in 2010, and has received favorable appraisal from its customers, in particular for wine bottles. The Company specially developed some properties of the high-barrier PET bottle for “Rakuen Plum Wine with Brandy”, including the thickness and rib structure of the bottle, in order to increase dent resistance in the process of hot filling at about 65 degrees centigrade.

   Kiyosuzakura Brewery will strive to produce quality sake that is consumed in every scene of daily life while maintaining its passion as a professional sake-maker, with the motto “Delicious sake anytime and anywhere”. Mitsubishi Plastics will advance the enhancement of production systems, positioning a high-barrier PET bottle as the core product of its container business. At the same time, the Company will strive to develop new bottle products based on the needs of its customers, and promote the marketing of them in various fields such as alcohols, cooking oils and seasonings.

 

* A high-barrier PET bottle is produced using the diamond-like carbon (DLC) technology patented by Kirin Brewery Company, Limited and other companies, which makes the bottle about 10 times better at preventing oxygen permeation, about 7 times better at preventing carbon gas permeation, and about 5 times better at preventing water vapor permeation as compared to the conventional PET bottles. This is a technology to vapor-deposit a thin carbon film on the inner wall of the PET bottle by placing the bottle in a vacuum, filling it with acetylene gas, and generating plasma, which dramatically increases the ability of the wall to prevent permeation of gases such as oxygen.
 
[Outline of the new product]

Product name : Rakuen Plum Wine with Brandy PET

Content : 325 ml

Characteristics : Delicious home-grown plum wine with a brandy aroma

Release : March 3, 2014

SRP : 280yen (including tax)

 

[Outline of companies]

Kiyosuzakura Brewery Corporation

Head Office  : Kiyosu 1692, Kiyosu city, Aichi Prefecture

Representative : Ichiro Shibayama, President

Incorporation : October, 1949

Line of Business : Manufacture and sale of refined sake, shochu, wine, liqueur, spirits

Major products : Kiyosujyo -nobunaga- onikoroshi, Shochu eenamo, Rakuen Wine, Rakuen Plum Wine

 

Mitsubishi Plastics, Inc.

Head Office  : Palace Building, 1-1-1, Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo

Representative : Takumi Ubagai, President

Incorporation : April, 2008

Paid-in capital : About JPY21,500,000,000

Line of Business : Manufacture and sale of plastics products

 

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