The first bottles produced in the Dominican Republic for beers are ready and with this the “glass crisis” that led to a decrease in the supply of the beverage at the national level is being left behind, a direct consequence of logistics factors at the global level.
For its manufacture, state-of-the-art techniques have been used, which include, for example, a percentage of recycled material, and natural gas has been used as energy for the processes, instead of fossil fuels.
These are the first bottles produced in the Dominican Republic, since 2008, when the factory for this type of product had been closed, explained Luis Álvarez, executive vice president of Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, during a visit to the director of the newspaper elCaribe, Nelson Rodriguez. He was accompanied by Bethania Ortega, Public Relations manager of the brewing company.
The plant is not inaugurated yet. This part is expected to take place in a large event soon. However, bottles made on Dominican soil, by Dominican hands, are already being used.
At the moment, we do not have the productive capacity that we would like, because it is barely in the order of 40%. There are two lines at the moment, one of which is fully operational and the other is in the process of being adjusted or homologated; This process could take two to three months.
What is done in cases like the bottle factory where there are two lines is that first one is started, to stabilize the oven, and then the other is started. With two lines, of course, much more glass is removed from the furnace; you have to gradually increase its “cooking” capacity, its temperature and its glass extraction capacity, Álvarez indicated in the conversation.
And he added: “We are on the right path to solve the problem of missing bottles in the country. We want to have beer available the way Dominicans want it. We know that this was not the case last year, the reasons are known; we had bottle shortages worldwide. We brought bottles from everywhere”, recalled the company executive.
Among the places from which it was necessary to import the container was Europe, from nations such as Spain, Portugal, Greece, the Canary Islands, and Central America, Costa Rica, South America… from Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, until with this factory boot starts to slow import.
In about 30 days, all available capacity will be available, Cervecería has calculated. This is encouraging and positive news, if you take into account that in this time of pandemic and glass crisis, the brand was working very “just to measure” (meaning that the product that was made was a product that came out, without remain in reserve), but you already have several days’ worth of inventory.
“I feel quite confident in saying that we are already solving the issue of availability in the market,” said the executive vice president.
When the bottles were scarce, Cervecería Nacional had to resort a little more to the use of cans and placed different sizes, as a way for the consumer to have options. That people found beers to drink.
Once the situation is normalized, in the case of glass, the company will maintain the same typical presentations of its bottles, which are jumbo, regular size and small (that is, liter, 12-ounce and 22-ounce containers). ounces). Sometimes the firm has an 8-ounce presentation.
Developing a bottle mold, like the one used by Cervecería, takes a lot of time, it is not about wanting to make one and that’s it, according to the explanations offered by Álvarez. In fact, the bottle mold is not made locally and, in the case of the container shown in yesterday’s dialogue, it takes three to four months to develop. After that mold is developed, then comes an approval process, which takes approximately three months.
In another part of the conversation, the executive explained that, in the referred case, there is an approval process for the bottle and an approval process for the plant in the process. This is why a general homologation process takes so long.
A situation that began in 2020 and that is overcome
The problem that is being faced with the windows comes from October 2020, the same year that the Brewery had signed an agreement with the Caribbean Glass Industry to reactivate the country’s glass industry, which was out of function. The fact that it takes time to standardize the bottles explains to a large extent why, despite the fact that the plant began producing glass in December of last year, until several weeks ago it had not yet been fully completed and the bottles were not available. that the market demands since the pandemic complicated global supply.
A little over a month ago, one of the two lines of the local bottle factory is fully certified as meeting quality requirements, and that is why Cervecería is making the announcement about the production of bottles made in the Dominican Republic.
In parallel, the homologation of the second line is being carried out, which should be ready in the next 30 days, according to the calculations made.
