Business
Coca-Cola Bottlers Dedicate Production Capability to Support COVID-19 Test Kits
CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. (NASDAQ:COKE) today announced that Southeastern Container, a PET preform and
About this update from Coca-cola Consolidated, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc. (NASDAQ:COKE) today announced that Southeastern Container, a PET preform and bottle manufacturing co-operative funded and managed by a group of Coca-Cola bottlers, has begun producing test tubes for use in COVID-19 kits. Utilizing several injection molding preform tools, the manufacturing co-operative has already produced over 7 million tubes for testing kits.\n The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services collaborated with Oak Ridge National Lab to identify manufacturers who could address a supply chain gap of COVID-19 test collection tubes to support the increasing testing needs of States. Lonnie Love, lead scientist for Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s COVID-19 advanced manufacturing initiatives said, “When the US Dept. of Health and Human Services reached out to ORNL for assistance in finding a COVID-19 test tube solution, we considered several options to help industry scale up production. Through a personal connection and discussions with Coca-Cola Consolidated, we determined the preform that goes into a blow molding machine to make Coca-Cola bottles looked exactly like the test tube needed for the COVID-19 testing kits.” At ORNL’s request, Coca-Cola Consolidated provided samples of their preforms and the laboratory worked with COVID-19 testing company Longhorn Vaccine-Diagnostics to confirm that the tubes met test kit criteria. “There is a global shortage of cryotubes available to meet the need for our PrimeStore Molecular Transport Medium, said Dr. Luke T. Daum, Chief Scientific Officer at Longhorn Vaccines. “Coke bottlers have done what no other vialing company could do—In a few short days, they have fabricated a small, ruggedized vial from a plastic preform that does not leak, is large enough to hold any swab type, and importantly, they can make millions of tubes per week,” said Daum. “Within 24 hours Longhorn called us and said, “Coke is it!’” Love said. “It’s this type of collaboration that shows the true impact of industry and national laboratories working together. ORNL and Coca-Cola bottlers solved a huge problem. Coca-Cola bottlers had an answer to a problem they did not know existed, and by connection with ORNL, they will now be supplying millions of preforms for COVID-19 testing kits throughout the US.” “In every community across ...