SOFT DRINK MANUFACTURER

Production commenced in an old laundry building at 17 Railway Place where glass bottles were washed, labelled and corked by hand.

Guy lorries were purchased to deliver products to local shops replacing the traditional method of horse drawn carts.

First door to door sales was introduced by the Braid Mineral Water Company into Northern Ireland.

Expansion of delivery fleet in the late 1950’s required relocation to a larger site at 100 Railway St Ballymena and a purpose built factory constructed. Production commenced in 1961.

First Contract bottling undertaken for Coca-cola.

Change in direction from returnable glass products to contract packing of PET bottles. The ‘Braid’ name and door-to-door distribution was then sold and the factory refitted for contract packaging and PET bottles. The company was renamed; ‘Northern Beverages’, a subsidiary of the parent company Braid Holdings.

A new high speed line was installed in April. The line had the flexibility to produce various sizes and shapes of bottles with a maximum capacity of producing 25,000 bottles per hour.

Norbev continued to experience growth, with the installation of state of the art bottling lines and expansion of the range of products from carbonated, still with sports closures to pasteurised products and fruit juices for local and overseas markets.

The installation of Line 3. The 2.7 million investment introduced the latest cutting edge technology, opening up new markets and presenting new opportunities with the added feature of producing ‘shot’ bottles at commercial volumes as well as online sleeving and cardboard multipacking.

The installation of Line 4, complete with on line bottle blowing.