Beverages Wholesale & Export

Ask a drinks buyer what they need and the answer that actually shapes the order is rarely the flavour. It is the format. A 330 ml can, a half-litre PET bottle, a family PET and a returnable glass bottle of the same product are four different cargoes, with four pallet patterns, four levels of crush resistance and four answers to the question of what will fit on a deck.

Why format sets the terms of a drinks load

Cans stack tightly and travel well, but they dent under a badly built layer and a dented can is unsellable. PET is forgiving in handling and unforgiving in heat, where a soft bottle deforms and takes the shape of the case with it. Glass adds weight and a breakage risk that has to be designed into the stow rather than absorbed on arrival. Liquid is also heavy enough that a straight beverage container tends to reach its payload ceiling with usable height still above the top layer, which is why drinks are often built into a load alongside something lighter. Our guide to pallets and containers covers how those decks are put together.

The second format question is the printing on the pack. Stock produced for one European market can carry that market's deposit-return mark, recycling symbols and ingredient text, and those marks are national rather than universal. In many destinations this is irrelevant. In others, a foreign deposit mark on an imported pack invites questions from customs or from the retailer. Name the landing market and we will tell you what the available production actually carries; all of it is EU-produced stock in the manufacturer's own packaging.

What to put in a beverage enquiry

Formats and pack sizes, destination port, the split between the sub-categories you genuinely list, and whether you want a single-brand pallet run or a mixed load. If your market treats energy drinks differently from carbonates for excise or import purposes, and several do, say so at the outset: it can change which lines are worth loading at all. Send the enquiry with that detail and a listed range comes back quoted within one business day.