"Microbrewery beer sells generally for $5.99 to $7.99 a six-pack," says company president Bob Cabaniss. "I can price a three-pack at $2.99 so that people will be more likely to try it even though they don't know much about it." Supplied by Union Camp (Norcross, GA), the carrier is the Nor-Grip(TM) Bottle Bridge. Union Camp, through an agreement with Norpapp Industri of Norway, has exclusive rights to market the carrier, which is popular in northern Europe. application is often done with automated equipment also made by Norpapp. First Coast applies its Bottle Bridges with a hand tool. Union Camp makes the Bottle Bridge in a single pass. Step one is to make single- faced B-flute corrugated board from a 42# liner and 26# medium. Then sheet-fed 12-pt SBS, already printed offset in four colors by Union Camp, is laminated to the single-faced board to become the top liner. Individual units are die cut and stacked as flat blanks. Cabaniss says he pays about the same for the carrier as he'd pay for a full paperboard wrap. He adds that, though it was the relatively unusual three-count format that lured him at first, he also appreciates the way his bottles' labels are in full view on store shelves.
