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Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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Various business establishments in San Ignacio/Santa Elena have been reporting challenges obtaining soft drinks and in some cases bottled water from Bowen & Bowen Limited.

So far there have not been any official word from the company on what the issue is, but several businesses either had no soft drinks in their coolers or were on the verge of running out on Thursday morning.

We are in the process of confirming with Bowen and Bowen what is causing the shortage of products in the Cayo district.

Patrick Jones

Joined: Jul 2010
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Shortage here in San Pedro as well....Sprite Zero has been out for weeks, coke lite has been hit & miss and today no Orange Fanta for our regular order......I'm guessing we are just one very popular Country.....


My friends call me Judyann

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Problems for a few weeks and probably will remain an issue for a while


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Missing Barry

Joined: Nov 2004
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No kidding. No gallon water since before Christmas, then no one litres, no tonic..... changes every week. Missing him for sure


Change your Latitude
Joined: Jul 2013
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Can you imagine the line of business owners globally that would treasure the opportunity to have such an opportunity and take advantage of such an opportunity? An incredible waste and an insult to the consumer to have a market cornered and not perform. Shame on them.I guess we need to wait until they completely run it into the ground or someone takes away their monopoly.

Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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Bowen and Bowen Speaks On Shortage Of Product

For the past few weeks, various business establishments around the country have been reporting challenges obtaining soft drinks and in some cases bottled water from Bowen & Bowen Limited. And as the days go by, even their flagship product, Coca Cola is rumoured to be scarce. All those shortages and supply breakdowns fuelled a storm of speculation which is culminating in the recent rumour that Belize's biggest bottler was on the verge of collapse. And since there has been much allegations of the situation, we spoke with Public Relations Officer at Bowen, Christelle Wilson who says the availability of their soft drink products has declined due to the speed of their bottle washer mechanism.

Christelle Wilson - Public relations officer, Bowen and Bowen Group of Companies

Wilson - Bowen

"I know that there has been a shortage on the availability of soft drink due to the slow production speed of our washer and that is the reason that why we are replacing our washer and not due to any quality issues of our products but because we want to speed up the production so we are only aware of a shortage of some soft drink."

Maria Novelo - Reporter

"How long will it going to take you to get it to normal again?"

Wilson - Bowen

"I spoke to the manager in charge and he informed me that we should have the new washer in place in about a month to a month and a half but you might experience a little bit more shortage but it is temporary but we are working as fast as we could to get the new washer installed but the equipment has to come from abroad and it has to be installed and it has to be checked to make sure it has to meet the standards to operate and then we will be able to start producing with that washer."

Maria Novelo - Reporter

"A lot of people are asking why it is that the company has been sensitizing the public on the issue that you guys are facing in terms of that, installing that machine, how will you compensate for this, I mean the demand is still there."

Wilson - Bowen

"We know that the people are demanding the soft drinks and we are working our best on what they need and we do 24/7 to try to get the soft drinks out for our customers for them to sale to their customers and I honestly think that t is a greater demand for soft drink has gone up and that is the reason why we trying to get and even more efficient washer to meet those needs."

Another issue which has been brought to light by consumers is floating particles in some of their products including coke and lighthouse. Wilson says that the company has little to no margin of error for that to occur and so those concerns are unfounded.

Wilson - Bowen

"We have such a strict protocol in place to ensure that there is nothing than other what is supposed to be inside those bottles, we follow international guidelines, we are ISO certified for quality and safety, there is even an automated bottle inspector that checks the bottle inside out and the entire surface to ensure that no contamination is within those bottles, we take all measure and we have proper measures in place to ensure that there is no contamination, we are audited by the Coca Cola company, the parent company, so we don't have any room for error so I am not sure if these customers who have found particle have actually opened the bottle but they leave our plant they are sealed and there is nothing inside them."

Wilson says any complaints should be addressed with the company so that it can be looked into. Tomorrow we'll have a first-hand glimpse at how the flagship product, Coca Cola is made.

CTV3


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Marty Offline OP
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Bowen And Bowen Speaks On The Quality Of Their Product

Yesterday we told you about a possible shortage of products from the powerhouse Bowen and Bowen Limited due to an increase demand for their products. And while we promised you a look into the production today, our cameras were not allowed to film inside due their strict international regulations. We were given a tour of the soft drink production, from start to end. After the tour and getting an understanding of 'how it works', we asked Quality Assurance Manager, Gregorio Nah on how they plan to sustain their customer satisfaction since presently, 'demand exceeds supply'.

Gregorio Nah - Quality Assurance Manager, Bowen and Bowen

"Every year we put in place machineries that are of the latest technology to ensure the safety of the product we are putting in there, year by year we move ahead by getting the latest technology because when we look at the human factor we are moving from there from that position, because when we have the human factor a lot of things can come in line but with machinery ones we have it calibrated then we ensure that the product we are putting out meets our specs."

Maria Novelo - Reporter

"What is the margin for error?"

Gregorio Nah - Quality Assurance Manager, Bowen and Bowen

"It depends on the parameters that you are looking at, in terms of carbonation we have a plus or minus 0.25 in terms of bricks 0.15 +/- so we must fall within those parameters and any product that is our of that spec. is rejected as we showed you on the none confirming areas and those products are then destroyed."

Maria Novelo - Reporter

"What is the production like daily?"

Gregorio Nah - Quality Assurance Manager, Bowen and Bowen

"It depends on how the line is running and we are limited sometimes on the equipment as we mentioned but right now we should be installing a new washer which should boost up our production levels but on a daily basis we would want to run approximately 20,000 bottles per hour. As you went thru the line you noted that the washer should enable us to increase the production but as what the plant manager mentioned our demand has increase therefore our current equipment cannot meet the demands hence we have to invest in new equipment so as to meet the demands that is needed there but we know that the washer has come the time that it needed to be replaced so right now we just refurbishing a bit to hold on until the new washer is installed so that we can meet the production levels."

Maria Novelo - Reporter

"What would you say is the biggest challenges that you guys face year in year out?"

Gregorio Nah - Quality Assurance Manager, Bowen and Bowen

"Is trying to supply the demands because year after year we increase in production but we are not increasing the rate that the market is demanding it."

Nah says the shortage is only on their glass line products.

CTV3


Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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Glass Bottle Sodas Will Be Scarce

Bowen and Bowen will be experiencing a shortage of soft drinks in the glass bottles because they're having some production issues. The reason for it, we are told, is that they're in the process of upgrading equipment to meet the production demand.

Today, the PR representative explained to the media:

Christelle Wilson - PR Officer, Bowen & Bowen
"We are currently upgrading our bottling line. We are upgrading our returnable glass bottling line, so what we had to do is we did need to slow down production so that we could make space for this new line. It's really ground breaking - we are installing new equipment, we have new equipment coming in and in an effort to ensure that we maintain the quality standards in our products that we produce we had to slow down this line and get ready to bring in the new line."

Daniel Ortis
"So what is happening in terms of this production line? What products are currently not on the shelves at the volume you would have wanted it?"

Christelle Wilson
"I'm just going to go in a little detail here with the equipment that we are changing; we do have equipment like the bottling line, the bottling washer etc. that we are bringing a bottling line to replace. So what we have done right now to meet the growing demand of products - because we haven't really slow down production per say to say that we are not producing as many products as we use to, but the growing demand that has increase the beverage industry has now expand. Everything that comes on the glass line; everything that's produce in a glass bottle we had to slow down the production of those products. So you will be experiencing a shortage of those products maybe up until the end of June when we should have our line up and working."

Reporter
"This move of course there is a lot of competition now when it comes to beers. It must be at a risk for Bowen and Bowen to take such a route."

Christelle Wilson
"It is a risk, yes, but we have to reinvest in our country. As you said, there is more competition. We can't stand still and have a small production line when the demand is growing. So we actually met and we took this into consideration and said look, do we stay behind and have somebody else come in and produce more products and beat us in the market or do we just have a temporary period where we experience this small shortage, but we increase our line to meet the growing demand."

Wilson told us that this dialed back production continues until sometime into June, when the new equipment will have been installed. She also stressed that this has become important because they are insisting on quality control to ensure that customers aren't sold defective products. The piece of equipment being changed is the washer which ensures that the glass bottles are properly cleaned. This dialing back of production is expected to affect customers around the country.

Channel 7


Joined: Oct 1999
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Marty Offline OP
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Statement from Bowen and Bowen on improvements, supply, and quality:

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