If you were buying a car, you might think that a 20-point check by the dealership was a reasonable step. If you’re buying a pomegranate, it seems a little excessive. But that’s what POM Wonderful does: it grows its own fruit, and every pomegranate that goes into its juice is individually inspected for quality – and you really can taste the difference. With attention to detail like that, it’s no surprise that POM is particular about its packaging.

POM Wonderful has spent a couple of years working its way into our field of vision. Pomegranate juice isn’t likely to erode the market share of orange or grapefruit, but slowly and steadily the cute, curvaceous single serve container moved out of health-food store exclusivity and into the mainstream. With an aggressive strategy for marketing the antioxidant benefits of the humble pomegranate, it achieved ubiquity in trendy sidewalk cafes – and then things really started to happen.

How many health-food drinks take out ads in Rolling Stone? POM did, its tongue-in-cheek ‘Cheat Death’ campaign launching it to superstardom. Celebrities were seen sipping POM Wonderful – neat or in guise of a POMtini. Pretty soon POM was everywhere, and needed a bigger bottle.

And that’s when it turned to Eastman and specifically, the formidable formability of Eastar™ copolyester.

The POM Wonderful image is tied into the ‘double-pomegranate’ single-serving container and the company wanted to retain this for its larger bottle while adding a handle. The new 48-ounce container added an extra pomegranate but essentially stayed the same, keeping the now-famous bulbous pomegranate curves and the embossed stem. Molding something this intricate, adding an integral handle and retaining the clarity of the smaller bottle was a tall task, beyond the capabilities of most materials. And the task was made even more challenging by POM’s desire to mold its own bottles.

But to a company that’s prepared to make each piece of fruit go through a personal interview, challenging is just part of the scenery. POM has the sort of entrepreneurial spirit that doesn’t let trifling problems like sheer impossibility get in the way of the vision.

POM went to Bekum America to purchase the extrusion blow molding machinery it would need to realize its design, and it came to Eastman to provide the technical know-how to create something that shouldn’t be possible. POM liked the clarity that PET provides, but conventional equipment can’t produce a clear container with an intricate design and an integral handle. Only Eastar™ copolyester can retain its clarity, while providing a container with a handle.

"We faced the challenge of producing a clear bottle with a handle while still retaining the recognizable brand image," says Heather Lhotka, director of packaging for POM Wonderful. "We were able to bring our vision to reality."

For POM, the end result is a highly-innovative pack that tells its brand story. And no brand owner can ask for more than that.