Southeastern Container

What Southeastern Container does

Southeastern Container, Inc. (SEC) is a privately held cooperative corporation headquartered in Enka, North Carolina, founded in 1982 by a group of independent Coca-Cola bottlers seeking lower-cost PET packaging. The company manufactures PET bottles, PET preforms, HDPE closures, and HDPE pallets, operating five production facilities across North Carolina (Enka and Kings Mountain), Tennessee (Cleveland), Virginia (Winchester), and Ohio (Bowling Green), with 450+ employees and 17+ years of average leadership tenure. Its technology stack is built on 60 Husky injection molding machines (24 to 144 cavities, producing preforms from 11.8g to 80.0g across roughly 41 SKUs) and 20 high-speed reheat stretch blow molding machines (333 to 1,200 bottles per minute, sizes from 253ml to 2L), with the J. Steven Ennis Laboratory certified under Coca-Cola's Laboratory Acceptance Program supporting design qualification and shelf-life testing.

SEC is one of the largest PET converters in the world, producing 8.3 billion preforms, 2.9 billion bottles, and 633,000 pallets in 2025 while consuming over 473 million pounds of PET resin, and is ranked a Top 10 North American blow molder by Plastics News. Its business model is a member-owned cooperative: independent Coca-Cola bottlers who own SEC purchase packaging at cost, with surplus capacity and new products (HDPE closures launched in 2025) increasingly sold to non-member customers through a direct enterprise sales channel. The company supplies over 50 Coca-Cola operations across 34 US states and 6 Canadian provinces, with no retail or intermediary distribution layers.

Name

Southeastern Container

Legal name

Southeastern Container, Inc.

Website

https://secontainer.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1982

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

Southeastern Container is a bottler-owned cooperative that manufactures PET bottles, preforms, HDPE closures, and pallets primarily for independent Coca-Cola bottlers across the US and Canada, operating five plants and producing over 11 billion packaging units annually.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Plastic Packaging Manufacturing

NAICS

Plastics Bottle Manufacturing (326160), Plastics Bottle Manufacturing (32616)

SIC

Miscellaneous Plastics Products (3080)

akta.pro primary industry

Stretch Blow-Molded PET Preforms & Bottles (ISBM) (IMANAGAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

PET Bottles & Preforms (IMALAAAA), Beverage Rigid Plastic Packaging (Water, CSD, Juice Bottles) (IMALAAAI)

Keywords

• PET bottle manufacturing
• PET preforms production
• HDPE closures manufacturing
• Beverage packaging supplies
• Plastic packaging manufacturer

Headquarters

HQ city

Enka

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. PET Bottle and Preform Manufacturing: Southeastern Container manufactures and sells PET bottles and preforms to Coca-Cola bottling companies. Founded as a cooperative in 1982, the company allows member bottlers to purchase products at cost. The company is one of the largest PET converters in the world.
2. HDPE Closures and Pallets: Manufacturing of high density polyethylene (HDPE) closures and HDPE pallets for the Coca-Cola bottling system. Closures production began in 2025.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Southeastern Container manufactures high-quality polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, PET preforms, high density polyethylene (HDPE) closures, and HDPE pallets for Coca-Cola bottlers. Founded in 1982 as a cooperative by independent Coca-Cola bottlers, the company operates five manufacturing facilities producing billions of preforms and bottles annually for over 50 Coca-Cola operations across the US and Canada.

Product overview

Southeastern Container is a PET bottle manufacturer providing a vertically integrated portfolio of packaging products for Coca-Cola bottling companies. The core product suite consists of PET preforms (injection-molded using 60 Husky machines with cavity systems from 24 to 144), PET bottles (blow-molded via reheat stretch blow process in sizes from 253ml to 2L using 20 high-speed machines), HDPE closures (compression-molded, launched 2025), and HDPE pallets (injection-molded). The company also operates the J. Steven Ennis Laboratory for testing and qualification of designs and resin changes, certified under Coca-Cola's Laboratory Acceptance Program. All packaging is 100% recyclable, aligning with Coca-Cola's World Without Waste sustainability goals.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• PET Preforms Injection-molded preforms weighing from 11.8g to 80.0g, manufactured using 60 Husky injection molding machines with 24 to 144 injection cavity systems. Over ten different types of PET resins and colorants are used to produce about 41 SKUs for the Coca-Cola bottling system.
• PET Bottles Blow-molded bottles ranging from single-serve 253ml to family 2L size, produced using state-of-the-art reheat, stretch, and blow method via 20 high-speed reheat and blow machines operating at 333 to 1,200 bottles per minute.
• HDPE Closures Compression-molded high density polyethylene closures produced for PET bottles and preforms serving Coca-Cola bottling operations.
• HDPE Pallets Injection-molded HDPE pallets providing a base for storage, handling, assembly, and transport of bottles and preforms, manufactured using two low-pressure injection molding machines for the Coca-Cola bottling system.
• J. Steven Ennis Laboratory Testing Services State-of-the-art laboratory that tests, analyzes, and qualifies new preform and bottle designs and resin changes. Recognized and certified by the Coca-Cola Company's Laboratory Acceptance Program, with robust shelf-life testing resources.

Quantifiable outcome

• 8.3 billion preforms produced in 2025
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• The Coca-Cola CompanycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2019Southeastern Container serves as a major PET converter for Coca-Cola's bottling system. The company's J. Steven Ennis Laboratory holds certification from Coca-Cola Company's Laboratory Acceptance Program. The company participates in Coca-Cola's sustainable packaging initiatives and World Without Waste program.
• Coca-Cola Bottlers (Cooperative Members)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 1982Southeastern Container was formed in 1982 by a group of independent Coca-Cola bottlers who wanted to purchase PET packaging at lower cost. The company operates as a cooperative, allowing member bottlers to purchase products at cost. This is the company's founding partnership and core business relationship.

Scale indicators14 records

Recent moves11 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Western Container: Western Container is a direct peer — a PET converter serving the Coca-Cola bottling system in the Western US. It mirrors SEC's cooperative-style model and product portfolio (preforms, bottles, closures), making it the closest head-to-head comparison for SEC's bottler-customer relationships and operational benchmarks.
• Plastipak Packaging: Plastipak is one of the largest independent PET preform and bottle manufacturers globally, serving beverage, food, and consumer-goods customers with similar injection and blow-molded PET products. It is a direct peer given overlapping products, scale tier, and customer overlap with CPG bottlers.
• ALPLA Group: ALPLA is a global plastic packaging manufacturer producing PET preforms, bottles, and closures for beverage and FMCG customers across multiple geographies. It is a direct peer based on shared PET conversion technology, beverage-industry focus, and comparable scale.
• CKS Packaging: CKS Packaging is a US PET bottle and container manufacturer serving food, beverage, and household product customers. It is a direct peer given its PET preform and bottle portfolio, US manufacturing footprint, and comparable customer base in CSDs, water, juice, and dairy.

Broad incumbents

• Amcor Rigid Packaging: Amcor is a global packaging conglomerate with significant PET bottle and preform operations serving beverage and food customers. It is a broad incumbent peer given overlapping PET capabilities but vastly larger and more diversified product portfolio and geographic reach.
• Graham Packaging: Graham Packaging is a large PET and plastic container manufacturer serving food, beverage, and household product customers globally. It is a broad incumbent peer given similar PET blow-molding technology and beverage industry overlap, but with a much broader customer base than SEC.
• Silgan Holdings: Silgan is a major rigid packaging producer with PET bottle and preform operations serving beverage and food customers. It is a broad incumbent peer given overlapping PET conversion capabilities but a far more diversified portfolio spanning metal containers, closures, and dispensing systems.

Regional players

• Resilux: Resilux is a European PET preform and bottle manufacturer serving beverage customers. It is a regional peer given its similar PET product portfolio and beverage-industry focus, but its primary footprint is in Europe rather than North America.

Others

• Indorama Ventures: Indorama Ventures is one of the world's largest PET resin producers and also operates PET preform manufacturing. It is an adjacent peer — overlapping in PET value-chain technology and serving some of the same beverage customers, but competing more on resin supply than on conversion.
• Husky Injection Molding Systems: Husky is the dominant supplier of injection molding equipment used by SEC's 60-machine fleet. It is an ecosystem/equipment peer rather than a competitor, but is highly relevant given the strategic dependency and capital intensity of Husky systems in PET preform production.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/Southeastern-Container-194319557308899

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles16 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Southeastern Container