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![[Image: Greg Lynch]](../graphics/pepsi4.gif)
"The soft drink business is a very competitive business. That's why we have to think creatively and constantly be in a state of growth. We started out as a small bottler of soft drinks...now we are an integrated company. We not only now make our bottles, but recently we began manufacturing the plastic tubes, called "preforms", that the bottles are made from. Cape Breton has been a good place for us to do business."
Greg Lynch knows the soft drink business like the back of his hand. That's not suprising considering he's been involved in it since he was thirteen. In 1949 his uncle bought the pepsi franchise for Cape Breton, then Greg's father bought out the business in 1975. Greg himself worked his way up through the ranks and today he's the president of the company, now called Cape Breton Beverages.
As the soft drink business became more and more competitive, the company had to find ways of lowering the cost of manufacturing. New, high-speed equipment helped, but it wasn't enough. The folks at Cape Breton Beverages had an idea.
At the time, the company was using 13 million soft drink bottles a year, shipped in from Moncton, 450 kilometers away. The Lynches decided it was time to start making their own. They formed a partnership with Sobeys Inc., who were also expanding their interests in the soft drink business, and a new comnpany, Cape Breton Plastics, was created. With state-of-the-art, high-tech equipment, Cape Breton Plastics transformed small plastic tubes called 'preforms' into soft drink bottles...sixty bottles every minute.
That was a major step in the right direction for Greg and the family business. But their creative thinking didn't stop there. Cape Breton Plastics was importing upwards of 20 million 'preforms' a year from the United States. Why not start manufacturing their own? Another company was formed, this one called Trans Atlantic Preforms...another load of high-tech equipment was ordered...and they now found themselves in the 'preform' business. It has proven to be the best idea yet. Trans Atlantic Preforms produces almost 200 million preforms a year, many of which make their way to the United States, South America and the Caribean. It's the only company in Canada that makes and sells 'preforms' exclusively. That's quite an accomplishment.
Although Greg's life is demanding, he manages to find that all-important balance between work and leisure, enjoying the lighter side of life in Cape Breton at his cottage in East Bay with his wife Maureen and children Shannon and Bobby.