Its LiquiForm technology uses the contents of the bottle – be it soft drink, juice, shampoo or sauce – to "blow" the bottle shape, simplifying the manufacturing and filling process.

In traditional blow-moulding and filling operations, plastic preforms are blown into shape with compressed air and then filled and capped, often on separate lines at different sites.

By combining the bottle forming and filling processes in one step, on a single line at a single site, the technology promises to reduce energy, handling and transport costs for companies such as The Coca-Cola Company, PepsiCo, Schweppes, Unilever and Heinz.

The technology will also create a new revenue stream for Amcor and its joint venture partner, leading packaging equipment-maker Sidel, through selling licences to equipment manufacturers and end users.

Amcor believes the addressable market may be about 800 machines a year.

Licence costs are expected to range from about $100,000 for a small machine to $1 million for a large machine, or an average $500,000 per machine, according to analysts.

Bottlers and consumer products companies are unlikely to retrofit or replace existing bottling lines, but are likely to convert to LiquiForm technology when adding bottling capacity and moving into new markets.

“When people buy new lines, that’s when they’ll look at this technology,” one analyst said. “You won’t change all your bottling lines.”

Amcor managing director Ken MacKenzie said the technology, developed by the company over the past eight years, represented a breakthrough in liquids packaging.

Amcor developed the LiquiForm concept in 2006 and set up a 50/50 venture with Sidel, which already supplies bottling machines to Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.

The joint venture partners have signed agreements with Yoshino Kogyosho, Japan’s largest plastic bottle manufacturer, and Nestle Waters and are believed to be in talks with other major consumer brands.

The first full-scale operation is expected to be commercialised in two to three years.

The new technology comes several years too late for local bottler Coca-Cola Amatil, which has invested about $450 million in “blow-fill” self-manufacture at several sites in Australia and New Zealand. The lightweight bottles are blow-moulded at the front of the filling line.

Analysts said Coca-Cola Amatil – which is currently reviewing its manufacturing footprint in a bid to cut costs by at least $100 million a year – may consider installing LiquiForm lines when older lines are replaced and as it continues to expand in Indonesia.

Amcor is currently looking for new staff in Australia and the US to market and license LiquiForm technology.