Eastman Tritan™ pours into Japan’s glass pitcher market

At a Glance

• Application: Home
• Customer: HARIO
• Geography: Japan
• Product: HARIO pitchers for water, coffee, tea, etc.
• Benefits: Versatile
• Value-added solution: By using Eastman Tritan™ copolyester in its water pitchers, HARIO can provide a multitude of designs, including pitcher shape and lid type, and the bottles are more durable.

The challenge

Japanese manufacturer HARIO discovered its primary material for more than a century, glass, wasn’t quite meeting the evolving needs for pitchers used for water, tea and coffee. HARIO's consumers wanted to store pitchers horizontally on their side without leaking to save space in small refrigerators. Using glass, it was difficult to find a leak-proof top solution. Glass screw top mouths were problematic to mold with such a fragile material, and the round design was potentially dangerous because bottles could roll when placed horizontally and break.

The Eastman solution

Using Eastman Tritan™ copolyester, HARIO — the company name translates to “king of glass” in Japanese — was able to mold high-quality pitchers into the shapes it wanted. Tritan enabled the perfect solution for a pitcher that’s durable and leak-proof. The pitchers are also BPA-free. The HARIO Tritan water pitchers come in rectangular shapes and feature screw top mouths. The product won't break like glass pitchers, which can easily shatter and create safety hazards.

The result

The HARIO pitchers made with Tritan launched in 2018. The pitchers have sold very well, and HARIO is confident of continued sales. "HARIO was so happy to find a material that enabled them to create such an easy to use and versatile product,” said Jianfei Ma, business development manager at Eastman. “Allowing for more space in the fridge, without compromising the beauty of the pitcher when out on the table made this an easy win for customers."  The 1.2-liter Ka-Ku bottle features a rectangular design for horizontal storage and is perfect for cold brew tea. It comes in three colors: smokey green, smokey pink and white. The JUSIO pitcher holds 1.1 liters, is great for water storage and comes in two colors: smokey green and white. Both Tritan products are safe for high heat from sources like hot water and the dishwasher.

The JUSIO pitcher holds easily holds 1.1 liters

About HARIO

HARIO is known as the “King of Glass”, established from 1921 in Kanda Tokyo. Holding the only glass factory with mass production capability in JP, dedicating to a green environmental factory by using electricity to melt glass materials to produce heatproof glass instead of oil.

Started producing laboratory wares by craftsman during the early years. Nowadays expanded product portfolio to various range of home products like coffee, tea wares, kitchen wares. Especially coffee wares are widely preferred by baristas in over 75 countries. Also have 22 subsidiaries, group companies, logistics worldwide.