PURPOSE: To prevent breakage of bottles and achieve transfer thereof in alignment by gripping individual bottles by holding heads and expanding equally the arrangement spacing of the holding heads for transferring operation.

CONSTITUTION: Trays or upper and lower frames 2, 3 are moved relatively adjacent to predetermined positions, and the upper frame 3 is lowered. This causes pins 20, 20 of the supporting portion 6A of each holding head 6 to move apart from each other, so that gripping members 22, 22 are opened and the neck portion 23a of a bottle 23 is placed between holding edges 21, 21. Thereafter, when the upper frame 3 is moved upwardly, the space between the gripping members 22 is reduced to hold the bottle 23 by the holding edges 21, 21. Then, a linkage not shown above the upper frame 3 is actuated to enlarge the spacing of rods 11, 12 carrying the holding heads 6 and thereby to enlarge the spacing of the holding heads 6. This construction is effective to prevent interference between adjacent bottles and breakage of bottles.