Creon and Alfatechform
After a rapid breakfast, I find myself once more in the Creon conference room. The Creon team of Anna and Sandjar is joined today by Mr Nika Asatiani, the Deputy General Director. As we discussed yesterday basically all the important issues, this morning is devoted to an exchange of ideas and information about the Russian PET in general and some of the more interesting companies in the sector in particular.
Anna put in a few hours overtime yesterday evening, and assembled some printed material for me, for which I am duly grateful. Not only that, but the three of them offered me more data and gave me contact names of customers, valuable support indeed for the tour. Once again, many thanks for all the help and assistance you gave us
From Creon our next destination is Alfatechform in Klimovsk, a manufacturer of preforms and closures, as well as detergents and personal care products. The company is based on a former military base, where, during the Soviet era, ammunition was made for Kalashnikovs, but today is the home of plastics processing. For the first time we actually manage to arrive ahead of schedule Oleg Sidorenko, Head of the Technical Department, collects us at the site’s main gate, as the Editourmobil is not allowed to go any further. In the subsequent discussion with Deputy Director Alexander Korotov and Oleg, who kindly translates Alexander’s Russian into English, we learn more about how the two divisions of the company have developed over the years. After visiting the production facilities, we are joined by Svetlana Ansimova, sales manager at Netstal, for a brief discussion. The visit ends with the inevitable photo session in front of the Editourmobil.
We head out towards Plarus and Europlast for our next appointment. The company is located on the other side of Moscow, and, once again, we get caught up for ages in traffic jams on the Moscow Ring Road. We make a brief halt at a hypermarket to stock up on some provisions for the next few days. In the dairy section, we see for ourselves what has already become a hot topic for discussion: innumerable examples of milk products in PET packaging, an increasing trend. After a meal in the restaurant, the torture continues in the still congested Moscow streets, and it is early evening by the time we finally reach Europlast. The one consolation is that my contact Victoria Kashevarova has very kindly organised a secure parking place, in a car park belonging to the company. A storm seems to be brewing, which might just cool things off after the unbearable heat of the day, hopefully…..
