PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2010

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 16 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 05/10 www.petpla.net NBL fills 9 different Coca-Cola products in 3 different sizes of PET bottle. And that was our second surprise - Coca-Cola in 0.5l bottles! While the rest of the Coca-Cola world is discussing whether that type of small container (known in the industry as a “can killer”) could possibly meet the minimum shelf life requirements, Fernandes has launched the 0.5l PET bottle with just 6 weeks shelf life - and he is very pleased with it. The monolayer PET pack- age comes in at a solid 28.7g with a properly stretched side wall providing an acceptable level of barrier for such a size container – quality control and consistent processes being the basis. “The PET part of our business is making giant strides and our 0.5l size has been accepted with open arms by the consumers. The 0.5l PET bottle costs significantly more than refillable glass in production so that out in the market, instead of charging 28 Kenyan Shillings (about 45 US cents) for glass, we are charging 40 Shillings. Despite the higher price, consumers like the single trip PET with a recloseable cap for when they are on the move. It was not easy to find room in the packed schedule of Sergio Fernandes, Country Supply Chain Manager, for a brief discus- sion. However, we did finally manage it - although even during the photo session he received a few telephone calls. Kenya is a dream market for Coca-Cola: Pepsi doesn’t fill here, and apart from a few imported bottles has no significance in the market. Also, there are only a few local CSD bottlers. Coca-Cola has a firm grip on 50% of the Coca-Cola filling in Kenya, with the rest being shared by six small bottlers. So why take this difficult step? “We want to grow locally. We launch new flavours, as for example we did last year with Schweppes Novida, a fruity, malt-based non-alcoholic drink, or this week with Fanta Pineapple, but this doesn’t give us the growth stimulus that we are looking for. The glass bottle may be cheaper but is not suitable for people on the move, and we face a lot of competition here from juices and water - all in PET. So what was the obvious answer? Coke in PET bottles for people on the move. After our success, Coca-Cola Sabco in Uganda and Mozam- bique will follow suit and offer Coke in PET over there this year. A major challenge was of course the 6-week shelf- life for the 500ml pack, whilst larger pack sizes are not so critical and have a much longer shelf-life. A key factor is the internal company organisation. Only small batches are produced, which are carefully released from stock on a “first in, first out” basis. This means that the bottle will be in the hands of the consumer within a few days, if not hours. For Caroline Cherono Keror, Production Unit Leader, small batches mean running a different product on each shift, and here she has high praise for the new PET line from Krones, which can actually handle this high degree of flex- ibility. A product changeover, with the same bottle size, takes about one hour. As everywhere within Coca-Cola every product has its own bottle shape so that the one-hour changeover time is mainly spent changing over the moulds in the stretch blow moulder. After a few shifts, when all of the products with the same fill volume have been run down the line there is a volume changeover. Here, in addition to changing the blow-mould, there are format changes to be made down the whole line. In total Caroline’s team needs 2 hours for this. To avoid having to change over the capping section for water bottles as well it was decided to leave still water also with a PCO 28 neck. Caroline Cherono Keror, Production Unit Leader, explained the plant layout and operation to us in great detail The fact that the whole line has been problem-free since the beginning is, according to production manager Mwenda Ruona Kageenu, thanks to the fact that 10 of their employees spent up to a month at Krones in Germany for intensive training. “Although all of my employees have had years of experience on the glass lines it was important for us that we had total mastery of the PET line right from the beginning,” was his comment on the subject of training overseas. The line has been designed as a fully automatic line for up to 22,000bph, starting with the preform unloader and going right through to the palletiser, which automatically stacks the 6-pack, 12-pack or 24-pack trays in units suita- ble for handling by fork-lift. In the warehouse full pallets are stacked three high. The preform manufacturer, Safepak, also from Nairobi, supplies monolayer preforms for water (15g/300ml, 18g/500ml, 28g/1l and 35g/1.5l). The range for CSD filling covers 28gr/500ml, 32gr/1l and 52g/2l. Between the unloader and palletiser sits a Contiform S12 blocked with a 60 head volumetric filler. After the 4,000 bottle buffer there is a Contiroll labeller which handles 18 different labels, one for each product filled. A particular chal- lenge for Krones was presented by the narrow passageways in the production hall. In addition to limited floor space and a large number of support columns in the hall, they also had to cope with a number of integrated offices to half the height of the building. Some of the offices just had to go, but the preform conveyor from the unloader to the blow-moulder is still somewhat longer than it would otherwise be, the cooling system sits right next to the blow-moulder, the dry end has a few more curves than normal but nevertheless the palletiser is right there where the glass filling line also ends - ideal for the warehousing logistics.