PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2010

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 15 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 10/10 www.petpla.net in Luxembourg we met: Eddy Fery, Business Manager PET Europe Eddy Fery, being in charge of Husky`s PET activities in France, described his and the company’s attitude: “We are leading in the market. But nevertheless we never lose focus on supporting all of our PET customers in France, regardless of size of operation,” says Fery. Husky has the largest customer base of injection moulding systems in France, checking with customers at regular inter- vals, making sure that the customer is satisfied and happy with the equipment and support they are receiving. All of the Luxembourg facilities are at the disposal of the French market, with mould and hot runner production and refurbishing, with project engineering, application know-how, installation, systems integration, spare parts delivery, cus- tomer training and service teams. All PET moulds and hot runners for France are designed and manufactured out of the Luxembourg facility. Husky injec- tion moulding machines are coming from Canada or China. Eddy Fery comments: “The industry in France has yet to experience the economic upswing, no new large volume beverage products and no new commodities (yet) in sight. Husky’s present focus is on reducing customers’ opera- tional costs. Most systems require a number of different moulds for multiple bottle formats. Light weighting creates added business for our customers. This appears to be on-going and typical for other developed markets too. The 1.5l bottle weight has been reduced by more than 40%. Initiatives continue.” Product and population More than 130 Husky injection moulding systems are operating in the market and need to be taken care of. Market share in France is 92%. With minor exceptions (PDG, Schweppes) all PET conversion from resin into preforms using 2-stage technology is carried out on Huskys. About 50% of the systems are with converters and 50% with fillers. These days the annual requirement in France is as low as 2 to 4 systems. Inside France the business is, according to Husky, driven by requirements for better productivity, light weighting and reduction of energy consumption. But as sales of new systems have slowed down, moulds and hot runners, light weighting conversions and a trend to multiple bottle designs, have created new and sustainable business. Local organisation Customers in France have access to service techni- cians, service coordinators, hot runner technicians and PET processing specialists.The French organisation com- prises 5 service technicians, 1 service coordinator, 1 hot runner technician and 1 PET process specialist. Eddy Fery- age 44 – leads the team, and is Mr. Husky in France, 21 years with Husky in various sales and engi- neering functions: Area Sales Manager, Turnkey Manager, PET Key Account Manager (in this function he already worked closely with Nestlé, Danone and Roxane) then General Manager Services and Sales Africa, and Business