PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2010

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 12 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 11/10 www.petpla.net Product and production 1,100 people in total. 950 employees in the factory operating three shifts. Site of 52 hectares of which 91,000 m2 is covered by buildings PET resin converted: about 100,000t/a 75% virgin and 25% recycled PET granulate are cur- rently being used. 50/50 being targeted in two further steps. Recycled material is obtained from France Plas- tiques Recyclage, in which Danone has a stake, in order to secure constant quality and continuous quantity. Preforms are made 100% in-house on 11 Husky systems with cavi- ties of 32 (one unit), 48 (6 units) and 96 (4 units). A total of 14 filling lines 12 lines for blowing/filling PET bottles with all downstream  equipment and representing 94% of the filled volume 1 line for filling glass bottles with downstream equipment  and representing 5% of the filled volume 1 line for filling sprays and representing 1% of the filled  volume. Blowers All blowers are from Sidel. Of the 12 PET lines 3 are Combibloc blowing/filling systems from Sidel. 2 of the Combiblocs are running in parallel with same downstream equipment. Average capacity per PET line is 36,000bph. Large AGVs (Automated Guided Vehicles) move pallets between lines and to and from the storage area. Evian, with 11km of railway track on its land, is commit- ted to ship 70% of production by rail, in line with the Evian “Eco system”. By rail the waters travel to several distribu- tion centres for domestic sale and also for export. Bottle formats: 0.33l, 0.5l, 0,75l, 1l, 1.5l and 2l. Production figures: 100t of PET converted per day (maximum)  20,000 preforms per hour per moulding machine (maxi-  mum) 4.5 million preforms produced per day (maximum)  24,000bph per machine (average) for bottles weighing  between 11g and 40g. 6 million bottles filled each day (maximum)  1.45 billion bottles filled in 2009  1.3 billion litres filled in 2009  energy savings, rail transport; what is called an Eco package. Recycling, actively pursued in general, targeting 50%  and eventually 100% of recycled material to be used for new bottles (bottle-to-bottle); waste management. Carbon footprint (CO  2 ) reduction to near zero in the pro- duction of Evian; compensation measures for remain- ing CO 2 (e.g. re-plantating of mangroves in Senegal); carbon neutral by 2011. The above “great plan” is beneficial to the productivity of Evian’s plant. It is also intended to improve the accept- ability of the company and the product by the public. The Evian statement about PET is very much in con- trast to the governmental approach: “We at Evian chose PET because of our environmental commitment. It is the safe material to protect the purity and quality of our waters.” History The first water was found and bottled in 1789. The waters in the following years were used as part of a cure for sick patients. Behind Danone stand two extraordinary personalities: Daniel Carasso, who sold the first yoghurt under the  Danone brand in 1919. In 1966 Danone produced 580 million servings of yoghurt per year. Antoine Riboud, who in 1966 was Chairman and Chief  Executive of the newly created BSN, the second largest manufacturer of glass of France, before divestment. In the 1970s BSN took up a position in the food industry by acquisition and mergers. Both were bold, visionary entrepreneurs who met in 1972 and decided to unite their businesses, making Danone a global brand. A new plant for Evian waters was built in Amphion-les- Bains, 7 km from Evian-les-Bains. Bottling was done in glass and clay jars. PET arrived at Evian in 1981 and was mainly used for exports to the US market in 1 litre formats. In the mid 1990s there was a changeover from PVC to PET. The BSN Group changed its name to Danone to reflect the international nature of the business. The Group today: €14.982 billion sales in 2009. Danone proudly claim: World number 1 in fresh dairy products.  World number 2 in bottled waters  World number 2 in baby nutrition  European number 1 in medical nutrition  SAEME (Societé Anonyme des Eaux Minérales d’ Evian) is part of the Bottled Waters Division of the Danone Group in France, with net sales in 2007 of € 1.9billion in total and 2,600 employees in France - sources production from several springs located in France. The leading brand in volume terms is Evian with its very famous name in bottled water. There are also Volvic, Badoit, Salvetat.