PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2010

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 19 PET planet insider Vol. 11 No. 11/10 www.petpla.net For further information, visit www.khs.com/service KEEPING YOUR LINE RUNNING IS WHAT WE STAND FOR. Long lasting, safe, and efficient: Original spare parts from KHS. Come and visit us at the Brau Beviale Hall 5 Booth 127 Formats: Smallest size: 15 grams for 0.33l bottles  Greatest size: 91 grams for 5.0l bottles  Preforms and caps for the well-known commodities - CSD, water, juice. Plans exist for packaging milk and wine. Barrier moulding is also under consideration, especially for wine. French customers include the Nestlé Group (Perrier, Vittel). Exports to the UK, Germany, Spain and the Car- ibean. 40 employees of which 15 are in the PET production area, and 12 for caps and closures. Equipment 8 Husky preform systems, 300t clamping force, 48//60/72 cavities. Production is fully-automated. Pallets for 300kg bins moving in and out of production room, to and from outside storage on automated conveyors. Production facilities are temperature and humidity controlled. Incoming air is fil- tered. All aimed at ensuring a top quality product. 14 Netstal and Ferromatik injection moulding machines for caps and closures each with 48/72 cavities. Jean-Luc Didouan comments, “No independent converter needs more than 72 cavities in a machine.” Company future In the 27 years of preform manufacturing, the company has grown continuously with the market, until 5 years ago, when the market started to decline. In France, with the water and CSD producers moulding 70% and more of their own requirements the available markets for converters is getting even smaller. Jean-Luc Didouan: “The biggest markets are decreasing. We are not inactive and are looking for alternatives. Light- weighting and the use of recycled material are no miracle solutions for a small company like ours. Part of the decline we can and must compensate by in-house measures such as increased productivity but we also have to look for other applications. As a private company we are flexible, can adjust and must adjust.”