PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2011

PET TOP TALK 13 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 01+02/11 www.petpla.net Revolution in PET-extrusion! Conical co-rotating MAS-extruder | perfect solution for A-PET, G-PET, PET Co-polymer … | prime pellet / melt quality (IV, b*, AA- content) | very low energy consumption | direct extrusion into sheet | stable melt pressure build up | small foot print paired with robust design | sizes available from 200 kg/h up to 1500 kg/h | suitable for food application M-A-S Maschinen- und Anlagenbau Schulz Gmbh A-4055 Pucking, Hobelweg 1 T: +43 7229 78 999, F: +43 7229 78 999 10 [email protected] www.mas-austria.com an approximate period of 5 years. Must we - customers and markets - be prepared for another change in the near future or mid term? What comes next? John Galt: Ownership changes, whether they are in the public or in the private market, are inevitable for any company. What’s also inevita- ble is that a private investor, at some point in time, will enter and at some time will exit. Those transitions to me should be anticipated by any company under such an ownership structure. Whether in the form of an IPO or in form of a sale to another private finan- cial investor or potentially even a stra- tegic company, I think that depends on the market. It also depends on the alignment and passion of manage- ment to support that direction. PETplanet: Next issue: Some years ago your then President explained to us Husky’s drive for diversification. PET systems of course were high on the agenda, and then machines for packaging. The next stage: Large machines for automo- tive and small machines for general purposes. It was a large portfolio of products. The essential objective was to become cost-effective through diversification. The pendulum has now swung back from diversification to segmentation and specialisation. Could you explain the reason for the strategy change? John Galt: We’re focussing on primary markets – which at this time are the food and beverage packag- ing industry as well as selected other niches such as for other packaging and medical where we think we can exploit the power of the system. Our thoughts were simple. If we were going to do something very well, we needed to focus. We focus now on markets that were large enough, we focus on markets that have a cer- tain set of requirements, we focus on markets that we believed would be growing, we focus on markets that we believed would going to be global. We are channelling all of our energy into these businesses to achieve a leader- ship position. Where the company goes after that, is subject of future talks. PETplanet: Husky’s main focus used to be on high-tech, high perfor- mance, high quality. However, here in Düsseldorf on the Husky booth you are exhibiting a machine of lower output. This is sensational news at K 2010. Firstly Husky goes Toyo and secondly, fully electric! Two models have been unveiled: the H-PET low volume primarily for emerging mar- kets, and the H-MED for clean room medical applications. Both systems are based on a Toyo design. Two questions spring to mind: What is the thinking behind the cooperation with Toyo? And why, after so many years refusing to go down this route, is Husky going electric? John Galt: What Robert said - which still holds true today -is that electric drive solutions have their place. The relationship between the performance, the cost and the reli- ability makes it the ideal choice for certain types of applications. Which the H-PET AE will do. What’s changed is the development in smaller drives. The speed of those drives, the reliabil- ity of the power and motion systems has reached the point where they represent a very attractive alterna- tive - for the smaller sizes, where the demand on systems is reasonable. PETplanet: But Husky has a HyPET 90 tonner and you also have a HyPET 120 tonner to cope with a smaller number of cavitations? Is the new electric machine in competition to these? John Galt: Both lines will be offered. The customer will ultimately choose. It really depends on the appli- cations. For short production runs, where you have longer cycles, more product change-over or less cavitation density the H-PET AE is likely to be a better solution. Where you are running a more traditional Husky application with ultra-high though-put of resin and