PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2011

PREFORM PRODUCTION 24 PET planet insider Vol. 12 No. 12/11 www.petpla.net Interview with Thomas Anderegg* Netstal takes over PET activities from Krauss-Maffei Healthy competition within your own group lends wings to business – this has for years been the maxim as regards the PET activities of Holding KraussMaffei AG. Its two sub- sidiaries, Krauss Maffei Technologies GmbH and Netstal- Maschinen AG, have set out their stall with their own pre- form machine concepts. Whilst Krauss Maffei has, in its PETform series, opted for the vertical clamping, Netstal has built the classic horizontal clamping into the PET-Line series. Since October 1, 2011 both series have been run- ning under the Netstal umbrella. We spoke with the new divisional director at Netstal, Thomas Anderegg. PETplanet: Mr Anderegg, just under 20 years ago KraussMaf- fei bought into Netstal. Since then we have been waiting for the announcement that the PET divi- sions would join together. Why spe- cifically now? Mr Anderegg: It’s not quite as easy as that. Although KraussMaf- fei acquired a share in Netstal 19 years ago, it was not until 1998 that it launched its own PETform line at the NPE in Chicago. So the maximum time you could have waited for this announcement is 13 years. PETplanet: Conversely, that means that PETform, which has been pro- nounced dead and buried on a number of occasions, is still alive? Mr Anderegg: PETform has never been pronounced “dead and buried” as you put it. At most, you could say it had an uneventful life, but year on year, it has sold in respectable quantities. For my part, I have a clear commitment to PETform. This also means that we need to further develop the machine. The series will now run under the name of “Netstal PETform“, alongside the well-known ”Netstal PET-Line“ series. PETplanet: As far as the machinery range is concerned there is an over- lap; the largest of the Netstal PETform machines is clearly, in terms of its capacity, getting close to the smallest Netstal PET-Line? Mr Anderegg: We will always offer the customer the best commercial solution, tailored to suit his product. Depending on the requirement, that may be the PET-Line or the PETform. But you are right, the 2000 series Netstal PET-Line displays a distinct overlap with the PETform. Here we will, in the course of updating our models, be replacing the 2000 series with the 2400 series. This means that the processor can have 72-cava- ties moulds running on it without any problems. In the end what counts as far as the processor is concerned is not the clamping force categories but the transformation costs and output per investment and it is here that we consider that our strength lies. PETplanet: KraussMaffei and Netstal are both marketing manufac- turing plants for closures on beverage bottles. Will these two sectors also be combined? Mr Anderegg: The closing caps market is different in structure to the preform market. Each company has its customers and its focal points. For this reason we do not at the present time anticipate combining these two sectors. Already today the Netstal business unit Cap is fully focused on high volume commodity closures for beverages in PET bottles. We are market leader in this sector with more than half of the total installed capacity. PETplanet: OK. So it’s 13 years... Mr Anderegg: Netstal has been operating independently since Krauss- Maffei came on board, with its own technology and its own team. In the meantime it has, however, become apparent that we need to pool our resources specifically in the PET sector. PETform has enjoyed great success in the developing countries and for wide- mouth bottles, PET-Line supplies the high end markets. Thus, together, we can offer the optimum solution for prac- tically every application, both in small as well as in larger quantities.