PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2012

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 25 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 01+02/12 www.petpla.net Rome, Paris and London for its exquisite quality. At that time, Minaqua was known as “Franz Josef’s water”. Soon after this discovery, a spa was built in the location where the water was found. It quickly attracted attracted over 1500 visitors per day. During the 20th century, the spa achieved fame far beyond the city boundaries of Novi Sad. The mineral water was used for therapeutic purposes as well as for drinking. After the Second World War the water was sold all over Yugoslavia under the name of “Mineral water of Novi Sad”. In 1972, the name “Mineral water of Novi Sad” was changed to “Minaqua”. In 1999, Minaqua was privatised. The new management team decided to implement new and efficient technologies, and to establish new company objectives and operating rules. Over the next five years, the new team succeeded in making Minaqua one of the strongest leaders in the bottling of mineral water in Serbia and Montenegro. The Editourmobile stops at the Minaqua bottling plant Since 2004 Minaqua have been producing mineral water only in PET bottles, although there are plans to purchase a produc- tion line for glass in the future. The complete bottling operations involve only PET. Preforms As the business was growing as well as the production capacity, the company’s managers decided to manufacture their own preforms. By doing this, the company was able to reduce costs and gain independence from other suppliers. The company has been manufacturing preforms since 2005 (the first Husky blow moulding machine was bought in 2005. Then in 2008 the company enlarged its capacity by purchasing a further Husky blow moulding machine. The total capacity of machines is 22,400bph. The present capacity is sufficient for the production of preforms to meet the com- pany’s needs and there is no need to obtain preforms from other suppliers. Minaqua produces two bottle shapes: round (2l, 0,33l carbonated mineral water Minaqua Classic), square (2l, 0,33l still water Minaqua Life and 5, 75 l bottle still mineral Minaqua Life). The company was also able to reduce the weight of the preforms for the round bottle (2l capacity) from 45.3g to 41.5g in 2010. Current preform weights are as fol- lows: 41.5g ( 2l round bottle ), 39g ( square 2l bottle ), 20.5g ( 0,33l round and square bottle ) and 90g ( 5.75l square bottle ). Stretch blow moulding and filling The production facilities of Minaqua consist of the following production and filling lines:  Krones (Germany) capacity of 9,000 units of 2l bph;  SIG (SIG Coproplast Germany and SIG Simonazzi Italy) capacity of 14,000 units of 2l bph  Sidel (Italy) capacity of 16,000 units of 2l bottles/h;  Thomason Machinery for producing 5l bottles with a capacity of 3,000 units/h (Cyprus);  3 blow moulding machines (SIG Corpoplast, 2 units, and Sidel, 1 unit, for PET bottle production of 2l , 0.5l and 0.33l). These machines have capacities of 16,000 bottles/h and 22,000 bottles/h respectively;  Minaqua invested in an injection moulding system for the production of PET bottles. Two Husky Injection Moulding Systems have a total capacity of 22,400 units per hour. The production and filling lines for the PET industry are certified according to EU regulations. As stated above each line comes from one supplier and all filling lines are arranged in blocks. The final products are gathered in a shrink tunnel using a Dimac machine. At the end of 2008, a new warehouse with the innovative Radioshuttle System was installed. This equipment doubled the storage capacity of the company. The total number of euro pallets that can be stored with the System is around 5,390. In 2008 Minaqua doubled its storage capacity Products “Minaqua Classic” carbonated mineral water and “Minaqua Life ” still water have a high level of brand loyalty and enjoy a good competitive price. The water contains 0.94mg/l of iodine, and one glass of the water per day sat- isfies our daily needs for this element. Minaqua water contains a large amount of naturally dissolved iodine essential for brain development and con- centration. It is the only mineral water in Europe with this specific property. In addition to the carbonated and still waters, Minaqua also produces a carbonated soft drink “Fructo”, in five flavours (Orange, Mandarin, Tonic-lemon, Tonic, Lemon and Cherry Cola). The company also pro- duces “Jodi” designed for children and pregnant women. It is offered in two flavours (apple and cherry). The product incorporates a sport lock for ease of use. Minaqua’s current products are different from other soft drinks on the market. First Minaqua does not use any artificial flavours and second, all its products have naturally dissolved iodine. www.bbminaqua.com