PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2012

BOTTLING / FILLING 18 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 05/12 www.petpla.net Lipetskpivo Brewery invests in a fully automatic KHS Petainer keg line A pioneering performance Based on an article by Dr. Felix Wagner, Manager, Filling and Keg Technology Competence Centre, KHS GmbH, Germany. Jörg Lauer, Petainer Keg Project Manager, KHS GmbH, Germany. Alexander Burenin, Sales, KHS Russia Lipetskpivo Brewery in Russia, formerly a state-owned enterprise, transformed in 1992 into a co-operative, pro- duces beer but also non-alcoholic beverages. In 2002, pro- duction amounted to 160,000 hectolitres, but rose in 2011 to over one million hectolitres of beer, soft drinks, juices und water. Now it has become the first brewery in the world to invest in a fully automatic KHS Petainer keg line. Lipetskpivo sees itself as a brewery from the region and for the region, its distribution radius being around 500km from its own doorstep. Lipetskpivo holds second place in the brewery ranking for this area, with BBH holding the top spot. The brew- ery in Lipetsk supplies both retailers and the hospitality trade with beer and non-alcoholic beverages. This – and this is a decisive factor, accord- ing to Vyacheslav Markov, who took the helm as the brewery’s Managing Director in 2002 – is what the aver- age Russian employee can afford, the mean monthly wage being around € 550 or 22,500 rubles. Lipetskpivo firmly adheres to its concept of provid- ing consumers with a quality product at what it considers a fair price. A 1.5l PET bottle of Lipetskoe or Priyatel beer, for instance, the two brands produced at Lipetskpivo, can be pur- chased at a retail store for about 90 rubles. The annual per capita con- sumption of beer in the Lipetsk region amounts to approximately 70l. Today, 68% of the company’s sales are attributable to the brewery’s two aforementioned beer brands. Soft drinks and fruit juices account for a further 14.5%, with water clocking up 13% of the total sales and kvass 4.5%. Markov believes that these figures will change in the near future. “With our technical setup we’re now prepared for all eventualities,” Markov claims. “If more water, soft drinks, fruit juices, or kvass and less beer are required, we’ll simply change our pro- duction schedule.” The non-refillable PET bottle has the top slot in the range of possi- ble containers. The 1.5l PET bottle makes up about 50% of total produc- tion. Another type of choice packag- ing, especially for Lipetskpivo’s brand beers, is the 30l and 50l keg varieties. To date 12% of the brewery’s filling volume has been fed into the clas- sic refillable steel keg. The biggest disadvantage of such kegs, in the eyes of Lipetskpivo, is the amount of economic effort involved in handling them. Costs for return, storage, and washing play a significant role here. The question was whether a non- returnable PET keg system would be feasible and whether it would help to avoid such expense. Petainer kegs are non-refillable, disposable kegs that do not have to be returned to the brewery and which are 100% recyclable. This saves not only on logistics for keg return to the brewery but also on outgoings for keg washing. The kegs can be ordered entirely according to local market demand or even manufactured inline on a special Petainer keg line. Stor- Vyacheslav Markov, Managing Director, and Roman Lizunov, Manager of the Engineering Department at Lipetskpivo