PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2012

BOTTLING / FILLING 32 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 06/12 www.petpla.net Krones NitroHotf ll line for Pago juices Based on an article by Ursula Danner, Krones AG Green for go! Green is the company colour of the Austrian fruit-juice pro- ducer Pago in Klagenfurt. The green bottles with their yellow lids have been for many years now the trademark of this company. The majority of the various juices they produce is sold in glass bottles for the horeca market but as drinks in PET bottles became ever more popular, the juice specialists from Carinthia were quick to tap into this segment as well. To start with, Pago had its products contract-bottled elsewhere. Since September 2011, the company has been bottling them in-house on their own NitroHotfill line from Krones. André van Schuijlenburg, Manager Supply Chain. 35 fruit-juice variants Christian Fruhwirth, the plant man- ager in Klagenfurt explains: “We have four different product groupings: the red fruits as potent health-boosters, citrus fruit products, our exotic line and the traditional fruit varieties.” The container range comprises the 0.2l glass bottle for the catering trade, with which the company leads the market in Austria and the neighbouring coun- tries of Italy and Croatia. We also fill a 1.0l glass bottle. As the markets have changed, focusing more on at-home consumption and the PET bottle, we decided to include this type of con- tainer in our range as well.” Enjoying pure, unadulterated fruit juice, that’s the idea behind the brand, which means that no artificial flavourings, no preservatives are used. Pago in PET The company’s range of juices have been available in PET bottles since 2005. Today, as much as one third of its products is sold in PET bottles. To quote Christian Fruhwirth: “When we were considering the inclu- sion of PET in our container range, there was no doubt whatsoever that we would stick with the visual image of the bottle consumers have come to associate with the brand: green, orange-skin surface structure, yellow lid, wide-neck mouth. This quite clearly ruled out investing in the clas- sical hotfill bottle in panel design right from the start. Hotfill bottles just don’t fit in with our image. This was why we had accepted – at least for as long as there was no alternative hotfill technology available – a situation where our contract bottler was filling our products in an aseptic process, likewise with kit from Krones.” As the PET bottle was a suc- cess on the market, they started an investment project for their own PET line at the Klagenfurt facility. With the newly installed Krones line, rated at 18,000bph, they produce 0.75l, 0.33l, 0.2l and 1.0l bottles, which are filled with a variety of juices. The whole line from the Contiform right through to the Variopac packer and the Modulpal palletiser is run by two operators. The present-day Pago company got started in the 1950s when the then owners, the Pagitz brothers, had the “Pago” brandname (combin- ing “Pagitz” and “Obst”. (German for fruit) entered in the brand register. As from 1980, the company, in the meantime part of the big Austrian brewing conglomerate Brau Union Österreich, opened up new sales markets beyond the nation’s borders, with Italy, France, Spain and Croatia being the first markets targeted for the juice specialists’ exports. Since 2003 (when Brau Union was taken over by Heineken), the company has formed part of the world’s third-largest brew- ing conglomerate, and its biggest fruit- juice producer. As a premium brand, Pago complements the Dutch corpo- ration’s portfolio perfectly, explains After the stretch blow-moulding pro- cess, the bottles’ bases are water- cooled for fast stabilisation, with the bottles then passed to the filler. sensitive BEVERAGES