PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2012

EDITOUR REPORTS 32 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 09/12 www.petpla.net We finish our Editour report from the Go to Brau Beviale Tour 2011 with the reports about Bulgaria (by Kay Krüger) and a step visit to Bericap Romania (by Alexander Büchler). In November, our Edi- tour reports about the Go to Brau beviale Tour 2012 will start. is not long before you notice that there are hardly any big German companies that are not represented in this area. What does this mean as far as the drinks industry is con- cerned? Due to a significant reduction in complex bureau- cracy, export and import activities in the injection moulding sector, filling lines, capping systems and entire PET prod- uct lines are, viewed from a time perspective, unquestion- ably enjoying some advantages. However, moving on to locally-established bottling com- panies or PET producers, the Bulgarian drinks market, by contrast to international retail chains or agencies repre- senting major automotive concerns, displays a proprietary tendency. From discussions with a range of different firms it is evident that it is not essential, either in production or in PET processing, to be able to identify THE core market for just one product at any given time. Instead, people mostly approach the issue in a highly flexible and customer-ori- entated way, spreading their portfolio as wide as possible. The benefits for the customer are wide-ranging. These not Bulgaria Bulgaria’s bounty from a single source The Republic of Bulgaria, which has been a member of the European Union since January 2007, has 7.3 million inhabitants overall in a country occupying a total area of around 111,000km². 85% of these are Bulgarians whilst the remaining 15% is made up of Turks, Russians and Armeni- ans as well as Wallachians and people of Romany origin. As a consequence of Bulgaria’s accession to the EU and the associated availability of subsidies, supply chains have not only undergone streamlining but have also been expanded correspondingly. For instance, mainstream export activities include the export of, for example, food- stuffs and machinery, together with chemical products. On the other hand, the country imports machines and machine components as well as consumer goods. Here the key role is played by Germany– altogether there are more than 5,000 German companies trading with Bulgaria, 1,200 of whom are represented locally; the volume of exports to the Balkans amounts to around €2.3bn whereas imports into Germany account for €1.4bn. Travelling through Bulgaria it Nuremberg Ljubljana Saedinenie Istanbul Yerevan Baku Beograd Novi Sad Subotica Cegled Dulo Selo Mirna Peˇc Radenci Gorica Sveto jansk Plovdiv Gaziantep Ingöl Ploiesti Ankara