PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2012

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 17 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 10/12 www.petpla.net Sterilizer Rinser Filler Doser Dosing your P erfect Mi X Let the fruit jump in! bly of blower filler capper block machines in June 2012. The new company is rebranded as Corpoplast Bever- age Equipment (Suzhou) Company Ltd. This concept, i.e. building up a local production facility, has already proved itself elsewhere for KHS Corpoplast competitors in China and European machine manufacturers – such as: The components for the blower filler capper block machine are the combination of local supplied and the core components supplied from Germany. The design of the block machine is carried out completely in Germany while the factory handles the assembly only. Over the years, they have developed some local suppliers who were qualified to supply machine components for the Blomax assembled in Germany. The percentage of locally sourced components will be increased and optimised in future. This will help to reduce the cost and in other words, be more competitive in pricing. In the meantime they are accelerating their search for suitable suppliers.  Factory capacity 20 to 30 installations per year  Capacity ranges from 24,000 to 48,000bph  Personnel on shop floor: 30 initially The new machines are targeting the mineral water market in China, which is extremely competitive in price. KHS has found it difficult to obtain a foothold in this market for this reason. Geoffrey Chan who happens to head up the new com- pany as well claims: “Corpoplast Beverages Equipment (CBE) will enter new markets, and will not be taking busi- ness away from Germany. CBE with a specialised, opti- mised design will be more appropriate for a much bigger water market than we know today.” With Geoffrey Chan at the sharp end of KHS Corpo- plast Trading and Corpoplast Beverage Equipment, we have an experienced manager with a total of 20 years’ experience in the Chinese plastics business, 16 of which have been for Corpoplast, first of all in Hongkong for Rieck- ermann Exporting and, since 2001, for SIG Corpoplast in Shanghai. There is no doubt that he is one of those charis- matic characters who not only have an intimate knowledge of the PET business in China but have also put their own individual stamp on it. He has managed to navigate the company through critical situations, responded to changes both internally within the company and externally in the market place. In so doing he has enhanced the repu- tation of Corpoplast and certainly has confirmed his standing in the industry. Issue 11 China part 4