PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2012

REGIONAL MARKET REPORTS 16 PET planet insider Vol. 13 No. 11/12 www.petpla.net Products Bericap manufactures caps and closures using moulds designed, developed and manufactured in-house – giving them a potentially competitive advantage. Bericap’s total involvement in China amounts to R&D for product design, lab facilities for testing, then mould making, mould technol- ogy, production, quality assurance and technical services. Caps and closures are produced for three major seg- ments (application)  beverages: CSD, fruit juices, RTD teas, energy drinks, still and carbonated mineral waters, beer  edible oil, sauce and dressing (EOSD)  specialities: Motor oil and automotive liquids, chemical products, agrochemical products, pharmaceutical prod- ucts, components for the packaging industries Edward Lee: “Beverage caps represent large-scale volume production. Speciality caps are a niche business.” Prominent customers in China  Yihai Kerry Group: edible oil  Coca Cola: CSD  SCMC (Coca Cola shareholder): CSD  Lee Kum Kee: edible oil  Nestle: water Almost all Bericap competitors (ZIRI, Hong Quan, Zhong Fu - with one exception CSI – the former Alcoa) are Chinese, which represents another very special challenge. Technology The focus presently is on continuous light weighting both globally as well as in China. Bericap have the follow- ing solutions on offer:  The Hexalite range  Sport closures for lightweight necks  The SuperShorty family for CSD, water and beer  The PCO 1881 neck  Linear seal and double seal ...and many more, including a combination of the above (for commodities as specified including for aseptic and hot fill applications).Bericap’s Kunshan operation offers all the latest developments coming from the German mother company. Production in China 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 plan 1.6 1.8 2.2 2.0 2.6 2.9 5.0 5 4 3 2 1 0 billion closures Volume of caps and closures produced from 2006 to 2012 The volume of closures supplied to the markets in 2012 is approx. three times the volume of 2006. Same applies to turnover. In 2009 the fall in production was due to a slowdown in the market. The plan for 5bn closures for 2012 is highly ambitious, but considered achievable since it is backed by orders already placed by the big Coca Cola, Pepsi and Nestle (Hexalite 29/25 for water) as well as further development in the food sector (soya sauce). The equipment for processing such high volume has already been purchased and is in place. Equipment Injection moulding machines: 60 – including from Arburg, Netstal and Sumitomo. Bericap in Kunshan employs 186 people plus 21 supervisors in quality assur- ance and five engineers in R&D. The Kunshan plant of Bericap was extremely busy when we visited. All machines were in full operation. Little room for further expansion, which will become critical, if markets continue with growth experienced in the past several years. Edward Lee: “We will have to remove the smaller injection moulding machines and replace them with bigger ones, with machines with higher cavitations.” The next stage in the development of Bericap in China will be a further production facility, it is anticipated that this will be located in Guang Dong in the south of China. Edward Lee: „If we want to maintain our market share we need to grow with our markets – expansion is also a protective measure: we need to grow at least as much as our market grows.”