PETpla.net Insider 04/ 2013

EDITOUR REPORTS 13 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 04/13 www.petpla.net July 13, 2012 Bericap We met: Mr Sergey Litskevitch, General Director Bericap’s range of closures The only plant operated in Russia by the closure manufac- turer Bericap is located around 450km from Moscow in Bor, close to the picturesque town of Ninzhniy Novgorod. We are in a meeting with Sergey Litskevitch, the company’s General Director. Since the late 1990s the Russian market had been ser- viced from locations in Hun- gary and subsequently also from Poland. This meant that there was already regular busi- ness with what was still, at that time, a packaging market for liquid food that was still pretty much in its infancy. Finally, the management of the German company realised that rapid growth in beverages in plas- tic packaging was occurring which would necessitate a re- organisation and re-structuring of the company. This led them to set up their own operation in Russia in 2002, and of course the emergence of a significant market was the reason behind this decision. Litskevitch him- self was at the time not yet on board, joining the company only in 2008. An appropriate location to build the Bericap plant was ultimately identified in Bor in fields formerly used for grow- ing potatoes. These days, says Litskevitch, Moscow is not really a viable option. Land prices, energy and personnel costs are too high which have made the city increasingly unattrac- tive as far as big companies are concerned. Companies who were located in the capital have mostly decamped to the sur- rounding area. A decision that Bericap does not now have to face. Following the purchase of the plot in Bor the plant was established in 2002 and went into production for the first time in 2003. Subsequently, another storage facility was added. Ini- tially, the only machines operat- ing here were a handful of injec- tion moulding machines and the closures produced were sold chiefly in the edible oils sector which was then experiencing a Sergey Litskevitch and Kay Krüger in front of the Bericap showcase in the meeting room