PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2013

imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Häusserstr. 36 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49(0)6221-65108-0 fax: +49(0)6221-65108-28 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Doris Fischer: f ischer@hbmedia.net Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Waldemar Schmitke Ilona Trotter Wolfgang von Schroeter Anthony Withers MEDIA CONSULTANTS Ute Andrä andrae@hbmedia.net Martina Hischmann hirschmann@hbmedia.net Roland Loch loch@hbmedia.net phone: +49(0)6221-65108-0 fax: +49(0)6221-65108-28 France, Italy, Spain, UK Elisabeth Maria Köpke phone: +49(0)6201-878925 fax: +49(0)6201-878926 koepke@hbmedia.net LAYOUT AND PREPRESS Exprim Kommunikationsdesign Matthias Gaumann | www.exprim.de READER SERVICES Heike Fischer reader@hbmedia.net PRINT Chroma Druck & Verlag GmbH Werkstr. 25 67454 Römerberg Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | w ww.petpla.net PETplanet insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ sub- scription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trade marks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PET planet insider Vol. 14 No. 06/13 www.petpla.net EDITORIAL dear readers, Wherever you are in the world, there’s more than a fair chance that the machinery, PET and cap materials used in PET bottle production and bottling will be pretty much the same. There’s a logic to this - at the end of the day the line manufacturers and raw materials producers are supplying their products all over the world. So it is not altogether surprising that any preform or filler line will look more or less the same and operate in more or less the same way. If this was really the case, surely all we would have to do is to produce a single report about a particular bottler or processor and claim that this represents the entire world of PET. So why exactly do we at PETplanet insider spend so much time travelling the world, interviewing bottlers and producers in situ, report- ing on their concerns, investigating their markets? Yes, the machines might be identical, but their factories are not. Geography is important too: in hot regions thirsts are quenched throughout the year, whereas in places like Finland, the season lasts a mere two months or so. Every country has its own local taste: Russians quaff their beer from a PET bottle. Germans like nothing better than drinking highly carbon- ated water in PET. We could go on. Suffice it to say, people are differ- ent, markets vary, production and distribution are tailored to the local market. The machines might be the same, but people are individuals and markets have to adapt to local conditions. And this is why we will continue to visit you in our Editourmobil, we will listen to what you have to say, we will learn about what makes your market tick, and faithfully report our findings. It never ceases to amaze and delight us just how forthcoming and cooperative our inter- viewees can be, and for this please accept our grateful thanks. This issue and issue 7+8 contain the final reports from our comprehensive tour of Eastern Europe, the finals will make the reports of Poland in issue 7+8. One of the highlights of the next issue of PETplanet insider will be the reports from our latest adventure in Latin America. At PET- point drinktec you will be more than welcome to visit us to view at first hand some of the products we brought back from that most fascinating of continents. We look forward to seeing you there. Yours, Alexander Büchler