PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2014

EDITOUR REPORT 16 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 10/14 www.petpla.net Strong brand, declining market by Waldemar Schmitke Sanpellegrino S.p.A. Having heard from a number of sources that the market for water in Italy somewhat stagnant, yet private labels seem to be in full spate, there has to be a loser somewhere: in this case, it is the traditional brands. We visited the strongest brand in the mineral water sector that Italy has to offer, Sanpellegrino, a Nestlé Group company, where we spoke with Fabio Chimetto, Application Group Manager. Basically, he corroborates the trend of the price-sensitive customer who is turning more and more to value brands in the supermarket. Sanpellegrino has not escaped entirely unscathed, but this value trend is most likely to affect the middle price segment. Here losses have been dramatic. As far as Sanpellegrino is concerned, Nestlé are display- ing an increasing focus on export. Today the carbonated mineral water is available all over the world. The propor- tion that goes for export is 60%. “Depending on the target market,” explains Fabio Chimetto, “Sanpellegrino’s bottling operations may involve the use of some fairly expensive containers. In addition to the glass bottle we supply to export markets, there are also PET multilayer 0.5l and 1l bottles in the filler, enabling us to meet high quality requirements and also to withstand the rigours of lengthy shipment times." For the local market, however, Nestlé use the classic monolayer bottle under the brands name Nestlé Vera, Levissima, Recoaro, San Bernardo as well as Sanpellegrino and Acqua Panna which are mainly the two international flagships. In addition to pure mineral water, Nestlé have also established their Sanpellegrino brand name as a CSD brand name. Here they sell, in the premium range, not only the traditional flavours but also those featuring an innovative combination of aromas not previously seen on the market. The Italians launched a new range of products with juices and flavour, named Incontri on a specific 75cl PET bottle. Another international mineral water brand from San- pellegrino Company is their Acqua “Panna" brand. This is the still companion on the best tables in the world of the sparkling Sanpellegrino. Fabio Chimetto reported that Acqua Panna is highly suitable for wine tasting. Acqua Panna water enables the mouth to be neutralised from a taste point of view between one wine tasting session and the next and is therefore also very popular with professional wine tasters. Due to the size of the company, getting new bottles, flavours or even brand names established calls for considerably more internal coordination within Sanpellegrino than is the case with smaller companies that are mainly family-owned. Nevertheless, specifically due to their size and position in the marketplace, Sanpellegrino are able to achieve a level of penetration that is all the more intensive. In order to get the beverages into the bottles, Sanpel- legrino produce a proportion of their preforms themselves on ten 48-cavity and one 96-cavity Husky line at their San Giorgio di Bosco site. The company produces further pre- forms in Levissima. There are three further 48-cavity and two 60-cavity Index preform systems in production. Full capacity utilisation of a mould right round the clock invariably means incorporating the preform into in-house production. In addition, colour changes are allowed. “We always have to use outside competitors as a yardstick; for this reason an important proportion of our preforms (20%) are sourced on the market,“ says Fabio Chimetto. For example, specialities such as multilayer preforms are basically bought in, such as in this case from Resilux and Retal. Fabio Chimetto is quick to emphasise that “preform manufacture is not our core busi- ness; we are bottlers and invest in stretch blow moulding and bottling lines”. On we go to the bottling lines. Here at the facility there are two PET lines in block construction and further blow moulding machines, two aseptic lines and very recently a can filling line has been added (no glass). The PET lines are from Sidel. The fillers are from Sidel, while in other plants also Krones and KHS are installed, the labellers predomi- nantly from Krones. Iced tea is run exclusively on the Gea Procomac aseptic line. On the other lines it is water and soft drinks. As regards labels, paper, plastic and shrink labels are used (the plastic labels are dominant, especially where lines in block format are concerned). When it comes to the pack- aging, cardboard boxes are used for export, for the domestic market it is chiefly shrink film and trays. The closure caps are bought in from Obrist and recently also from Bericap. There is no question of manufacturing closure caps them- selves; closure cap manufacture is too far removed from their core business, according to Fabio Chimetto. The PET raw material is negotiated centrally and ordered as required by the individual processors in the Sanpellegrino Group. f.l.t.r. : Waldemar Schmitke, PETplanet insider and Fabio Chimetto, Application Group Manager, at Nestlé Vera in San Giorgio in Bosco.