PETpla.net Insider 12 / 2014

EDITOUR REPORT 12 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 12/14 www.petpla.net 2007, Alpla commenced in-house production for Henkel in Ferentino, which is approximately 90km south of Rome. In 2008, with the decision to close the plant in Brem- bate and to concentrate production in Tortona, the founda- tion stone for the present plant was laid. The facilities here were extensively refurbished in order to increase capacity, particularly in the PET area. A new machine bay and a fully automatic high bay warehousing facility with 10,000 pallet spaces was set up. This gives Alpla Italia five locations in Italy: two free- standing manufacturing plants and three in-house opera- tions. Equipment at the various sites  Tortona (Basis 1)  Extrusion blow moulding, stretch blow moulding, preform and closure caps – injection moulding  Anzio (Basis 2)  Extrusion blow moulding, stretch blow moulding and pre- form injection moulding  Lomazzo (in-house Henkel)  Extrusion blow moulding and stretch blow moulding  Ferentino (in-house Henkel)  Extrusion blow moulding  Nettuno (in-house Colgate)  Stretch blow moulding Preform capacities Andrä Fröis gave us details of their preform operations. “Our preform capacity is divided between the two loca- tions in Tortona and Anzio. In Anzio preforms are injection moulded for own use (i.e. in-house use); Tortona serves the wider preform market in Italy. Our four Husky preform machines (3x72-cavity and 1x48-cavity) here in Tortona and our total capacity of 450 million preforms per year means that we are not exactly one of the big market play- ers in Italy.” He continued, “The reasons for this lie, on the one hand, in the fact that we were late entering the market with PET preform applications and, on the other hand, in the market situation itself.“ He went on to describe the wider market and to explain Alpla’s current position and future strategy. “Preform production output in Italy is currently around 10-12 billion units per annum, including in-house opera- tions; capacity is approximately 15 billion preforms. This means that the overall market is saturated and there is no growth in sight. “Essentially, in the preform sector, we concentrate on home care (which takes 50% of our capacity), beverages (40%) and edible oils (10%),” he continued. “Our biggest customer in the beverages sector is San Benedetto Italy which works with Alpla in other locations across Europe.” Alpla is using up to 25% R-PET in a domestic packa- ging project and one of its own production operations in Austria also uses R-PET material. Mr Fröis then went on to talk about closure caps. “In the closure cap sector, our manufacturing capabi- lity is based on 13 injection moulding machines. Our focus is on project-related applications and on standard items to a lesser extent.This is in line with our focus and expertise within the company.“ Preforms for mineral water bottles With contaminants being repeatedly identified in drin- king water, the Italians’ confidence in the quality of their drinking water has been shaken and hence the move towards bottled water. However, capacities have been pushed up so far that the industry now suffers from over- capacity; there is no prospect of any growth. The other side of the coin from contamination problems is that, in the eyes of the Italians, water is not a sophisticated food. This and their declining purchasing power means that they are now tending to reach for the mineral water bottle much less frequently – although there is a move to cheaper, private-label suppliers. In addition, a number of communities are setting up their own drinking water depots, where people can go to bottle drinking water themselves free of charge. This means that one section of consumers is increasingly bottling mineral water in used PET bottles – but Italy has more than 170 mineral water bottlers, spread across the country. In their battle to achieve volume against a situation of falling prices and a stagnating market, filled bottles from the south are being transported to the north and from the north into the south – and all this against a background of extremely high transport costs. Preforms for soft drinks Even here there is no growth, despite a highly competi- tive and aggressive market. Preforms for domestic packaging, dish washers and softeners The market for domestic dishwasher detergent and softening containers in packages up to 1l was quite promising. Thanks to the transparency and brilliance of the material, coupled with low weight, there was a clear increase in PET applications following removal of PE and PP as packaging material. In addition, it is, technologically Alexander Büchler PETplanet and Andrä Fröis, plant manager, in front of the Editourmobil in Tortona.