PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2015

EDITOUR REPORT 12 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 01+02/15 www.petpla.net New challenges by Waldemar Schmitke s.i.con. s.r.l. Following a rather adventurous journey in our 8.4m long and 3.9m high Editourmobil through small Sicilian towns, we arrive at Giammoro (Me) in Sicily. Here in Giammoro we visit s.i.con. s.r.l. where we are introduced to Dr Fabrizio Quagliuolo, Management Representative, and the regional Husky representative, Fausto Guerra. s.i.con. is a manufacturer of PET preforms and has been active in this market since 1983. Originally preforms and PET bottles for soft drinks and drinking water were produced at other locations in Italy, but, after the takeover of parts of the firm by Coca Cola Hellenik Bottling in 2011, s.i.con. con- tinued to focus exclusively on preform manufacturing. There are five Husky preform machines installed here on site:  In 2007 1 x Hypet 300 72-cavity  In 2012 2 x Hypet 400 HPP 96-cavity  In 2013 1 x Hypet 400 HPP 4.0 96-cavity  In 2014 1 x Hypet 300 HPP 4.0 72-cavity Total production amounted to 600mill preforms in 2013 and 650mill in 2014. Breakdown of deliveries:  350mill preforms for Hellenik Bottling Italy  150mill for Nestlé Italy  30mill preforms for export to Coca Cola Malta  30mill for Sibeg authorised Coca Cola bottler for Sicily  90mill preforms for local customers The range includes the following neck finishes:  PCO 1881 and 1810, Alaska, Hexalite 26-22 For supplies to Coca Cola, the raw material is pur- chased and processed on behalf of Coca Cola. The pre- form geometries are specified in advance by Coca Cola and the preforms called off as required. For example, the 0.5l preform shipped in summer has a weight of 22.7g whilst the winter preform weighs 20.7g. The raw material is provided by Nestlé. This also includes R-PET of Spanish manufacture. Up to 25% R-PET is added in pellet form for Nestlé. Deliveries are made within a radius that extends only as far as Rome, due to the high transport costs in Italy. “The Italian drinks packaging market,” says Dr Fabrizio Quagliuolo, “consistently confronts us with new challenges. Overall there is zero growth and, in the individual segments such as, for example, soft drinks, the trend appears to be going backwards. The drinking water market is stable, but is showing no growth potential. “ He went on: “There are still niche markets such as fresh milk in PET bottles or PET packaging in the food, house- hold and the bodycare sector that have a certain growth potential as a result of removing plastic, glass and metal in packaging. Further potential is demonstrated by juices, aseptically bottled in PET bottles.” Although the soft drinks market is in decline in terms of consumption, there is, from the point of view of one pre- form manufacturer, growth in the 0.5 and 2l bottles sector. The reasons for this lie in the divergent drinking mindsets that exist in the north, as opposed to the south of Italy. In the north it is the 1.5l bottle that dominates whilst, in the south, people are tending to go more and more for the 2l and 0.5l bottle, which means an increase in quantities. Otherwise there is only the cutthroat competition left. Dr Fabrizio Quagliuolo continues: “Competition in the market is getting harder and harder and we will face stiff chal- lenges. We are well-prepared with modern machinery that is up to date in terms of energy usage and optimised pro- cess sequences in our company with a high level of auto- mation. We have installed a photovoltaics plant on the roof and we already produce 400 000 KW/yr., 5% of our energy requirement, ourselves. Together with Husky we are work- ing on further weight optimisations in the preform sector. As part of this collaboration we have been among the first to launch a weight-optimised Hexalite 26/22 version on the market for plan and slightly carbonated beverages with a carbon dioxide content of up to 3.5% by volume. Here the positive characteristics of the Alaska and PCO Corvaglia neck finish are united in a weight reduced version.“ We extend our thanks for the frank interchange and set off in a northerly direction on our return trip. www.sicon.org/en www.husky.ca Dr Fabrizio Quagliuolo, Management Representative