PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2015

THE NORTH AMERICAN ROAD SHOW 38 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 03/15 www.petpla.net John Galt, President & CEO, described Husky’s development and future direction, from a company specialising in injection moulding machines and tools, to an integrated and innovative technology and sys- tems solutions provider. “This focus on innovation ensures we continue to progress in the market by specialising in highly technical areas, but we are also expanding our portfolio in order to capitalise on new opportunities,” he explains and says that Husky has invested in order to better understand and respond to cus- tomers’ production issues and needs. He cited as an example the interface Toronto Québec New York Atlanta Orlando Chicago Denver Las Vegas Seattle Calgary Montréal Los Angeles San Francisco Vancouver Dallas New Orleans Phoenix Washington, D.C. Boston Detroit Halifax Kansas City Oklahoma City Albuquerque The North American Road Show between the PET bottle and the clo- sure. “With some specifically targeted research, along with investment in test equipment, we have learned a great deal about the neck finish of the PET bottle and how its interaction with the closure during filling and capping can be optimised.” Husky believes that improved insights have generated sig- nificant improvements in the efficiency of filling lines. “We have invested in analysis, testing and validating our technologies, and will continue to focus on this in the future.” Husky’s business philosophy is to work collaboratively with its customers in order both to identify new market The North American Road Show has started: PETplanet Insider meets Canada and USA Husky: Innovation is key by Waldemar Schmitke opportunities and to reduce the total cost of production, in a variety of ways. Its acquisition of KTW in Aus- tria and Schöttli in Switzerland, two specialist companies, has enabled it to build a better tooling business, for example. “The acquisition of KTW enabled us to become a global presence in the closures market, and the largest supplier of injection moulding equip- ment for closure manufacturing,” Galt says. Along with its established pres- ence in the PET preform business, he maintains that Husky now has a more complete offering and has been able to make inroads into the consumer packaged goods, household products and food packaging industries. The acquisition of Schöttli, which provides precision, high-quality moulds to the medical application industry, has opened up a third market, alongside preforms and closures, and brought additional expertise in select medical applications and the medical tooling market. PET markets John Galt believes that the market with the greatest growth rate for Husky is, currently Africa. “In spite of some political uncertainties, the market is growing and absorbing pre- form systems in all capacity sizes,” he says. “It is important for our custom- ers that we have a presence here, and that we have an effective service organisation.” Preform systems Eighty per cent of Husky’s pre- form applications are in three seg- ments: CSD, water and sensitive PETplanet Insider’s North American Road Show kicked off at Bolton, Ontario, global headquarters and Canadian manufacturing campus of Husky, the leading PET preform systems company. The icy wind and temperatures of minus 11 degrees Celsius were offset by the warm welcome Wal- demar Schmitke and Theo Busch of PETplanet Insider received from the team responsible for business develop- ment and engineering: Robert Domodossola, Vice Presi- dent, Business Development & Engineering; Roman Pirog, Director, Development Engineering; and Wesley Grove, Manager – Advanced Process Engineering & Technology.