PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2015

PACKING / PALLETISING 23 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 11/15 www.petpla.net PACKING / PALLETISING F.r.t.l.: Mike Crayne, Dean Martin and Kay Barton in front of the SSB-02 blow moulder And when it comes to design in print and in-mould, the company is happy to help. “Basically, we have spent some time observing the PET trend but the actual decision to invest in a PET machine was in fact made for us by the customer. We were getting enquiries by email and telephone increasingly frequently, asking whether we also had PET bottles in our portfolio,” explained Dean Martin. Clearly the right deci- sion, as demand has been rising ever since the SSB-02 2-cavity machine was acquired from Mag-Plastic. “The Internet”, as Mr Martin explains to us, “has brought us any amount of new enquiries and customers, even from areas at some distance from us like New York, Washington State or Cali- fornia. However, the major propor- tion is sold locally here in Texas via our distributors. These include Berlin Packaging, Tricor Brawn and Pipeline Packaging.” And, within its immediate radius, Paragon Packaging is practically free of any competition, at least for the time being. “Within the area in which we manufacture, I don’t know anyone this side of Atlanta who does any- thing similar,” says Mike Crayne. And Atlanta is 1,300km away. “The major- ity of manufacturing operations pro- duce bottles solely for their own use, not to sell on.” The PET bottle portfo- lio currently comprises three 1l bottle formats each with a 28mm neck: simple cylinder, carafe-shaped as well as in the form of a spray bottle. The preforms the company buys in from Preform Solutions, South Dakota and Encore, Canada, in the 25g-50g range. “We have deliberately decided in favour of a two- stage line because the advan- tage here is that the customer can operate very cost-effec- tively and can bring his own moulds along. A single-stage process here would be an expensive proposition,” says Mike Crayne. One of a sec- ondary effects has definitely got to be the fact that they have no problems when it comes to expanding capacity. “We are also very interested in the shrink sleeve sector but are waiting for the customers to enquire about this with a specific target in mind,” adds Dean Martin. A new project here could be significant. One soap manufacturer is planning a change from a bag-in-box pack to a collapsing PET bottle soap dispenser, something which could see the SSB-02 catapulted out of what is cur- rently a single-shift operation into to a three-shift operation. “We are confident that, given an appropriate response, the PET sector can be further extended, possibly with other machines, too.” says Dean Martin. www.paragon-packaging.com 23 Hall 4 stand 429 Nov. 10-12, Nürnberg Squeezing Drinking Pouring Pumping Tour Sponsors: