PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2015

imprint EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Alexander Büchler, Managing Director HEAD OFFICE heidelberg business media GmbH Bunsenstr. 14 69115 Heidelberg, Germany phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 [email protected] EDITORIAL Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Kay Barton Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Waldemar Schmitke Wolfgang von Schroeter Anthony Withers MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann [email protected] Johann Lange-Brock [email protected] phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 FRANCE, ITALY, UK Elisabeth Maria Köpke phone: +49 6201-878925 fax: +49 6201-878926 [email protected] LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur Matthias Gaumann | www.exprim.de READER SERVICES Till Kretner [email protected] PRINT Chroma Druck & Verlag GmbH Werkstr. 25 67354 Römerberg Germany WWW www.hbmedia.net | w ww.petpla.net PETplanet insider ISSN 1438-9459 is published 10 times a year. This publication is sent to qualified subscribers (1-year subscription 149 EUR, 2-year subscription 289 EUR, Young professionals’ sub- scription 99 EUR. Magazines will be dispatched to you by airmail). Not to be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher. Note: The fact that product names may not be identified as trademarks is not an indication that such names are not registered trademarks. 3 PET planet insider Vol. 16 No. 11/15 www.petpla.net dear readers, Pack Expo in Las Vegas was my last port of call in the US. In the south western states, more than anywhere else in the country, busi- ness life, and with it the PET industry, is dominated by the elements, sun and water and the main industry, agriculture. So far, so obvious you might say. Sun all the year round, everyone enjoying a drink, a never-ending blessing for the PET sector. In principle, yes, but every time I visit, the subject of transport crops up. California provides 60% of all the fruit and vegetables grown in the USA and during the harvest season from April to October every square metre of cargo space is fully occupied with farm produce. David Watson of Bericap in Los Angeles solves this problem with long-term partnerships, thus locking in strong links to the bottlers. The Portuguese packaging group has made a virtue of necessity and made Arizona its base. True, this is some hours away from the main centres of the west coast, but such is the amount of fruit and salad being transported from California to the East that there is room for little else, but on the return journey it is a different story. According to Joao Ganhao, as many as five out of six wagons return empty to California, thus increasing availability, whilst dramati- cally reducing overall transport costs. This is a key factor for packag- ing involving as it does stretch blow moulded bottles. And whilst we are here, Pack Expo is naturally one of the places on our must-visit list. My hopes were high about what would be exhib- ited but in the event, for us PET specialists, only around 20 exhibits merited our close attention. To find them necessitated a good deal of careful searching amongst the 2,006 exhibitors. I did make one discovery: dishwasher-proof wine and beer glasses made from PET. Priority Plastics manufactures it for Govino. Yours Alexander Büchler