PETpla.net Insider 01+02 / 2016

PACKAGING 29 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 01+02/16 www.petpla.net This is about to change – new beverage can by Kay Barton The idea of ringing in a new era in packaging in an aluminium-dominated world by producing the bulk of clas- sic beverage cans in PET is not new – but nothing along those lines has yet entered the market. However, this is about to change. After more than ten years’ preparation Invento, a company based in Warsaw, Poland, opened a brand new, €11.7 million factory in Gryfino, 30km south of Szczecin, on September 24, 2015. It now produces Invento PET cans, which are currently patented in nearly 100 countries. Mr Łukasz Kręski, founder of the esky.pl travel portal, is Invento’s CEO; the President of the Board for Poland is Mr Jacek Gnich. The Invento story started in 2004, when the discussion during an infor- mal meeting in a café turned to the high prices of aluminium and prompted the idea of a PET beverage can. Most of the time, such ideas remain hang- ing in the air and never take concrete form but, this time, the talk was quickly followed by action: the foundation of a company with the intention of making the idea a reality. Over the coming years, various designs of preforms for a wide variety of can applications and sizes were developed, along with the technology for integrating the lid into the PET container. It was intended that the lid would still be made from aluminium and thus would not visibly differ from traditional aluminium cans. In 2013, Invento looked to establish itself in the North American market pretty much from outset and established a facility in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In the same year it produced its first PET cans in the Polish city of Gorzów Wielkopolski; it then determined to establish its own factory, with its own filling line. The Gryfino location was selected for its excellent transport infrastruc- ture and connections between Eastern and Western Europe. The factory site extends to around 10,000m 2 ; production and warehousing accounts for 3,000m 2 . The company employs 20 people at the site. Production is currently carried out on two blow moulding systems; two filling systems cater for hot and cold fill- ing. The blow moulding machines come from Polish company TES; the filling systems are supplied by CFT in Italy and the labelling machines come from Dimac, another Italian company. Today, the company offers both empty and completely filled and labelled cans in sizes ranging from 250-500ml. Beverage flavours for complete prod- ucts are determined individually with customers and developed both in the in-house laboratory and with the help of external partners. The current product range includes flavoured waters, soft drinks, juices, energy drinks and others, both carbonated and still. Labelling options are shrink sleeves and pres- sure sensitive labels. Invento says that it has capacity for 160 million cans/ yr, of which roughly 100 million/yr are for ready for sale products in Poland, and 80 million cans/yr for the USA site, which does not have in-house filling. The company also offers complete blow moulding systems and preforms for in- house, on-site production by customers themselves. “The Polish market is quite conserv- ative when it comes to beverage cans,” Marketing & Sales Specialist Marcin Hakowski told us, when we asked how the markets have reacted to the PET cans. “The majority of our customers are abroad. A large company from the States, for example, has ordered 160 million PET cans from us for 2016.” Invento says that the advantages of PET cans are clear. In-house pro- duction by the filler should make the production process considerably more cost-effective overall than aluminium, in terms of material, energy and transport expenditure. The machines are compat- ible with existing aluminium can lines and it should thus be possible to inte- grate without significant disruption. Stor- age capacity can be saved or optimised by storing preforms rather than finished cans. For the customer, the transpar- ent body in various designs and colours presents the contents of the can and offers a wide variety of labelling options. There is currently no competition in this special packaging sector. Invento does not consider the local PET top dog Alpla as competition; it only takes can pro- ducers into account. “For now this is the beginning of a long road. It is hard to compete with companies like Ball Packaging, whose history dates back 170 years,” Mr Hakowski explains to us, and he clearly has a point! Nevertheless, the com- pany confirms that international interest is high and is already making the first plans for new investments, such as increasing capacities, in order to meet rising demand. The workforce should also grow to 50. www.inventocan.com