PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2016

BOTTLE MAKING 14 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 03/16 www.petpla.net From an Andalusian garage to a global player by Kay Barton We met: Mr Antonio Ortega Ruiz, General Director Mrs Caridad Ortega Suárez, Sales Engineer Mr Antonio Ortega Suárez, Sales Director Mr Juan Pablo Ortega Suárez, Production Manager Spanish family business And & Or has, from its foundation 30 years ago, been totally focused on the development and manufacture of blow moulding and bottling machinery for the packaging industry. It has grown from a “one-man band” operating out of a garage in Andalusia, in southern Spain, to become a worldwide operation, with a number of global brands among its customers. The company’s 30 th anniversary provided an excellent reason for us to take a look behind the scenes and learn more about the story of its success. And & Or is headquartered in the El Limón industrial park in Palo- mares del Rio, about 15km south- west of the centre of Seville. The company’s modern building with its large silver logo attracts attention, not least because of the many empty lots and half-finished warehouses in the immediate vicinity – a legacy of the 2009 recession, we were told. At the head of the family company are founder and general director Antonio Ortega Ruiz; his daughter, Caridad Ortega Suárez, who works as a sales engineer; and sons Antonio Ortega Suárez, a sales director; and Juan Pablo Ortega Suárez, a production manager. Antonio Ortega Ruiz is an electronic engineer. He worked in the 1970s for a plastic converter in the area who, among other things, manu- factured bottles for Coca-Cola. In that position, he was mainly involved in the development of technical aids for optimising extrusion blow-moulded plastic bottles. These aids included leak testers, devices for controlling the wall thickness of PVC bottles, and technologies for the automation of packaging machinery. It closed down in the 1990s, unable to cope with the competition presented by the widespread introduction of PET bot- tles. Antonio Sr had already left that company by then; his entrepreneurial inclination drove him to establish his own business, which would capital- ise on his experience in the plastics sector. And & Or was founded in 1986 in the 60m² garage of his current resi- dence in Coria del Río, barely 5km southwest of the company’s current location. “At that time, the garage was both headquarters and workshop. I built the first leak tester here, completely on my own,” Antonio Sr recalls. The garage is still there but Antonio has, in the intervening years, built a stately Andalusian- style home around it. “Our company name symbolises a logic gate as well as the first letters of my first name and first surname,” he continues. Within a short time, he received the first orders from the surrounding area. When it became clear that the small garage no longer provided enough room, Antonio Sr acquired premises in town with about 300m 2 of working space. Along with the workplace expansion and the growing customer base, Antonio Sr developed the first handle applicator machine for 5l edible oil bottles, in 1994. Attend- ance at trade fairs and word of mouth led to the first exports, to France and Portugal, in the following year. In 2000, for the Heineken brewery in Russia, the company launched a rotary handle applicator for a production speed of 24,000bph, followed in 2004 by a fully automatic bagging machine for the packing of empty bottles. In 2007, the company developed the first side-han- dle applicator. Sales director Antonio Ortega Suárez says this product is particularly popular in China. Where the story began, f.l.t.r.: Antonio Jr and Antonio Sr