PETpla.net Insider 03 / 2016

NEWS 9 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 03/16 www.petpla.net First birthday for Krones’ Training and Customer Center South America In March 2015, Krones unveiled to its clients in South America its new Training and Customer Center at the company’s LCS Center in São Paulo/Brazil. This year, this facility is celebrating one year in operation. “In the new premises, we are able to simulate process sequences, and hold training events plus product presentations matched to our clients’ own machines and lines”, says Jens Hoyer, who heads the LCS Center in Brazil. Whereas previously only a few courses could be held in São Paulo, the new centre now regularly hosts courses for electricians and training events on many different Krones machines, like fillers, inspectors and labellers. Besides conference rooms and lounges, the centre also provides some smaller training rooms, for courses in sub- jects like automation, for example, and on blow-moulding stations and filling simulators, which constitute extremely important training instruments. With the aid of simulators, the instructors can teach the participants how to recognise problems at an early stage, and thus avoid possible down- times in operation, by assuring a trouble-free production run. The clients as well as service technicians and staff of Krones’ subsidiaries in South America shall benefit from the facility. Firstly, they have an opportunity to upgrade their skills and capabilities, and secondly, they can also prepare themselves to handle the specific lines and machines up and running in this region. www.krones.com Engel: Dr Stefan Engleder new chairman of executive board Effective November 30 th 2016, Peter Neu- mann, long-term chairman of the executive board of the Engel Group of Companies, withdraws from operational business after 35 years. “This step has been long planned on the occasion of my 60 th birthday and is the result of a clear mutual agreement between myself and the owning families of the Engel Group of Companies”, explains Neumann the back- ground for this change. Indeed, the generation change within the family-run business had been initiated several years ago by introducing the fourth generation of members of the owning family step by step into the executive board. Dr Stefan Engleder has been responsible for R&D, engineering and production for more than three years and Dr Christoph Steger for Sales and Marketing for more than two years. Now, the final step will be set by Dr Stefan Engleder, great-grand-son of Engel’s founder Ludwig Engel, taking over the position as chairman of the executive board effective December 1 st , 2016. The executive board will continue to con- sist of four persons: besides Dr Stefan Engleder as new Chairman also responsible for R&D, the board will be constituted of Dr Christoph Steger (also a family member and responsible for Sales, Marketing und in future CSD), Dipl.- Oec. Klaus Siegmund (responsible for Finance, Personnel and IT) as well as DI Joachim Metz- macher (so far division manager production large-tonnage machines) for Global Production. www.engelglobal.com Future-oriented packaging systems Shorter changeover times, lower energy costs and use of fewer resources: at the in-house KHS exhibition at the production site in Kleve, Germany, the company’s product innovations and further developments met with great interest. Under the motto of “Less is more” the systems provider presented its approach to greater economy and sustainabil- ity in the packaging process. One of the concepts to attract considerable attention was Nature MultiPack powered by KHS, a PET or can pack which needs almost no packag- ing materials. Business on the Lower Rhine has developed positively over the past few years that KHS plans to invest in the Kleve site in 2016. “The great response to our plant engineering shows that we are able to recognise market demands early on and develop systems accordingly,” says Norbert Pastoors, Head of Packaging Products Division. “We not only offer bottlers innovative and sustainable secondary packaging systems; the retail trade also benefits from the customer-friendly presentation of goods enabled by our developments.” The interest in KHS’ new or further developed machinery at the in-house exhibition staged at the KHS production site in Kleve was therefore considerable. Customers from various branches of industry, such as the food and beverage sec- tors, expressed great curiosity in the diverse ways of saving packaging materials. www.khs.com