PETpla.net Insider 07+08 / 2016

TRADE SHOW PREVIEW 32 PET planet insider Vol. 17 No. 07+08/16 www.petpla.net FILLING MACHINES ARE NOT PRESSURE TESTING MACHINES Is your pressure testing doing what it needs to do? The Agr PPT3000 is the only commercially available system WR IXOO\ VLPXODWH ȴOOLQJ SURFHVV SUHVVXUHV DQG LGHQWLI\ FRQWDLQHU IDLOXUH SRLQWV SULRU WR WKH ȴOOLQJ RSHUDWLRQ CONTACT US TODAY TO LEARN MORE! AGRINTL.COM | +1.724.482.2163 | SALES@AGRINTL.COM either. The equipment from China was cheap but its results were very patchy, and half of the preforms were rejects. After talking to the bottler I took management of the situation, and contacted the local representative of Husky in Ahmedabad, who invited me to the K’ trade fair in Düsseldorf to take a look at their fully electrical 32 cavity H-PET AE 180.” The in-depth inspection of the machine at the trade fair stimulated the idea of independ- ent manufacturing of preforms. Ahimsa and Husky agreed to install the machine in India but the project encountered some initial problems. Fully electrical systems were, at the time, new to everyone, including Husky. The difficulties were rooted in the reality that a machine that had been developed under European or Canadian conditions was suddenly exposed to the 45 degree heat and 95% air humidity of Gujarat. The Husky team that had developed the machine, consisting of Alex Chen, Mark Lee as well as some techni- cians and software developers, came to the Ahimsa plant and spent two weeks solving the problem, with a software patch. This patch eventually resulted in savings of almost 80% in worldwide service costs, Mr Gandhi was advised. Manufacturing started in October 2011, initially with an Alaska Mould for standard 28mm neck, 19.6g preforms for 1l PET bottles. “The 21g preforms were popu- lar here at the time, which is why we caught the market’s attention. Our slightly different design raised our pro- file in the lightweight sector, although we had begun manufacturing in something of an unconventional way,” he recounts. “I didn’t have a particu- lar customer in mind when I started; I just started production. The basic idea was and remains that, as a matter of principle, we want to be able to deliver the volumes the customers want, no matter how small.” It was clear to them from the start that it wasn’t going to be comparing itself with the big competitors. Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and so on already had suppliers, so Ahimsa’s declared focus, from the start, was on the market for the B and C brands. The concept proved to be successful. “I approached small com- panies with my preforms by cold-call- ing them and, in the summer of 2012, we had completely sold out. People appreciated our products, as the ability to access preforms made on Husky machines in such unit volumes was new for this group of custom- ers. In addition to this, approaching the decision-makers was easier when compared to the global brands. I ulti- mately registered my own brand label, with the name Greenpet.” Over time, the customers for smaller-volume bottle sizes have come to include bottlers such as Bisleri and Rail Neer, the brand of water sold on the Indian Railways. After ten months of successful pro- duction Mr Gandhi opted to add a second Alaska Mould for 9.7g pre- forms for 200 ml bottles, which saw the company extending the scope of its operations to include all of India. “We wanted to continue supplying everyone without entering into a fixed contractual partnership,” explains Gandhi. “A meeting with the then Vice President of Reliance led me to doubt my project briefly, however, because he told me that soon I wouldn’t even be able to pay my electricity bills with- out fixed contract partners. Luckily, he proved to be wrong.” In 2013, Ahimsa invested in another Husky H-PET AE 230 and began extending its cus- tomer portfolio to include OEMs. In addition to water and CSD bottlers, Ahimsa currently supplies producers of fruit juices, dairy products, alcoholic drinks, cooking oils and pharmaceuti- cal products with preforms in sizes including 28 mm PCO1810/1881, CTC29/21, 38 mm multilayer, and so on. India’s trend towards small bottles of up to 600 ml in the drinks segment is stronger than ever and currently accounts for around 75% of the market; volumes from 750 ml to 2 l are only estimated to have a 10% share. Looking at the trends, Mr Gandhi is certain of one thing: “We can see a change taking place in the Indian market right now, with the major PET manufacturers recognising their potential and becom- ing increasingly open to focusing on the smaller brands more strongly.” www.greenpet.in