PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2016

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 info@hbmedia.net EDITORIAL Kay Barton Heike Fischer Gabriele Kosmehl Michael Maruschke Ruari McCallion Waldemar Schmitke Wolfgang von Schröter Anthony Withers WikiPETia.info Doris Fischer doris.f ischer@hbmedia.net MEDIA CONSULTANTS Martina Hirschmann hirschmann@hbmedia.net Johann Lange-Brock lange-brock@hbmedia.net phone: +49 6221-65108-0 fax: +49 6221-65108-28 LAYOUT AND PREPRESS EXPRIM Werbeagentur Matthias Gaumann | www.exprim.de READER SERVICES Till Kretner reader@hbmedia.net 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. 17 No. 09/16 www.petpla.net Dear friends of PETplanet insider, Summer is drawing to a close, and I hope that you have enjoyed a successful season. This is now the moment for tidying up loose ends, to start thinking about new projects and of course, to catch up on our reading. With the summer fast becoming a distant memory, we embark upon our autumn tasks, from the K 2016 to the high point of which will be Brau Beviale in Nuremberg in November. In between is the Brew and Beverage exhibition in Shanghai, which has developed in recent years into an important meeting point for the beverage industry well beyond Chinese borders. This year we put China under the microscope with our Editourmobil tour of this vast economic powerhouse. The results were surprising. The market is in a consolidation phase, bottles have again become notably heavier over the past two years reflecting consumer demands for stable bottles (see issue 7+8, 2016). In this issue I report on my further visits to China. One of the most exciting highlights was certainly my discussions with Taiwanese Far Eastern Industries in the surroundings of Shanghai (p12 & p34). Far Eastern is well known as a PET producer and processor but much less well known is the fact that the Chinese company also manufactures and fills Suzhou beer in PET bottles in collaboration with Sino Belgium Beer Ltd, and if all that were not enough, also operates a brewery nearby. And so we arrived somewhat unprepared that morning for our interview where the beer was already flowing freely. Here we at last discovered the answer to the mystery of why the Chinese have a taste for very light beer. The reason is that next morning they can come into the office and proudly announce the number of beers they have downed the previous evening, and yet look at how fit they are! This only works with a very weak beer. Normal beer is therefore considered a bad beer. As I am reading PETplanet this evening, I shall of course be treating myself to a “bad” beer. Yours, Alexander Büchler