PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2016

TRADE SHOW PREVIEW 40 PET planet Insider Vol. 17 No. 11/16 www.petpla.net Sustainable preform production in India By Kay Barton March 9, 2016, Manjushree Technopack Ltd. We met: Mr Rajat Kedia, Director Mr Ankit Kedia, Director Mr Sanjay Balakrishna, Assistant General Manager (Operations) Manjushree Technopack, one of the biggest PET process- ing companies in India, opened a new facility for preform production in 2013. The plant, which is located around 30km towards Mysore from the centre of Bangalore, was a major project for the company. It wasn’t just a simple move; it was a relocation and expansion of its entire preform division, whose long-time home had been in Bommasandra, near the Electronic City district; it is now based in Bidadi, from where it serves customers in the water, fruit juice and soft drinks bottling segments, including major brands such as Coca- Cola, PepsiCo and Bisleri. The new building is not only special from the technological and ecological points of view. Directors Rajat Kedia and his brother Ankit Kedia explain their strategy and goals. “In 2010 and 2011 it became increasingly apparent to us that our PET processing on 96 cavity sys- tems at our home location in Bom- masandra, as well as the storage options available there, would no longer be sufficient for us to respond to the strongly growing market,” says Director Rajat Kedia. “That is why we decided to divide our company into a blow moulding factory in Bom- masandra and an injection mould- ing division at a brand new location. We were offered a plot at the Bidadi industrial estate by the Government of Karnataka, which happened to be in direct proximity to two Coca-Cola bottling plants. In addition to the available space, an excellent water supply and the proximity to Banga- lore made the decision to take the plot was a very easy one. It enabled us to become a strategic partner to Coca-Cola.” The total area of the approxi- mately €30 million project is around 60,000m². The factory building accounts for roughly 42,000m²; the storage area is in the region of 32,500m². The complete factory con- cept was constructed together with Husky with the intention of creating a highly automated facility. In addition to the technical dimension, a key focus was on the environmental friendliness and sustainability of the building itself. To this end the factory features rain- water collection and biodegradable waste recycling, the use of sunlight as a source of light, sprinkler systems, disabled-friendly building access and more besides. The building earned Manjushree Technopack the Gold Award from the IGBC (Indian Green Building Management). Rajat Kedia estimates that its novel design ena- bles it to save 1,500 units of power each day, compared with conventional production. The innovative design of the storage facility also creates and uses space, very efficiently. Materials containers are stored next to and above each other in individual cage segments, which has enabled the facility to reach a capacity of 7,200t on the plot, which is 2,500t more than conven- tional design would have allowed. The capacity of the overall installation totals 90,000t of processed material per annum for preforms and finished PET bottles, which translates to 2.1 billion preforms and 40 million bottles, in 2015. This year is forecast to see a 14% increase in preform production and a 50% increase in bottle produc- tion. The company uses two Husky HyPET 4.0 (144 and 96 cavities), two HyPET HPP (96 and 48 cavities), one H-PET AE (40 cavities) and one ASB PMI NII (24 cavities) in its production operations. Part of the building is also available for blow moulding. Here, four two-stage systems, one Sidel Synergy 06 (six cavities), Synergy 04 (four cavities) and one Mag Plastic Manjushree’s plant in Bidadi with Sanjay Balakrishna (right) and Kay Barton