PETpla.net Insider 11+12 / 2017

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 11+12/17 www.petpla.net 26 Tour Sponsors: Father and son working hand in hand New bottling plant opening soon by Alexander Büchler La Boost, Shah Alam, April 12, 2017 We met: Tan Chee Chung, Director (Son) Tan Chin Wee, Managing Director (Father) The La Boost bottling plant is situated in Shah Alam near Kuala Lumpur. The father, Tan Chin Wee, has led his company successfully for many years, in good times and bad. Now his son has stepped up to the plate and, together, they are turning everything around. In a few weeks, a new bottling plant will open which will eliminate delays in the production process. Mr Tan has been in the drinks’ business since 1985 having imported Carlsberg beer to Malaysia for many years. However, in 2009, he decided to give this up and build a bottling plant himself as it was vital for him not to be solely dependent on one large company. So, in 2009, the La Boost plant started operating. Two difficult years followed as his bank was not too happy that he had switched from high beer sales to low revenues from water production. The economic crisis did not help either. However, La Boost was able to gain a foothold in the market and establish steady growth. Today, six bottling lines stand next to one another in this pristine facility, three for 0.5l and 1.5l bottles, one for large disposable PET containers and two for water in cups - that fill around 12 million bottles a month. All this was achieved working at full capac- ity over a two-year period. Father and son then decided to invest in a new system. In order to create more space, the warehouse was reduced to half of its original size by introducing a semi-automatic pallet system. In the coming weeks, construction on a new (blocking) Techlong plant can begin. Its capacity will be 27,000 1.5l bph or 48,000 0.5l bph which will create some breathing space that allows more bottles to be sold. The father, Tan, is clear on what the thinks of Western production. No matter how good the technology, costs and delivery times for spare parts are enormous and lengthy. He also has to pay for business class flights and premium hotels whenever he needs the services of a technician which is quite different from dealing with Asian manufacturers. In the end, he decided in favour of the European shrink tunnel manu- facturer SMI. Justifying his decision, Tan said: “SMI can transport packages stacked together, which allows me to get on with production using the tunnel. And besides, SMI’s service point isn’t all that far from here”. He had no reser- vations in choosing a shrink tunnel as this is an innovation for the Malaysian market. PET bottles are traditionally packed and transported in cardboard boxes in Malaysia. Cardboard boxes can be stacked better, particularly as large numbers are always transported without pallets. The son, Tan, says that “cardboard prices have risen by over 20% during the past six months with the closure of a large paper mill in China. This proves that our decision to choose foil was the right one”. La Boost is already carrying out small- scale trials using a 12-pack of 0.5l bottles. www.laboost.com.my Mr Tan Chin Wee invites me to taste a Durian fruit which is not allowed on Malaysian trains given its pungent smell. I found you could eat them! La Boost produces its preforms on a Husky Hypet injection moulding system. They are placed in small plastic boxes for internal transport. As with preform, the company pro- duces its caps on an HyCap 225 using a 48-cavity tool.