PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2018

EDITOUR PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 04/18 www.petpla.net 13 maker partner Corvaglia and supply its own tools for HyCAP. Joachim Niewels showed us in AMC, Bolton how you approached this issue strategically and still do. The “We will give it a go” era has given way to a strategic analysis of the indi- vidual process steps. What concrete results have emerged from this strategy? John Galt: The acquisition of KTW and then Schöttli has allowed us to take a big step forward in the Medical and Closures sectors. We are a global leader in specialty clo- sure and medical mould production today. We are doing some great work now where we are combining our mould expertise in these areas with Multi-Layer system level tech- nologies to open up new markets for the company. PETplanet: At the moment, you are placing great emphasis on Multi-Layer Technology. You are now dealing more effectively with previ- ous market barrier systems, such as additives, new material coatings and classic Multi-Layers thereby achiev- ing cost savings, and above all making machine control extremely user-friendly. Should new technology replace existing processes or should the market be expanded for barrier PET bottles? John Galt: Multi-Layer Tech- nologies have been tried before, but they’ve never realised their full potential. They’ve either been handi- capped by issues with material deg- radation, by lower overall output in efficiency, or by significant compro- mises in cycle time. These factors have created an obstacle to achiev- ing a balance between enhancing package performance, while maintaining a lower part cost. We believe entirely new markets for injection moulded plastics and PET can be developed through this approach. We believe we can dem- onstrate that two materi- als, properly positioned in the container, with no loss in productivity over the mono-layer solu- tion, is a game changer. We have applications that deliver greater bar- rier performance, new product decoration solu- tions, and the solution even has the potential for smart packaging. There are just so many uses if you can master the process and encour- age resin producers to expand the range of materials and additives they pro- vide. PETplanet: You won the PET- planet Award Service Performance, Developing Countries Group Pre- form Machine Builder Customer Survey in 2014. You nailed points such as Competence or Technician Categories Close to My Plant. Only on point pricing and volume discount on aftermarket products are you well below the industry average. If the survey was to be repeated today, would the outcome be any different? John Galt: Naturally we are very proud of the award, but the outcome for today would be something our customers should decide. We con- tinue to invest in Aftersales Services and the only way to find out if this is the right decision is to ask our cus- tomers. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. Our goal is to invest in Services that are invaluable to our customers and that help them make good returns on the investments they make with us. PETplanet: John Galt. Thank you very much for your time. I have one final question I would like to put to you. Looking ahead into the world of PET, what topics do you think we will be discussing in PETplanet Insider 10 years from now? John Galt: I can only tell you what I am observing. The future is going to be revolutionised by digiti- zation. It will influence what con- sumers buy, how it is delivered and how we communicate. It will result in entirely new products. Lower volume, shorter life cycle products will also be a far more significant market as young consumers demand more variety and are constantly looking for new things. We will need to have moved forward dramatically on the environmental front to create a truly efficient, circular economy for plastics. This last one is a big issue for our industry. Technology exists or will exist. What doesn’t exist is the way we work together to close the loop from production, to recovery, to reprocessing, to reuse. These fac- tors will become a big part of how we design new technology. We have to come together as an industry and I hope that is a part of how we oper- ate 10 years from now. www.husky.co