PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2018

BOTTLE MAKING 26 PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 04/18 www.petpla.net PET blow moulding machines made in Thailand by Kay Barton Mahatanee machine manufacturer, headquartered in the Bang Bon district in Bangkok, has been operating in Thailand for 25 years and remains a family-owned and managed company. Initially established as a classic bottle-maker, over the course of time and with growing technical understanding of the machinery it began, in 1997, to develop and construct PET bottle making machines for small and medium quantities. This makes Mahatanee unique in Thailand, because this type of equipment has normally been imported. In 2000, it opened a production area for blow moulds and now offers a range extending from 30ml to 20l bottles. The company is run by joint Managing Directors and brothers Mr Yick Yu Lam and Mr Metee Nilparak. “When our father started the com- pany in 1992, we were producing on Chinese machines. After two years of development, we created our own blow moulders for first time, with a cavity for 800ml wide-mouth cans,” said Mr Lam. “In the early 2000s we did not sell more than perhaps ten machines a year; PET was still something really new then. Things really got going after the flood disas- ter of 2011, when the supply chain to beverage fillers collapsed and more and more bottlers decided to mould their own bottles, or found that they had to.” By 2014 annual machinery sales had more than doubled; they have doubled again since then. For 2017 Mr Lam is expecting to sell 50-60 machines; 80% will go to water bot- tlers, the rest to CSD, edible oil, food, and non-food packers. A small number of customers are active purely in bottle supply. “Due to the special situation of non-existent competition we are of course in a good position”, Mr Metee Nilparak said, and laughed. “Nevertheless, we regard ourselves as competitive, both locally and at international level.” He described the 40% export share that the company is aiming for in 2017. Exports are mostly concentrated in Vietnam, Myanmar and the Philippines. “We use high-quality components, such as servo systems and Siemens control”, Metee explained. Turnround time is, on average, eight weeks from enquiry to the machine being ready for dispatch. The brothers are fore- casting revenues of US$ 3.5 million for this year. The long-term objective, they say, is US$ 6 million in machine sales alone; revenues from the mould business, which currently account for around 20% of overall sales, would be on top of that. In 2016, Mahatanee sold 200 moulds, all made in Swiss aluminium alloy; in 2017 it expects sales to total 250. The current com- pany value is around US$ 7 million. www.great-pet.com Tour Sponsors: Staff working on new moulds MDs and brothers (f.l.t.r.) Yick Yu Lam and Metee Nilparak Mahatanee Industrial Co., Ltd., June 24, 2017 We met: Mr Yick Yu Lam, Managing Director Mr Metee Nilparak, Managing Directo r Mahatanee’s factory in Samut- sakorn is brand new; the company moved here only six months ago. As well as the production facility the 8,000m 2 plot of land also accommo- dates the residences of joint Man- aging Directors Yick Yu Lam and Metee Nilparak and their families. To the front right of the main build- ing itself are the offices, covering two floors; the rest is a workshop and divided up into the areas of machine construction, CNC machin- ing and mould assembly. To the rear are found the shop floor itself, along with work materials and replace- ment parts stores. Mahatanee’s workforce totals 80. During our visit, there was still plenty of space in the hall for additional equipment or more warehouse area for pre- orders. Machine shipment packaging at Mahata- nee’s workshop