PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2019

JUBILEE PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 06/19 www.petpla.net 10 A review of 20 years of meetings, talks and inspiration Leading lights in the PET world Technology is only as good as the people behind it. Lots of clever minds, from bottlers, processors and suppliers have made the PET bottle what it is today with their imagination and energy. We have come to know and appreciate quite a few of them over the past 20 years. We do not want to keep the highlights from you. In issue 3, we focused on some of the stars of the stretch blow moulding industry. This one will focus on other big players of the PET world. In 1999, the world was in the grip of an internet fever – who would still persist with a printed magazine? Only very few saw the need for a trade journal early on and put time and effort into it. Volker Kronseder from Krones saw the value in this during the first few years, and he always gave sound advice and had a keen eye for target groups in his charming Bavarian Eng- lish; Dr Peter Neumann from Engel was always very professional and exactly the same as us who were new- comers to the PET sector at the time; Stefan Zatti with Waldemar Schmitke and Otto Hofstetter (from left) on the forecourt of Otto Hofstetter AG in Uznach, Switzerland Otto Hofstetter, an outstanding preform mouldmaker, provided Swiss precision in PET toolmaking; Romeo Corvaglia who was constantly striving to optimise the weight of screw caps; Romeo Corvaglia during an interview in 2012 Gianfranco Zoppas from Sipa, a controversial innovator, continues to surprise the industry with his uncon- ventional ideas to this day; Alexander Büchler during a Prosecco reception with Gianfranco Zoppas during NPE 2012. Günter Krautkrämer and his sons, Bericap, without whom there would probably not be such a wide range of closures today; the Lehner family from Alpla, very reserved when dealing with the media but, like Bericap, have established their company with produc- tion facilities in all the important hubs worldwide; Ichiro Mizuuchi, Nissei ASB, standing for Japanese thoroughness in single-stage production; Mrs Grace Lee set up the South Korean company, Chumpower, which has been shaking up the market for as long as we have; Peter Pan and Grace Lee, Chumpower, with Johann Lange-Brock and Kay Barton (from the left) Yuriy Khmara, Retal, has trans- formed the small company Uniplast in Dnipro into the globally influential processor, Retal; and of course, Robert Schad, founder of Husky, the market leader in preform mould and machine construction, saw the opportunities offered by PETplanet. However, it was not only the owners and CEOs of large companies who gave great impetus to PETplanet. A great deal of encouragement and support has come from sales and marketing departments. First of all, Gerd Liebig (first Demag, then Engel, now Demag’s CEO) came up with the rough concept of PETplanet during a fact-finding trip in 1998; Waldemar Schmitke, formerly of Netstal, was always involved in bat- tles with the military high command to actively promote PET in the Netstal group, then taking on a new role as a highly-driven reporter at PETplanet with a keen eye for detail; Stefan Zatti from Otto Hofstetter was always very much on the ball in terms of technology and customer requirements; Christiane Wells, Corpoplast, has been an ever dependable leader at the company; Roberta Gualtieri and Martina Bottarel at Sipa are a highly efficient duo with the highest level of technical expertise, allied to an extremely professional outfit; NPE 2018: Johann Lange-Brock and Heike Fischer (second from the right) meet with Martina Bottarel (second from the left) and Roberta Gualtieri Manfred Rückstein, a real character from PET press, formerly of KHS, has seen more CEOs come and go than all the other marketing managers in the PET world put together; Valentina Gollini, Sacmi, the good soul of the company has been and is present at every impor- tant trade fair; Valentina Gollini, Sacmi, framed by Johann Lange-Brock (left) and Kay Barton