PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2019

JUBILEE PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 06/19 www.petpla.net 37 take us to the USA and cement our new partnership with the NPE. Of course, the whole thing was like an accolade for us, as by now we had become very much aware of the influ- ence our overland trips had had, at a global level. The event organisers found our road show concept brilliant and it was possible for us, as a publisher, to fur- ther intensify our activities in the North American market. Today, we have two successful road shows in the USA and Canada behind us, complete with many exciting reports and interviews from the PET world. The 2015 part- nership was followed by a tour revival for the next NPE in 2018, when we again drove editors through North America, this time with editor Heike Fischer on board for the first time. We look forward with excitement to how things will develop here in future. Casually dressed on the road in Portu- gal, 2014 Summertime and the 2014’s Editour- mobil Oh yes, one other trip from the history book: in 2014 we ended up in southern Europe and northern Africa. In renewed partnership with Brau Beviale, we travelled through six countries, including Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco. For the initiative we now also had a completely new vehi- cle, which had a lorry format for the first time… Asia’s developing markets in focus Following our 2014 and 2015 trips, we directed our focus towards the Middle Kingdom, in the course of the China Brew China Beverage (CBB), Drinktec’s partnership event in China. Camping between appointments in 2015, USA Driving up the hill in Colorado, USA, 2015 The 2016 Chinese Editourmobil was, apparently, one of only two motorhomes available in the whole of China. There was just one renter of such vehicles, and he owned them both! Alexander meets Michael Chen, Manag- ing Director Bericap China, 2016 Volker Kronseder from Krones (left) with Alexander Büchler at CBB event 2016, China We travelled throughout the entire east and south of the huge country, meeting numerous local giants of the drinks and packaging industry. We even included a swing to Hong Kong and Taiwan. China’s determination and will to mix it on the international stage became extremely clear during this tour. Our regular core trade fairs in China, such as Chinaplas and CBB, had already been reflected the tech- nological developments over the last few years. However, now that we were able to hold intensive on-site conversations, free of the normal exhi- bition distractions and with time on our side, the Chinese market and its significance for the global economy, especially in the packaging engineer- ing segment, became much more transparent and tangible. Meeting with Mahatanee in Thailand, 2017 The markets of south-east Asia were similarly exciting, with, in some cases, extreme growth rates for PET. In partnership with Drinktec again, we travelled through eight SE Asian countries ahead of the 2017 Munich Trade Fair. These included Indone- sia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, as well as potent future markets such as Laos and Cambodia. As crossing the borders of the many countries with our own vehicle turned out to be very problematic, we opted for hiring individual Editourmobils on site in each case, which worked extremely well. In terms of organisa- tion, the SE Asia tour was definitely one of the biggest challenges.