PETpla.net Insider 06 / 2019

BOTTLE MAKING 52 PET planet Insider Vol. 20 No. 06/19 www.petpla.net Precise machinery for demanding converters A perfect match by Heike Fischer That’s what trade fairs are for: meeting customers, discussing hot topics in the industry and having the chance to see fascinating new machinery. Then good things can happen: during a meeting with our customer 1Blow at the NPE show PETplanet was spontaneously invited to visit Atlanta to get the chance to see their installed 4LO machinery at the plant of one of the very important key players in the US packaging industry: CKS Packaging Inc. Tour Sponsors: We met: John R. Sewell, CEO, CKS G. Dewayne Phillips, Executive Vice President, CKS Doug Rendall, Director of PET, CKS Scott Seeley, Plant Manager, CKS Steven Sherrer, Senior Process Technician, CKS David L. Batten, Sales Manager US & Canada, 1Blow It takes no more than a week to arrange everything! The PETplanet team was invited to meet the CEO John R. Sewell, G. Dewayne Phillips, Executive Vice President and Doug Rendall, Director of PET Technolo- gies from CKS. During a break of their annual Sales meeting in a hotel close to the Airport in Atlanta they took time off to talk to us about their company history, current develop- ments and their business relationship with 1 Blow. John started by telling the impres- sive history of their family business: “In the early 1960s the company started as pioneers in their business of dairy packaging named Sewell Dairy Supply. After founding a new company called Sewell Plastics with 5 manufacturing plants, the company’s growth continued. The company was sold to Dorsey Corp. The Presi- dent, Charles Sewell, John’s father, invented the first 2 litre carbonated beverage container for Coca-Cola in 1977. He left the company and founded his own business called CKS Packaging in 1985. In 1992 we started the PET business in a plant in Atlanta. From 1997 to 2010 we tripled our company sales volume.” Today CKS has 22 manufactur- ing plants in the US and is the largest family owned blow moulder in North America. Four generations are work- ing in the company. They are currently approaching sales of $ 450m. As a custom blow-moulder they need spe- cial blowing equipment, small machin- ery with 2 to 4 cavities. They run smaller volumes, with a type range of 5-10mil. This results in frequent change-overs during processing. “That’s why we have a lot of Sidel and 1Blow equipment. 1Blow came along at just the right moment. For our cus- tomers we want the most consistent quality and service,” John adds. The company processes every resin, and serves every plastic pack- aging market one could imagine. “PET is the fastest growing sector; it is 30% of our business. We see water bottling but also a lot of food packaging. Most products previously packaged in glass are now in PET. Wide mouth appli- cation has been the most important segment,” explained Doug. “At the same time food and beverage repre- sents a cross-section of the market which are growing sectors for us and this is where the 1Blow machines are important.” After the pleasant discussions with the management of CKS we took the Editourmobil very quickly to their Atlanta plant where the Plant Manager Scott Seeley, Senior Process Tech- nician Steven Sherrer and David L. Batten of 1Blow awaited us. Scott explained, “In this area of 1 square mile we have three plants for PET. This one here is a rPET 75,000 square foot plant. For other material, e.g. HD, we have 4 plants in Atlanta, so in total 7 plants just in Atlanta. F.l.t.r.: Scott, John and Drew Sewell Plant management team at CKS f.l.t.r.: Steven Sherrer, Scott Seeley, David L.Batten from 1Blow and Heike Fischer, PETplanet Insider