PETpla.net Insider 05 / 2020

PACKAGING / PALLETISING PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 05/20 www.petpla.net 19 PET jars, which are also supported by Sidel’s blowing expertise – altogether accounting for 140 different SKUs. From concept to functioning industrial design Throughout the different peri- ods of its development, B.L. Agro approached Sidel to help them dif- ferentiate their bottle designs while saving resources and raw material and still being able to address the growing market demand with budget- friendly products. “PET bottles at that time were still a breakthrough in India, attracting end users due to their innovation component and ide- ally presenting high quality products thanks to their transparency – both very important points for us. When we started working on what became our 2 l and 5 l bottles with handles, Sidel proposed some very creative and unorthodox concepts to us. We thus found a design that was quite unique and iconic,” highlights Mr Hada. The result of the thorough packaging development process was the first PET bottle for edible oil with a handle and a triangular design – a novel approach to this type of prod- uct. “Producing such a PET bottle with a handle is no easy feat; it was very difficult to find suppliers who were confident to take on this chal- lenge. The packaging team at Sidel was the only one who agreed to do a prototyping of the bottle, including the two notches for the handle,” Mr Khandelwal remembers. To successfully overcome the two- fold challenge, encompassing the PET bottle shape and the handle’s specific- ity, Sidel’s full set of packaging R&D capabilities was needed. “We appreci- ated the initial design a lot; however, it was quite difficult to see the packag- ing design become a reality because the bottle is neither square nor round. To add complexity, it also has notches that need to be completely formed, so that the handle insertion can take place. On the other hand, the notches cannot be too deep, because the handle would come off,” explains Mr Khandelwal. The handle insertion, the orien- tation of the bottle for the insertion itself, and the definition of the label- ling area on the bottle were all issues that the Indian player and Sidel had to solve hand in hand to powerfully differentiate the B.L. Agro packag- ing options on the retailer shelves. “Together, we were able to take this innovative concept, which offers a real marketing benefit and – via prototyp- ing and extensive testing – turn it into an industrial reality within an operat- ing packaging production line,” says Giulio Bellanti, Sidel Business Devel- opment Director for Edible Oil in Asia, Oceania and Africa. Award-winning, lightweighted bottles Besides leveraging the marketing advantage and the brand differen- tiation, the edible oil company also wanted to significantly lightweight its PET bottles. “Usually, a 2 l bottle with a handle weighs around 70 g. By carefully reviewing the container design, we achieved a weight reduc- tion of approximately 21% and we are processing a 55 g bottle today. The successive lightweighting steps have always been done without compromis- ing the bottle’s top load characteristics and other mechanical requirements for transportation and transit. The bot- tle’s stability and resistance through- out the supply chain have been tested and validated by Sidel’s packaging experts,” explains Mr Khandelwal. The result is an optimised large format bottle that facilitates the handling, while fully protecting the product inside. Similarly to the 2 l bottle, the 5 l format was also lightweighted – with a reduction from 130 g to 110 g, exclud- ing the handle. These weight reduc- tions have a substantial sustainability impact and translate to more than 650 t/PET saved per year. These developments also clearly mark sav- ings in terms of material costs in a competitive edible oil market, particu- larly in India. Both bottle formats were success- fully introduced to the market and have received national and interna- tional recognition by winning the India Star Packaging Award as well as the Asia Star Packaging Award. www.sidel.com As pioneers in PET packaging of edible oil, B.L. Agro were the first in India to intro- duce 2 l and 5 l bottles with handles. Similar to the 2 l bottle, the 5 l format has been realised lighter, from 130g to 110g excluding the handle.