PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2020

TOP TALK PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 10/20 www.petpla.net 10 Georges Alard, Commercial Director AF Group, on the company’s 150 th anniversary, the philosophy of looking forward and a look at developments in the PET compressors segment The beating heart of the bottling line When AF Compressors was founded in Belgium in 1870, the patent specification for the first PET bottles was still a hundred years away. Back then, the privately-owned company produced pneumatic hammers for the mining industry, i.e. for use in the construction of tunnels and galleries for coalmines. During the early 1980’s, AF’s first 40 bar oil free reciprocating air compressors were manufactured for blowing PET bottles – a market on which the company soon concentrated all its energies. PETplanet: First of all, congratu- lations on the 150 years of Ateliers François! How has the anniversary year gone for you so far? Alard: We started to consider this important milestone of the company during the Drinktec exhibition in 2018. Plans for our new larger service facilities to be situated close to Liège Airport were well advanced, together with a larger investment budget in research and development, so this coming jubilee year was to be the highlight of our company progress. Needless to say, who could have forecast the global impact of Covid-19 in 2020. However, we remain strong, our sales and service coverage is fully operational for all countries and cus- tomers that are themselves struggling to overcome the disruption of Covid- 19. Traditional sales and marketing methods for communicating our abili- ties and equipment such as trade fairs during our jubilee year have sadly been put on hold. No Gulfood Manu- facturing, no Brau Beviale and others which we regularly attend. So 2021 will be considered as a recovery start- ing point. AF have experienced quite a few recovery starting points since 1870. PETplanet: In 150 years, the com- pany has gone through some difficult times such as wars, world economic crises or even pandemics like the Spanish flu. How has the current Covid-19 crisis affected the company? Alard: Due to our long-term strat- egy of having daughter companies or sales and service agencies covering the majority of countries worldwide, the impact of Covid-19 has not been as severe as it could have been. Although international air travel is severely limited, our local technicians are still able to service the custom- ers equipment on site; where there is a local lockdown we can send parts and assist remotely for maintenance thanks to UMI (User Maintenance Instructions) procedures. Of course, we are seeing a slowdown in new investments, however the aftermarket income is still holding showing that the PET industry is still in business. Meanwhile, sustainability and innova- tion management has been an inte- gral part of AF since the 19 th century - always looking forward to getting through challenging times targeting medium- and long-term achievements. PETplanet: Originally, when AF was founded in Liège, Belgium in 1870, the company manufactured compressors and motors for the mining and steel industry. Can you briefly outline how the path from the mining business to PET bottles took place and share a few milestones? Alard: In the early 1900’s AF was suppling heavy steel industry and other industrial activities. In the 1960’s the first oil-free compressors were produced, for chemicals, glass indus- try, breweries. One of the very first customers requiring a PET compres- sor was SPA Monopole S.A. in the Belgian Ardennes in Liège Province. And today, we are still proud to ser- vice and supply their mineral water facilities. PETplanet: It was oil-free com- pressors since the 1960’S and since then, for more than 30 years, AF has been producing the 40 bar oil-free piston compressors for blowing PET bottles. By light weighting the bot- tles, air pressure requirements fell. Also, some machinery manufactur- ers integrated air recovery systems in their stretch-blow moulding machin- ery. How has this affected the further development of your compressors? Alard: As you say, for 30 years we have been producing 40 bar oil free compressors for PET bottles. AF is perhaps unique compared to other compressor manufacturers in as much as we have concentrated virtu- ally all of our energy into that market: working closely with the blowing machinery manufacturers, sometimes partnering joint development solu- tions, and closely following trends in drink consumption. Many of our earlier COMPRESSORS Georges Alard, Commercial Director AF Group, Georges Alard joined AF in 1983. by Gabriele Kosm hl