PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2020

BOTTLE MAKING 28 PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 10/20 www.petpla.net Interview with Ant Packaging Pty. Ltd. 20 April 2020 We met: Mr John Clark, Managing Director Sustainable bottle concept from New South Wales by Kay Barton Ant Packaging is a manufacturer of plastic bottles and other containers. The company is located in Bangalow in New South Wales, almost 100 km south of the famous Gold Coast, which hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games that takes place every four years. After initial economic drought phases around the millennium, the company finally made a breakthrough with the decision to specialise in single-stage equipment for PET processing. Today, the manufacturer registers annual growth of 18% and works almost without exception in the non-food market. The company wants to set itself apart from competitors, not only through a conscious selection of customers, but also in its use of existing resources and in terms of sustainability. Together with Managing Director John Clark, we took a trip through company formation, philosophy and the status quo. The origins of Ant Packaging date back to 1998. Founder John Clark and a former partner did not want to fall in with a former employer’s relocation and they saw the situation as an occa- sion to found their own business. “At that time, there were several consoli- dations in bottle and container produc- tion in the Australian market,” explains John Clark. “We had the feeling that no-one was properly supplying con- tainers for small and medium-sized companies, where a wide range of formats were often needed on a short- term and flexible basis for premium products in small batches. So that’s what we did.” The company started with a Battenfeld Fischer K1-07 blow- moulding machine, with only moder- ate success. “At that time we had a customer from the hotel industry, for whom we manufactured PVC bottles,” reminisces Mr Clark. “With the Asian crisis around that time, tourists stayed away and beds were empty. Then we tried to win more clients. Two years later, we purchased a new extrusion moulding machine from a manu- facturer in Thailand, after which we almost had our electricity cut off. A few more systems followed in subsequent years and we were able to carve out a market for ourselves in the sector for personal care and promotional bottles. Then, in 2006, we decided to expand our portfolio with PET.” This expansion was in fact an ASB- 50MB single-stage machine. A good decision, as it would turn out, as this enabled the company to quickly open up new customer networks. Packag- ing for laboratory consumables quickly became the most important market and soon, more equipment followed from Japanese engineering firm ASB. “Our business model is based around flexibility.” says John Clark. “Most PET manufacturers would be calculating how many machines they need to make a certain product, where we are always looking at how many different products we can get one machine to make. We offer customers a full in-house service from concept through design, prototyping, 3D print- ing, mould making and production. Only the mould making is something that we have outsourced.” Today’s portfolio includes caps as well as bottles and jars. Ant Packaging employs 20 employees, of which six work in the PET processing depart- ment. Here, three PET and four PE production lines are in use today, plus two cap lines. Alongside two ASB- 50MB, there is also an ASB-12N10 for PET; caps are produced on injection moulding machines from Demag with 100 t of clamping force. Wherever possible, the company strategy also involves excluding orders from the food sector and instead con- centrating further on niche, non-food markets. The result of this is also the relatively small output of a total of around 14 million containers, of which 8 million are PET bottles and around 8 million are caps. With 25% apiece, half of this output finds application as laboratory consumables and beauty and personal care items, a further 20% in animal care products, 10% in pro- motional bottles and the rest in other, sometimes unknown sectors. Around 60% of customer enquiries relate to bottles, 20% to jars and 20% to caps. At 50% and 15% respectively, PET and recycled PET make up the majority of processing, both exclusively for bottle production; this is followed by 25% PE. PET bottles are produced in 15ml, 30ml, 50ml, 60ml, 100ml, 125ml, 200ml, 250ml, 375ml and 500ml volumes. Caps are available in 18mm, 24mm, 28mm, 38mm and 63mm diameters. “We have focused on 250ml and smaller as we are manufac- turing in a regional area. Australia is a big country so transporting empty bot- tles around the country makes larger Tour Sponsors: Ant Packaging’s production and packaging area PETcast In our new Road Show podcast, PETplanet meets industry experts from Down Under to Japan and talks with them about their successes, decisions and current developments. Listen to the full conversation at www.bit.ly/2HVwbAd