PETpla.net Insider 10 / 2020

BOTTLE MAKING 34 PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 10/20 www.petpla.net Interview with Keg King, MCH Australia Pty. Ltd. 20 April 2020 We met: Mr Will Fiala, CEO PET kegs in special formats by Kay Barton In the Melbourne suburb of Springvale, the Keg King brand manufactures large-format kegs and PET containers. The company began its PET activities in 2015 as a reaction to the booming craft ale scene in Australia, not only with PET kegs but also with a wide variety of products in the field of brewing equipment and for the brewing process. We got to know CEO Will Fiala back in 2019 at the Brau Beviale trade fair in Nuremberg and inspected several PET exhibits. Now we spoke to him about the background and the technological challenges of his keg developments. Back at Brau Beviale, we could see that Will Fiala was an extremely pleasant and creative guy. He leads the company together with Manag- ing Director Dr Maggie Hu, who has a medical background. Mr Fiala himself is a qualified electrical engineer. “In 2004, Dr Maggie Hu founded the company as an import business four years before she finally specialised in 2008 in the field of home-brewing equipment. I’ve been on board with the company since 2017,” explains Mr Fiala. Low cost alternative for brewers The reason for manufacturing PET kegs lies in a growing demand for low- cost alternatives which mostly comes from smaller breweries who need to avoid the high costs of acquiring and maintaining steel kegs. However the early days here were challeng- ing. “Because of various factors, the market acceptance of the kegs we manufactured before 2018 remained somewhat behind expectations. It was only after investing in a K53 single- stage system from Cypet and their Zeg technology for manufacturing very light single-use PET kegs with a fill volume of 20 l that we gradu- ally made a name for ourselves. We still have no market share for these kegs but we are about to start mass production. We are still waiting for further feedback from the breweries that are currently using and testing our kegs.” The kegs should then be provided with both A-style and D-style couplers. The reason for choosing the K53 model was economics. “We are able to blow our containers on one machine rather than two“, explained Tour Sponsors: Will Fiala showing kegs in front of his company. 20 l keg 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