BOTTLING / FILLING PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 05/22 www.petpla.net 41 logo of a hotel chain, for example”, Mr Shah explained. “With the Covid pandemic and the consequent downturn in the hotel, restaurant and airline sectors, we decided to take the risk of moving into the retail sector. The demand for packaged water rose dramatically almost overnight and we are continuing to take advantage of this. Our second offering is our eco-friendlier bottles Clearth which was born with the need of sustainable packaging which has 40% less plastic leaving less carbon footprint, also called our earth edition clear water made of PET. Processing and bottling The company has two plants in Gujarat – the original facility in Ahmedabad and a second one in Surat, north-west of Nashik since 2009. Capacity is said to be over 270 million bottles per year. Still water that comes in 0.2 l, 0.5 l, 1-litre, and 2-litre bottles is produced over a work area of 14,000m2. Around three billion litres of water are processed annually, drawn from the River Tapi in Surat and from a well borehole in Ahmedabad. In addition, 20 other locations throughout India bottle Clear Premium Water under licence, with Energy Beverages producing almost half a billion bottles each year. AFM Active Flow Molding Core movement for less preform weight German Technology September 12-16, 2022 Munich, Germany Hall C5, Booth 440 “We make some of the preforms and caps ourselves”, said Mr Shah. “We are currently using two preform machines supplied by Chinese manufacturer Unique (U-PET23OE-2000. OP90/90 EE80) with 48 cavities. We make two types of preforms ourselves, both with a 26/22 neck that weighs 6.5 g and 9.5 g. We also use 28 mm preforms weighing 8.4 g,13 g and 21 g. Furthermore we have a Jeepine compression moulding cap machine with 24,000 caps per hour each along with Tech-Long DSL-60X20 Combi blocks with 32,400 bottles per hour. Additionally we buy caps that are produced on Sacmi equipment. The Combi blocks take care of bottle blowing, filling, capping, labelling and all the peripherals. We also use ABB transport robots. We have around 50% share in PET bottles and depending on what further changes are made to legislation governing the use of rPET in beverage and food packaging in India – such work has already been approved here for the first time after years of effort on the part of manufacturers – Energy Beverages is also planning to use recycled material in its bottles.” Sustainable expansion The business plan is geared to growth. Over the next five years, the company plans to acquire two more co-packers each month and purchase another bottling plant every year. Dedicated preforming and capping facilities are also to be added in Gujarat. “On the one hand, our approach is always to be goal-oriented and to produce unique products using state-of-the-art equipment that meets all international standards”, said Mr Shah. “On the other, we also want to focus our efforts increasingly on sustainability with our Clearth packaging strategy. I believe the combination of our product made and distributed with heart and soul by a committed team and our willingness to explore sustainable ideas already sets us apart from many other manufacturers. We want to continue to be close to the heart of the market and respond to consumer needs and trends as necessary”. www.clearpani.com Automatic palletising of the finished water bottles Clear Premium Water
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTY0MjI=