TOP TALK PETplanet Insider Vol. 23 No. 10/22 www.petpla.net 14 PETplanet: Are customers interested more in complete lines or is it in specific machinery and equipment to be added to existing equipment? Pascal Lefèvre: In the food segment, in the edible oil business or sauce & dressing, our expertise mainly relies on delivering complete lines. In the HPC segments, most enquiries are for stand-alone equipment. PETplanet: What role does the sale of downstream equipment play in your planning? Pascal Lefèvre: End-of-Line equipment is key. It is the ‘backbone’ of our FHPC activity, with a growing need to bring agile and low energy consumption solutions. At Sidel we always plan for customer solutions that cover the complete production line process, right up to packaging and palletising products ready to be transported to supermarkets and wholesalers. By choosing Sidel, the customer has a one-stop shop for all their packaging needs, including downstream equipment such as packing, palletising and intralogistics systems. PETplanet: How has your business been affected by the global demand for rPET in containers? What changes in your equipment designs have been adopted as result? Pascal Lefèvre: Several aspects of recent legislation are driving beverage industry trends and there’s an increasing focus on sustainability. The European Single Use Plastics Directive (SUP), for example, impacts the circular economy of PET, defining the collection targets for PET beverage bottles to be at 77% in 2025 and 90% in 2029. It also requires increasing the share of rPET in beverage bottles, up to 25% by 2025 and 30% by 2030. We are witnessing the impact of the consumer’s lifestyle on the industry. On-the-go consumption and healthy living trends are continuously increasing and they are forcing the beverage industry to downsize bottle formats in some beverage categories, like carbonated soft drinks (CSD) and aseptic. On the food, home and personal care side, we face a growing demand to use rPET and our expertise in this field supports our customers in reaching their own sustainability targets. PETplanet: What is the market demand in terms of PET packaging for FHPC from your point of view and do you expect any changes, such as sustainability ambitions driven by brand owners? Pascal Lefèvre: The FHPC markets have different challenges. They are large but also very fragmented and growing constantly. The rapidly increasing importance of e-commerce reduces the accuracy of sales forecasts and puts pressure on margins and consequently has a strong impact on manufacturing. Consumers demand personalised products in terms of health and convenience at affordable prices. All this, together with sustainability and digitalisation requires new thinking at every level. Furthermore, bottle weight reduction is a strong demand, in order to reduce the amount of plastic tonnage consumed while maintaining the required mechanical constraints of the container. PETplanet: Which differences in packaging and demands can you observe when you compare this segment with the beverage segment? Pascal Lefèvre: In the FHPC markets, production lines are smaller than in beverages but much more agile and flexible. With the SKU proliferation generated by e-commerce, our customers need to change formats very often, and they need to do so quickly and efficiently. We also see a change in the case counts; customers are going to both lower and higher case counts, in order to cater for the needs of increased personalisation. PETplanet: What challenges, changes, and opportunities for Sidel have resulted from the Covid-19 situation? Pascal Lefèvre: Covid-19 has led to shortages in components, notably semi-conductors, and that has had an impact on the global packaging industry, impacting lead times and forcing costs up. As mentioned earlier, e-commerce has grown rapidly during the pandemic and this has led to less certainty in sales forecasts for manufacturing. However, we are experiencing strong demand for our products and services and are working to refresh and renew our face-to-face contact with customers. The pandemic and its causes have raised consumer concerns about food safety. To address these, we believe that food and beverage manufacturers are likely to pay more attention to food safety and traceability in every step of production. That can be reached by upgrading their existing solutions or by investing in equipment that is in compliance with regional, global and European food safety standards. PETplanet: Are there any defined investments/purchases that will align with the target for trebling FHPC by 2030? Pascal Lefèvre: Internal capabilities will be a core investment for Sidel and will include the utilisation of a comprehensive range of blowers and end-of-line solutions, including packers and palletisers, for any type of primary and secondary packaging. Sidel also offers complete or partial integrated lines in categories like edible oil, sauces & dressing, coffee and more. Nevertheless, we do not exclude the possibility of working on partnerships or acquisitions in order to cover the food, home and personal care markets we have selected. www.sidel.com
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