EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 26 No. 03/25 www.petpla.net 10 Family business for preforms and bottles of all kinds “Four out of six PET bottles on the market come from our factories” by Kay Barton The Aquah Group has several production sites in 6th of October City. What once started small has become one of the most important players in the country for more than four decades: the Aquah family, which gave the company its name, now has 13 sites in Egypt, primarily in the preforming and bottle blow moulding sector for all beverage, food and non-food segments, including medical packaging. In conversation with both CEO Karim Salah Al Aquah and VP Ahmed Salah Al Aquah, sons of the original founder Mr Salah Al Aquah, we not only visited various plants in the surrounding area, but above all learnt what it means to be guided by inspiration. Interview with The Aquah Group September 8, 2024 We met: Mr Karim Salah Al Aquah, CEO Mr Ahmed Salah Al Aquah, VP Karim Salah Al Aquah’s spacious office, where we sat down for the interview, is located on the top floor of the Aquah Group’s headquarters and offers a view of the industrial area from its window front. Diagonally opposite, at the other end of the room, hangs a document that actually started it all, as Karim explained to us, long before the Aquah Group itself existed, which today processes 60,000 t of PET. “My father is a chemical engineer and had a scholarship in Japan, where he attended a Plastics Technical Training course at the Osaka Municipal Technical Research Institute in 1979. There he was involved in the birth of the first PET preform production on a single-stage machine. He has always been fascinated by the possibilities of PET processing,” said Mr Al Aquah. This led to the founding of the Aquah Group in 1981, initially as a pure machine and product trading platform, the Egyptian Company for Industrial Suppliers (ECIS). “Over the years, we have helped shape interesting projects,” said the CEO. “For example, we hold patents for several injection and blow moulds in the Middle East and have developed a 340 g preform for foldable dispenser bottles with high IV together with Siapi. We designed the PepsiCo Aquafina bottle, which Siapi then produced with us.” In 2000, the father founded the Polypet division, which is also where we were at the meeting and in which 3,500 t/a of PET are produced into over 80 million preforms and bottles for a wide range of applications. This was followed in 2006 by the Egyptian Company for Agricultural Packaging (ECAP), specialising in large-volume PET containers for mineral water with around 30 million units per year and 500 million small-volume bottles for mineral water and edible oil. In the same year, the Egyptian Company for Fibers & Plastics (ECFP) was also founded, specialising in preforms for dairy products, detergents, edible oils, mineral water and soft drinks, both for domestic sales and exports, with a consumption of around 10,000 t/a of PET. Finally, Polytech for Plastics and Chemicals also started in 2006, specialising in large PET preforms, bottles and jars for the mineral water and food industry. “Our plants are located in various strategic locations on the outskirts of the capital Cairo,” said Mr Ahmed Salah Al Aquah, explaining the strategic setup. “Here in 6th of October City we mainly deal with preforms and dairy bottle production, in the 10th of Ramadan City we make preforms, pharmaceutical bottles and also produce plastic crates and pallets, another business segment in our group. Preforms and bottles for CSDs, detergents and pharmaceuticals are produced in Al Obour. In Al Sadat we take care of all bottle blowing related operations and in El Sokhna we have our supply chain management. All in all, four out of six PET bottles on the market come from us.” CEO Karim Salah Al Aquah next to a Husky HyPET HPP5e+ 300 line EDITOUR CEO Karim Salah Al Aquah next to his father’s certificate from the Technical Institute in Osaka
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