EDITOUR PETplanet Insider Vol. 25 No. 05/24 www.petpla.net 32 Preforms and now also closures from Riyadh Ready for the future by Kay Barton Future Plus in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is the sister company of the Abu Dhabi, UAE-based processor Future Plast Industries LLC. Both are part of the Saudi Printing & Packaging Company (SPPC) which is a prominent provider of packaging and printing solutions in the Middle East. The company is listed on the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange, employs 1,450 people, and operates 14 manufacturing facilities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. SPPC’s portfolio comprises five main categories: preforms and closures for the beverage industry, flexible packaging and labels, films and pouches, cups, containers, cling film and food packaging solutions, and commercial printing. Its customers include well-known brands such as Almarai, Abar Water, Pure Beverages, Pepsi, Lays, Burger King and McDonald’s amongst many more. EDITOUR Meeting with Future Plus Industries LLC (part of SPPC Group) February 19, 2024 We met: Mr Murali Krishna, General Manager Future Plus & Future Plast Mr Shihab Izzat, Sales Head KSA The company’s sustainability strategy involves creating packaging solutions that utilise renewable, recyclable, recycled, and biodegradable materials. PETplanet was able to meet Mr Murali Krishna, General Manager of Future Plus and Future Plast, in Riyadh. First a look back. Future Plast started its business in 2009 with a plant in Sharjah, UAE, later relocated to its current headquarters in Abu Dhabi and, with the Future Plus plant, expanded its radius of action beyond the country’s borders into neighbouring Saudi Arabia from 2012 in order to better exploit the potential there and respond to the growing needs of this increasingly open and developing country. GM Murali Krishna, is a chemistry graduate with a postgraduate diploma in Plastics Processing Technology from India’s Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering. After eight years of professional experience in India in various roles, his career took him to Saudi Arabia, Germany and China with Zamil Plastics and Essel Propack from 1994 to 2003, before moving to the UAE in 2003. He worked at Intergulf, Iffco Group as Business Development Manager until 2010 and then moved to the Enpi Group, where he was General Manager of the preforms and closures business. He has worked in the plastics and packaging industry for 36 years and has led many projects, including weight reduction of preforms and more exotic projects such as processing PLA material for water bottles, a true pioneering project launched in 2020. He currently heads both Future Plus and Future Plast as General Manager. From Riyadh city centre, it takes around 45 minutes, traffic permitting, to reach the “Second Industrial Area”, where the Future Plus plant is located. The plant, which employs 25 people and covers an area of 5,000m2, produces 30/25 high neck and 29/25 short neck preforms on three Husky HyPET 400 systems, each with 96 cavities. Around 900 million units per year, so far exclusively for bottlers of still water, are packaged in recyclable mesh boxes for the local market and an export section in one way jumbo gaylord boxes. “Another five HyPET systems with 96 cavities each are currently running in Abu Dhabi,” explained Mr Krishna. The Abu Dhabi facility is fully approved by Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Nestlé. A new addition to the Saudi machine park is an Engel E-Motion 380 injection moulding machine for closures, which was ordered in 2023 F.r.t.l.: Murali Krishna, Gregor Degasperi (Business Development at Z-Moulds), Kay Barton, PETplanet and Shihab Izzat, Sales Head KSA Freshly produced 29/25 closures in a trendy purple colour Closure inspection with equipment from IMD Vista
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