Sidel Shores Up Presence In Asia Pacific At ProPak Asia 2018

With ProPak Asia 2018 coming up in about one week, APFI speaks to Dominique Martin, vice president sales, South East Asia Pacific at Sidel. Sidel will be showcasing its latest innovation and technology at the show from 13-16 June at BITEC, Bangkok.

What are some of the latest products and solutions that Sidel has in store at ProPak Asia 2018?

At ProPak Asia 2018, Sidel will place a strong focus on its aseptic PET packaging solutions, leveraging over 40 years of aseptic packaging expertise and 35 years working with PET. The solutions that will be especially highlighted include the Aseptic Combi Predis, the unique aseptic solution with dry preform sterilisation, for which Sidel recently received Food and Drug Administration validation.

With the Sidel EvoDECO labellers, we will also be showcasing our latest advanced achievements in labelling and packaging, as it has never been more important to stand out from the crowd than in today’s competitive food and beverage market.

To be at the top, we apply our extensive PET packaging expertise from the initial, unique design to package optimisation, from qualifying performance to improving production costs. For our Sidel Super Combi, delivering long-term superior performance is absolute key. The solution – based on the proven Sidel Matrix platform – integrates five process steps into one single system: Preforms feeder, blowing, labelling, filling/capping and caps feeder.

By encompassing equipment intelligence, it enables continuous production optimisation and enhanced performance. This makes it the ideal solution for maximising water and carbonated soft drinks production and increasing line efficiency, while reducing total cost of ownership.

As such, it has been recognised as the ‘Best Manufacturing or Processing Innovation’ in the 2017 World Beverage Innovation Awards presented at the Drinktec trade fair in September last year. Designed to showcase the best in new developments and products from the beverage industry, last year’s Awards saw some 227 entries received from over 33 countries.

As a global company, what are Sidel’s views on some of the unique features and trends that characterise the Asia Pacific packaging market?

Asia Pacific is both the largest region and the most important one in terms of long-term growth prospects for the packaging industry, both in volume sales and value, thus fortifying the region’s leading position in food and beverages production globally. For example, Asia Pacific will contribute 41 percent of the global beverage production turnover.

Moreover, bottled water continues to be a robust category, recording continued volume growth in Asia Pacific, due to water’s strong health positioning as a hydration beverage. To capture this momentum, manufacturers are focused on launching new products with clear hydration benefits.

Along similar lines, customers in the region are looking to decrease their consumption of sugary drinks, as well as to direct their preferences more and more toward healthy products. So, pack sizes for drinks, especially those containing sugar, are anticipated to get smaller to promote portion control; for the markets that have introduced a sugar tax this helps decrease its impact.

Furthermore, manufacturers are looking to position product launches heavily via new packaging designs, promoting the drinks as health-conscious.

As a global company, Sidel is very much looking forward to introducing the Asia Pacific market to our future-proof technologies and market-tailored innovations, helping existing and prospective customers achieve long-term superior performance throughout the entire lifecycle of their packaging lines.

Are there any specific aspects that Sidel wishes to develop in the upcoming years?

Yes, Sidel is very much looking forward to further developing our expertise in the packaging of sensitive beverages. While Sidel has a long history of aseptic packaging expertise, the company will continue to place a strong focus on its aseptic PET packaging solutions.

Most notably, this includes the Aseptic Combi Predis, which has had great success with more than 100 solutions installed worldwide up until now. This proven solution handles aseptically-filled low and high-acid products in PET bottles, ensuring food safety and product integrity across the supply chain, while offering significant environmental advantages; all of this without compromising on flexibility, ease of operations, or cost-efficiency. Using no water and almost no chemicals, the Sidel Aseptic Combi Predis globally contributed to save 7 billion litres of water and 57,000 tons of PET, while producing 46 billion bottles.

We are also actively focusing on the development of smart manufacturing solutions. With the Sidel Super Combi, we made a strong advancement in this area. For instance, autonomous regulation is achieved via Sidel Intelli-adjust controlling the system’s performance and automatically applying adjustments wherever they are needed.

With Sidel’s overall packaging expertise, our customers get a thorough understanding of their entire supply chain, from market trends to distribution challenges. For any beverage type, we are there to help choose the right equipment for the specific needs. Our equipment ensures that the line can be flexibly adapted to get the most out of the investment – from blowing to filling and labelling all the way to palletising.

What are some of the challenges that Sidel foresees in the Asia Pacific region in the upcoming years?

Urbanisation and income growth in combination with the increasing health-consciousness are considerably changing consumer habits in the Asia Pacific region. In 2017, soft drink manufacturers in Southeast Asia experienced an overall slowdown in volume sales, coupled with a general shift towards healthy living, as governments introduced measures to reduce sugar consumption in soft drinks, also known as sugar taxes.

As consumers increasingly avoid carbonates due to the products’ high association with sugar, manufacturers are attempting to retain consumer loyalty by launching low-sugar or sugar-free alternatives, appealing to the increasing health consciousness. Meanwhile, carbonates containing fruit juice with reduced sugar content have been developed. These have created consumer interest because they are perceived as healthier.

In turn, these developments increase the demand for dairy and plant-based drinks, the focus on premium products and support the performance of bottled water and juices. In this growing and changing market place, Asian manufacturers, co-packers and brand owners need to be able to react flexibly to new demands and opportunities.

With the help of Sidel’s solutions, manufacturers can be better prepared for this challenge. Since beverages are likely to feature natural or organic ingredients or sugar-free sweeteners to maintain similar taste quality, they are expected to raise the cost of production for manufacturers, which is why manufacturers will need to find ways to reduce production costs.

Still facing increased prices, manufacturers will look to launch innovative packaging labels and designs to persuade the consumers, which is where Sidel’s expertise in packaging design and flexibility in labelling can step in.

With Sidel’s diverse range of products and solutions, what are your steps taken towards the sustainability cause?

From a packaging perspective, it is noteworthy that PET is one of the most widely used consumer plastics. The advantages of PET as a packaging material are numerous: It is strong, unbreakable, light, transparent, safe, and above all recyclable.

As a lightweight material, PET offers considerable environmental advantages in the form of lower transport costs and reduced fuel emissions. Its unique geometric properties and inherent barrier properties, together with its design flexibility, have enabled producers to use less and less material in the packaging process, while optimising energy use. These processes also help reduce waste and improve sustainability measures.

We can discover the enormous development that Sidel has achieved in regards to lightweighting: with the help of Sidel Rightweight, the bottle can weigh up to 34 percent less than the average commercial bottle, while achieving 32 percent more top-load performance than the lightest commercial bottle, saving up to 1.75 million Euros per year .

From a solution perspective, Sidel has also taken measures to increase the sustainability of its equipment. The Aseptic Combi Predis is an important step forward in terms of sustainable production because the dry preform sterilisation technology does not require any water and uses only minimal amounts of chemicals in the production process.

Moreover, the Sidel BoostPRIME packaging solution allows for bottles to be up to 30 percent lighter than regular PET alternatives, for substantial savings in resin costs. And lastly, the new Sidel EvoDECO labelling platform minimises resource consumption via the new melter and glue control distribution.

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