Africa’s Beverage Sector Records Breakthrough In PET Bottle Technology

It’s New Future For PET Packages, Says Sidel VP

STARLITE Base, a new technology considered to be resistant to very high temperatures and adaptable to demands by Bottled Water providers in Africa, has been introduced. 

 Referred to as StarLite, Sidel, a provider of complete and modular PET packaging solutions, told The Guardian that it is a new design to the base of standard PET bottles. 

    PET (also known as Polyethylene terephthalate) is a thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibers — beverage, food and other liquid containers, thermoforming applications, and engineering resins — often in combination with glass fiber. 

  At an increasing global rate, many beverages, food items and other consumer products are now delivered in bottles or packages made from PET. 

   According to some operators in Nigeria’s beverage sub-sector, with a slightly altered design from the standard base, Sidel’s StarLite Base Technology is debuting on the continent to give added durability, stability, and overall resistance to the bottles, even as the new design offers a more energy efficient method of production, allowing producers to achieve significant savings on both energy and the amount of PET used for the overall production of the bottles. 

    The revolutionary design employs two different components in the base simultaneously. The first component is the Edge BeamTM, which is a groove system that keeps the base rigid. The second component of the design is called the Smart DiscTM. This underlying facet gives the base more structure while preventing deformities during any part of the production line. Producers adopting this new base design can expect to see up to 30 per cent resistance from top-load denting on the pallet and up to 55 per cent side-load resistance on the conveyor belt or in a vending machine.

In addition to shock and pressure resistance, these features give the bottles added resilience to extreme conditions. In tests of extreme heat above 50°C, bottles with the StarLite technology is said to average up to 25 days without bottle deformation. On the other hand, under frozen conditions they experience up to a 50 percent reduction in bottle rollout.  Stakeholders believe that this will be extremely beneficial to producers in Africa region during the hot summer months.

   Clive Smith, vice president, Greater Middle East and Africa Zone for Sidel, told The Guardian that StarLite technology also allows for more lightweighting options for producers. “By implementing the technology, an average of one gram of PET for 0.5 litre bottles and up to two grams of PET for 1.5 litre bottles could be saved. This equates to up to EUR 700,000 cost savings per year. 

  “Furthermore, energy savings are a huge possibility too. Only 16 to 20 bars of pressure are required for 0.5 to 1 litre bottles, as opposed to the standard 25 bars, equating to up to 25 per cent in energy cost savings (EUR 900,000). 

  ‘Additionally, the technology is compatible with Sidel Matrix system, resulting in possible outputs of over 2,250 bottles per mould per hour.”

    Samuel Gobbe, the Customer Service Director at Sidel, said: “Bottled water remains the top selling item in the global non-alcoholic beverage market. With countries like Nigeria which is forecasted to consume 49,647 million litres in 2018 and have a steady growth of over 11 percent over the past four years, it has become increasingly apparent that we have to make our customer’s PET do a lot more for them. This new technology will ensure that their PET is being used efficiently and effectively while they enjoy the savings.”

    He continued: “As with all of our new innovations, StarLite is compatible with our Matrix technology, as well as integrated into already existing bottle designs. It is a perfect fit in high heat environments as it shows resistance to the very high temperatures and is easily adaptable to customer requirements.”

   The design, which was first released late last year, has already had much success in terms of environmental impact and sustainability. It won the award for the “Best Environmental Sustainability Initiative” category at the 2013 Global Bottled Water Awards. Since then, the design has been employed for the production of juices and CSDs throughout the Greater Middle East and Africa region. However, with the rise in popularity of bottled water, both still and carbonated, Sidel has realized the potential for this technology in this niche of the market and released it for continued success. Some of the customers who adopted this technology from around the world are Nestle Pakistan, Rayyan Water in Qatar and Araak Food Industries in Sudan among many others.

     In an email exchange with The Guardian, Sidel specifically posited that Coca-Cola’s latest PET bottle project will add value to what it has been offering and will help increase sustainable volumes of the PET bottles segment which is already growing substantially.

   “Sidel,” according to Clive, “has been a partner of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company since 1986. In Nigeria, we supplied them with their first PET bottle-producing machine about 15 years ago. Since then, a number of equipment has been installed by Sidel Group in CC Hellenic plants in Nigeria, the latest being the high speed PET line at Ikeja plant, which is responsible for the production of all formats of the Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light, Fanta, Sprite, Schweppes, Cappy, Five Alive and Eva brands.

   “Coca-Cola is one of our biggest partners globally and our collaboration with them spreads over a span of several decades. Our objective is to always help Coca-Cola increase efficiency with state-of-the-art, easy-running technologies. Sidel has also been selected recently to develop Coca-Cola’s new bottle shapes as well as achieve optimization and reduction of bottle weight.”

  The Sidel Vice President also explained that his company is constantly working on providing added value to its customers by presenting the most innovative solutions that fit their particular market needs. 

Nigeria, Clive said, has its own specificities as a country, “characterised by its infrastructure, matured market, very young population and increasing urbanisation. Hence, we work on projects that are customised to meet those specific needs, keeping in mind our customers’ focus on lowering cost and increasing efficiency.” 

   He posited that, in the foreseeable future, PET packages would rapidly grow to be the preferred option for beverages in Africa. “PET is a unique packaging material, as it meets the expectations and needs of beverage producers and consumers alike.  It is light in weight, shatter-resistant, fully recyclable and offers outstanding design flexibility at an extremely competitive price.  It is therefore not surprising that its use has witnessed a strong growth over the last 30 years. In short, it is a bottling material perfectly suited to the demands of today’s world.”

Clive disclosed that Nigeria is one of Sidel’s focus markets which is growing at a very fast pace, even as he observed that the country is experiencing a massive growth in the beverage industry and thus offers a huge potential for Sidel’s business to flourish and grow. “We have done business in Nigeria with big producers such as Pepsi, Nestlé, GSK Group, Heineken, as well as independent bottlers, and we look forward to many more business ventures,” he said. 

    Part of the Tetra Laval group and headquartered in Switzerland, Sidel has over 160 years of industrial experience. With 30,000 machines installed in more than 190 nations, it has been helping producers fill beverage bottles for over 80 years, blow them for more than 50 and label them for more than 35. The company also has 40 years of aseptic packaging expertise, and was one of the first companies to introduce PET bottles to the beverage industry over 30 years ago.

   The Switzerland-based company has over 50 office locations, 13 production sites and seven training centres worldwide. 

  Clive in an email exchange, put Sidel’s staff strength at over 3,400 employees, spread over five continents.