A FRENCH PLASTIC firm has expanded its Muntinlupa plant, putting up two new manufacturing lines for plastic caps for carbonated soft drink bottles to capitalize on the Philippines’ huge beverage market.
Zeller Plastik Philippines, Inc., a unit of Paris-based Global Closure Systems, will begin selling plastic caps to local firms, after exclusively supplying to multinational companies in the personal care and household industries since 1992.
It noted that the Philippines has the second highest per capita consumption of carbonated soft drinks in Asia.
“We are ready to supply the [carbonated drinks] market because this is where we have extensive background in Asia,” said Bertrand Tellier, regional sales director of Global Closure Systems Asia-Pacific.
A reason for the local expansion was the global trend of beverage companies replacing aluminum seals with plastic caps.
“Probably the glass [bottle] will remain dominant in the market [given the huge investment needed to replace soft drink filling lines], but we see an increasing opportunity for conversion from aluminum caps to plastic caps.”
Mr. Tellier said the company expects the new products to increase sales in the country by up to 12% annually.
Mr. Tellier said Global Closure Systems had invested substantially in the expansion of the plant, which increases production capacity by 500 million caps annually.
“The revenue we will generate from this investment will contribute about 10% of our next year’s [sales objective] in the region,” he said.
Mr. Tellier said the Philippine plant, while intended mainly for the local market, will combine with Global Closure Systems’ Thailand facility to sell some output to regional customers.
“The primary objective is to support domestic growth but we want to expand to the neighboring markets. We expect to stretch supplies to the Southeast Asian and Australian markets,” he said.
Mr. Tellier said Global Closure Systems also wants expand into other beverage segments such as juice, tea, energy drink and water.
Global Closure Systems serves markets in 100 countries, producing over 40 billion caps and dispensing systems annually.
The company has factories in 26 sites worldwide for customers in the food, beverage, personal care, pharmaceutical, household and industrial markets.
source: bworldonline.com
