Krones continued to grow in 2018. Revenue increased by 4.4% to EUR 3.85 billion. The company thus attained the revised forecast of 4% revenue growth announced in autumn 2018. Adjusted for currency and acquisition effects, revenue in 2018 rose by around 5%.

Following the announcement of the partnership between Petainer, KHS Japan and Mitsubishi Chemical to bring one-way PET kegs to the Japanese beer market, the unique new DLC keg, 10 and 20l, has been launched in the market.

As a leading player in the domestic beer market, Heineken Vietnam was looking to significantly increase the beer production output of its Tien Giang site, located in the south of the country. And they needed to do it quickly. Long-term partner and expert in turnkey solutions for beer players, Gebo Cermex, supported this ambitious goal with a complete line project, featuring among other highly efficient and high-performing solutions the new Sidel filler, EvoFILL Can.

State-of-the-Art Line Integration

Increased line efficiency | The renowned German brewery Rothaus inaugurated state-of-the-art sorting and filling lines at their site in the High Black Forest in the beginning of the year. Maximum uptime and increased reliability of these lines were made possible thanks to the line engineering and conveying expertise of their longstanding business partner Gebo Cermex.

CO.MAC is an active company in the design, manufacturing, repair, maintenance and technical support for beverage filling and packaging machines, especially beer in returnable and non-returnable kegs.

The water company has invested in state-of-the-art technology to cater to increased demand for their products from both Ireland and the UK markets. This choice gave them both the flexibility to tackle strong market growth and the ability to handle new product launches.

The Silexa Growler&BottleFiller is a new innovation for small breweries and beer pubs. Per device up to four different beers in up to four different bottle sizes can be chosen. On a full-colour touch display, the filling process is explained in simple steps: First, choice of beer; second, choice of the desired growler that is then put into the device. A handling error is excluded, the device detects whether the right growler has been set. After lowering the lid, the filling process can be started; an adjustable RGB LED lighting highlights the scenery yet. Depending on the type of beer about two liters are filled in 60 seconds. The growler is given a CO₂ blast so that it can be closed without oxygen occlusion, so beer is stable for at least two weeks, depending on the variety also four weeks.

Innovative Empties Sorting

Homogeneous | In November 2017, the private brewery Erdinger Weißbräu Werner Brombach GmbH, Erding, Germany, inaugurated a new bottling line. The brewery also invested in a new central sorting facility, which ensures the supply of all three filling lines with pure empties.

Nanjing Ziquan, one of China’s leading co-packers, has turned again to to the Switzerland-based company to increase its hot fill production capacity of Mizone, a functional drink brand particularly popular in China and packaged in PET, for which consumption is growing. The new line – running at a speed of 36,000 bottles per hour (bph) – follows positive feedback on a similar complete hot fill PET line installed in 2013. It brings the total number of hot fill lines installed in the Nanjing plant to three. The Chinese co-packer were looking for a solution which was respecting the highest hygienic standards required by its customer, while paying close attention to cost-efficiency so to keep the positive trajectory of its profitability.

Modern Filling Technology in the Uzbek Water Market

Grippy lightweights | The water market is growing worldwide. How beverage producers are meeting the increasing demand and preparing themselves for future growth in this segment is illustrated by the example of the Butsifal Group in Uzbekistan. With a high-performance KHS filling and packaging line for PET bottles the beverage producer founded in 2009 is challenging the supremacy of local market leaders and even doing business beyond its own national boundaries.

With the Innoket Roland 40 the filling and packaging systems manufacturer has launched a compact labeler to market. The Innoket Neo’s little brother has a capacity of 2,500 to 25,000 containers per hour and is thus specifically tailored to the requirements of the food industry. The Innoket Roland 40 can be fitted with various labeling stations and is characterized by its ease of use and the accustomed high quality offered by the company.