Sidel is celebrating a successful week after exhibiting at Drinktec 2022 (between the 12-16 September) in Munich. Existing and potential customers met with packaging experts on the Sidel booth and there was a very strong attendance that surpassed expectations for visitor numbers, post-pandemic.
The Sidel stand showcased customer success stories from projects around the world, alongside interactive multi-media presentations and demonstrations of advanced systems and services, line engineering, and digital and eco-solutions, including aseptic production, sustainability, packaging optimisation and holistic turnkey solutions.
The booth illustrated latest packaging equipment and was designed to engage all the senses. Sidel stated that the response to this alternative approach to showcasing packaging technology was very warmly received by customers and competitors alike and feedback at the show suggested that Sidel is now recognised as setting a new trend when it comes to exhibiting at an event in the packaging industry.
Digital evolution
Sidel showcased digital solutions enabling customers to face challenges, and reach peak production performance without compromising operational costs, product quality or environmental impact. The Evo-ON software suite offers powerful cloud computing and data analytic technologies.
Nathalie Periera, Vice President Digital Portfolio at Sidel said that conversations that she had at Drinktec focused on efficiency, time and cost savings. “At Drinktec our customers told us that whatever challenge or decision they are facing right now and whatever the topic, a really important factor is the need to be efficient and not waste time and money. They also want to make the right decision about the operation of their equipment at the right time. We presented the Evo-ON software suite to visitors; designed to supervise and optimise line performance.”
“Through a unique cloud suite with built-in intelligence, Evo-ON smart apps turn unused raw equipment data into powerful knowledge that customers can use to achieve peak performance. Our customers are on a journey towards being more confident in using digital solutions to help them manage the efficiency, reliability and safety of their lines and are starting to realise that Sidel can provide them not only with useful data through the Evo-ON platform but with the applied expertise required to help them make smart decisions,” added Periera.
In addition, Gabriele Gatti, Digital Product Director at Sidel said that customer confidence in digital solutions is increasing. Gatti said, “Collecting data about line performance is one thing, applying high-quality analysis drawing on years of existing digital packaging expertise is another and at Sidel we do both, enabling customers to turn raw data into smart decisions. This is exemplified in our Evo-ON software suite; where we have a range of carefully chosen KPIs that we can provide for customers to use on their lines, and we are constantly configuring and developing new ones. The key takeaway from conversations at Drinktec for me was that digital is moving from the personal to the industrial, with customers gaining confidence from the ease of use with apps in their personal life and realising that these solutions can be applied at a business level as well.”
Sustainable transformation
Eco-friendly packaging alternatives were showcased, from 100% recycled PET (rPET) and light-weighted primary packaging with tethered caps, to optimised secondary and tertiary packaging alternatives.
Francesca Bellucci, Sustainability Director at Sidel said that customers at Drinktec were positively impressed by the focus Sidel put on sustainability.
“Sustainability is a journey that Sidel embarked upon many years ago and therefore we are already able to offer to our customers a lot of fantastic savings in energy, water, chemicals and in plastic consumption. We have demonstrated that we are serious about sustainability by setting our science-based targets; we are on the 1.5 degrees pathway in response to the Paris Agreement, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in order to limit global warming and we are reducing our scope 1&2 emissions by 50% by 2030 and scope 3 by 25%.”
Bellucci added, “At Drinktec customers told us that sustainability is a key topic on their agenda now. It started a few years ago with the big corporations, but now it’s cascading down to smaller customers and when they see that we can offer them not only sustainability savings but also cost savings, the interest grows immediately.”
Vincent Le Guen, Vice President Packaging, Moulds & Line Solutions at Sidel said that many of the packaging conversations that he had with customers at Drinktec were around sustainability:
“Sustainability is really the way for customers to go, through packaging optimisation because they realise that we cannot dissociate sustainability from operational costs. At Drinktec we offered a really good connection between being much more sustainable, while driving the cost of operation down. I am confident that existing and potential customers will follow through on some of the conversations we have had because packaging optimisation will drive line conversion. Sidel is now demonstrating this by enabling customers to provide more sustainable packaging at lower operational costs.”
Sidel’s new 1SKIN no label is 100% recycled PET bottle and is designed for sensitive beverages, protecting the beverage inside it and made for recycling with a tethered cap in line with upcoming EU regulations.
Naima Boutroy, Global Packaging Expert at Sidel said that one of the things that stood out at Drinktec in conversations with customers was that they were pleasantly surprised that PET is one of the most sustainable packaging materials today.
“Customers were surprised that PET generates much lower greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to some other packaging materials because of the weight of the material in combination with the ability to recycle and close loop bottle to bottle. We presented some numbers and many people who we spoke to had no idea about huge savings on emissions from PET, particularly when you add 100% recyclability into the calculations. By using PET in combination with recycling and making bottles lighter we can make significant carbon savings and it is possible to move very close to being carbon neutral. Another trend was a lot of questions around the higher cost of moving to rPET and how to offset that by optimising packaging.”
Aseptic
With 47 years’ experience in aseptic packaging equipment technology, Sidel premiered the Aseptic Predis X4 their new development.
Guillaume Rolland, Vice President PET & Sensitive Portfolio at Sidel said that customer needs are always evolving. “Customers visiting our booth were very interested in solutions for sensitive products- so liquid dairy products, juices, nectars, soft drinks with many of them interested in investing in aseptic technology. There was a high level of interest in our new Aseptic Predis X4 solution, showcased at the event for the first time, which is an integrated blow-fill-cap solution that incorporates consolidated Predis dry preform sterilisation.”
“As always, these customers are focused on food safety and quality, alongside easy-to-use solutions that allow them to be extremely flexible, giving them the ability to produce many different types of bottled products on their line. They are increasingly interested in the way that Sidel’s digital solution, the Evo-ON platform, supports our Aseptic equipment because it makes these lines even safer and easier to manage,” added Rolland.
Complete line solutions
Philippe Leclerc, Vice President End of Line & Can & Glass Portfolio said that a lot of the feedback that he received from customers at Drinktec was that they were really looking for complete line solutions. “They were also happy to hear that we are more than a PET company with a much wider offering when it comes to packaging solutions. We also heard that the way that we presented our innovation and capabilities was very helpful to customers. That’s because we presented an animated and interactive ‘digital twin’ video on a touch screen, where it was possible to see an overview of the way that the whole line works or zoom right in and look at the detail of the machine – for example to see how a filling valve works, “ added Leclerc.