Emirates Refreshments Company Achieves 25 % Cost Savings With Production Line Upgrades

To boost efficiency and maintain a competitive edge in what is a tough market, Emirates Refreshments Company (ERC) has carried out a short-neck conversion on its PET bottling line. ERC, brand owners of Jeema Mineral Water and carbonated soft drink O Cola, worked with Sidel, the leading provider of production equipment and services for liquids in PET, to upgrade its production line with Sidel’s innovative PET packaging solutions.

“We had worked with Sidel for the past 17 years and we have always been satisfied with their solutions. By upgrading our PET production line with Sidel’s innovative solutions, we were able to make substantial cost savings that translated into 25 per cent annually,” said Munther Khlifat Plant Manager at ERC.

The beverage sector is expected to continue growing in the UAE across various categories. In 2015, the consumption of water, the most consumed beverage item, stood at around 1.13 billion litres and is forecast to increase by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.2 per cent to reach 1.48 billion litres by 2019.

The solutions introduced for ERC included a blower, a filler and a combi, along with packaging and line improvement services. The objective in making the investment was to increase efficiency, reduce energy consumption, save raw materials, and cut production costs by lightweighting the company’s packaging through moving to a Sidel StarLite™ base and short neck.