Sipa, an Italy-based bottle supplier with operations all over the world, says that the complete acquisition earlier this month of bottle line supplier Berchi Group, now allows it to offer consumers a wider number of services for their packaging.
Beverage groups are increasingly coming under pressure to find new ways to cut down on the perceived environmental impacts of their operations. Sipa claims its latest acquisition can offer benefit its customers regarding the energy use required during manufacture of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) packaging.
Berchi buy
A spokesperson for the company told BeverageDaily.com that the acquisition of the Berchi group has been ongoing since an initial 40 per cent acquisition of the group back in July 2007.
While the full acquisition of the group’s assets will not expand the types of packaging available from Sipa, the spokesperson claimed that the company now has fully integrated filling and end of line operations.
“SIPA can now offer its own filling machines, capping machines, handling robots, conveyors, shrink wrappers and automation,” the company said. “Providing an integrated blowing, filling and capping system, as we now do, we can provide advantages in terms of energy saving with consequent cost reduction and environmental benefits.”
PET resurgence
The purchase comes amidst a general market resurgence for a number of major suppliers of PET packaging both in food and cosmetic use.
Just last month, fellow packager Amcor said that its PET pack segment had helped drive profitability in its operations over its last full financial year.
The company said that the ongoing replacement of glass with PET in its Latin American operations for customisable packaging had helped drive the growth.