As one of the biggest suppliers of machines and complete lines to the beverage industry, Krones is now looking to position itself as a company that can also plan and build complete beverage factories.
The drinks industry as a whole may be reeling from the global recession and many companies are looking to cut back on their production capacity rather than invest in new facilities.
Demand drivers
But Krones claims that interest from beverage companies for complete factories is actually increasing significantly. And counter intuitively this increased demand is linked to the desire to cut costs and trim operations down to size.
Krones said its clients have for some time been downsizing their in-house engineering capacity in favour of concentrating on their core businesses. They are therefore turning to outside expertise, and this, Krones said, is one of the factors that helps explain why it is observing an increase in interest in complete factory planning.
Alexander Sixt, a Krones spokesperson, told BeverageDaily.com that interest in complete factory building is also being driven by the desire to just talk to one supplier rather than having to coordinate work with several partners.
Local partners
But when working on building projects Krones itself will seek out local partners. Sixt said this is especially important when it comes to civil engineering because partners bring to the table invaluable knowledge of local building norms and legal requirements.
Krones first moved into complete factory planning two years ago when it established the “Plant Engineering” division. Sixt said the division, which employs 30 people, is now in a position to promote itself as a one-stop-shop for planning and constructing beverage facilities.
Drawing upon the experience gained from numerous projects already completed over the past two years, Krones claims that it is well able to meet all the complex requirements for planning and building new state-of-the-art factories.