Packaging products efficiently and attractively is something any manufacturer desires, because customers are firstly attracted to the package. Quality products with poor packaging have often been rejected by customers.
In the international markets, the quality of the package a product comes in can determine its acceptance or rejection into the destination country. Realising this need, SIDEL made its debut in Nigeria in 2007, to provide packaging solutions to manufacturers, so that producers can concentrate on their core competence which is the production of the products.
Thierry Wengler, executive director, SBA Nigeria Limited, explains his company’s operations in Nigeria.
According to him, “We are into sales, installation and maintenance of machines for the beverage and other industries that produce and package various products. We, therefore, offer packaging machines and containers such as cans, plastic bottles (PET) returnable and non-returnable glass bottles. These machines include: blowing machines, filling machines, capping, pasteurising, packing, palletising, etc. We chose to establish in Nigeria because with a population of about 150 million inhabitants, it is for now the biggest market in Africa.”
“Competition has been keen,” says Wengler, adding that it has not been an easy market. He however affirms, “But the customers believe in SIDEL/SBA team in Nigeria with our after sale and spare parts business. So, we plan to enlarge our business beyond the food and beverage industry with the right solutions for these industries. We always encourage our clientele not to hesitate to ask us any questions on projects, with our research and development we will find the adequate solution together.”
As part of its vision to interact with its clients, SIDEL/SBA recently held a conference in Lagos tagged: ‘Nigeria & Sidel – Growing Together.’
Bosson Claude, managing director, SBA Nigeria Limited, said the company is in Nigeria to serve the Nigerian packaging industry, noting that “Our structure in Nigeria is about 40 employees. SBA currently has six offices in Africa (Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Angola, Kenya and Congo Brazzaville).
The current installation base in Nigeria includes: 11 PET lines, 25 blowers, six canning lines and seven RGB lines.
“Our first objective is to offer our customers, technical service with different expertise, as well as the supply of consumable spare parts for revisions with local facilities.”
He said SIDEL/SBA is at the disposal of its customers and potential ones for any technical or commercial questions.
Wengler said the programme was also to get introduced to potential customers. “We have about 40 different companies that come from the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, water, brewery and other industries at this forum. We have big companies such as Nestle, Unilever, PZ, and Heineken, but definitely, we want to provide products and services to smaller companies as well.”
He said the company was ready to sit with any customer to find out what kind of packaging solutions they need within their budget.
Sandesh Gosavi of Sonnex Packaging, one of the participants, said, “What we learnt would enable us be more innovative in our process, and therefore, our final products would be better, and we expect our market share to increase when we begin to apply the knowledge we have got here.”
Henry Braide, UAC, another participant, said the forum has given him the opportunity to interact with the manufacturers of the machines used for packaging at his workplace.
“The issues that we have had in the use of the machines have been addressed, and we now know what to do if we have any problem,” he noted.
Wengler said Nigerians are now ready to go for the best in quality machineries, and therefore, the Nigerian market is ripe for the product and solutions SBA Nigeria Limited provides. He said: “Nigerians are not so keen on buying cheap machines anymore. They now want better quality as they are beginning to know the difference.”
Daniel del Rio, chief operating officer, Grupo Modelo, one of the world’s largest automated factories located in Mexico in a statement, highlighted the role Sidel played in the realisation of that vision. “This plant has 66,000 cans per hour canning line, three 144,000 bottles per hour bottling lines, 10 million hectolitres of beverages a year, 37 robots, and so on.
To Rio, “For about three years, the two companies’ technicians and engineers worked side by side on every step in the project, from definition of the technical solution to final validation of the lines some days ago: a collaboration that resulted in the construction of the world’s most highly automated factory, not only in the beer sector but in the beverage industry as a whole.”
The Production & Logistic Automated System (PLAS) is a software developed entirely by Sidel for this plant. According to Rio, the software allows efficient management of production and use of consumables on the line, it is compact, therefore decreasing the need for conveyor belts as compared to a conventional solution and reduces maintenance costs and electricity consumption.” Rio concludes by saying that the plant was designed to produce beverage of high quality and this was met by Sidel’s provision of a highly automated solution.
With over 30,000 machines installed in 190 countries, the Sidel Group, headquartered in Switzerland is engaged in beverage packaging solutions: covering water, carbonated soft drinks, milk, sensitive beverages, oils, beer and alcoholic beverages.
Wengler reveals that the Sidel Group has production sites in 13 countries as well as sales and service offices in 30 countries and around the world, the Group has approximately 5,000 employees that provide customers with complete bottling solutions, including package design, line engineering, packaging machines and related services.