Page 79 - Ameft Journal 2021-III

Long-term investment: KHS and Martens strengthen their partnership KHS and Martens are continuing to pursue their mutual strategy of re- ducing packaging materials. Only last year the traditional Belgian brewery invested in an Innopack Nature Mul- tiPack machine that forms PET bottles into stable packs with the help of dots of adhesive. Martens is now planning on procuring a second NMP machine from KHS to process cans. This exten- sion makes the brewery more flexible and thus able to meet the growing market demand for environmentally- friendly packaging. The NMP project at Martens is just one example of the ever-increasing portfolio of sustainable packaging systems engineered by the Dortmund turnkey supplier. Martens has relied on the material- saving Nature MultiPack or NMP sys- tem from KHS since 2020, when the long-term partners began produc- ing film-free six-packs of PET bottles for the retail trade in a joint venture. The response to the alternative to the classic shrink-film pack was extremely positive, as brewery boss Jan Martens remembers. “We were able to con- vince both our customers and con- sumers. The great demand shows that ecofriendly packaging is very popular.” The logical conclusion for Martens was thus to apply the tried-and-tested KHS system to its canning operations. Martens penetrates new markets with Nature MultiPack Due to the new system, in the future www.ameft.com Nature MultiPack system: The material-saving Nature MultiPack system from KHS forms cans or PET bottles into stable packs with the help of small dots of adhesive. Martens and KHS have produced film-free six-packs of PET bottles for the retail trade. the Belgian brewer will not only be able to form PET bottles but also cans into stable yet easy-to-separate packs. This makes the use of shrink film or cardboard superfluous, cutting mate- rial consumption by up to 90%. “This is good for our consumers and the envi- ronment,” smiles Martens. While the brewery uses a machine that fully satisfies its requirements with a maximum output of 54,000 con- tainers per hour, KHS now also has an Innopack Nature MultiPack machine for the high-performance range on of- fer. This further developed variant can manage up to 90,000 containers every sixty minutes – or even 108,000 when running at overcapacity. Martens hopes that by expand- ing its NMP setup to include cans it can penetrate new markets. “Retailers are constantly on the lookout for environmentally- friendly packaging options. I’m certain that our resource-saving Nature MultiPack solutions will at- tract plenty of interest,” the brew- ery boss predicts. His brewery AMEFT 3 2021 79 T S (Source: KHS/Martens) TE E C CH H N N O OL L O O G G Y Y & &S SU US T T A AI I N NA AB BI IL LI IT T Y Y