PET jars with benefits – interview with Petainer’s Annemieke Hartman-Jemmet

Tapping into its adding-value philosophy, Petainer has extended its PET technology know-how to food jars for the first time.

A leader in the supply of carbonated and returnable soft drinks bottles in PET, as well as beer kegs, and water chiller bottles, Petainer has developed a wealth of expertise in incorporating barrier technology and lightweighting into its packaging design. It has developed its new PetainerJar for food products, with the potential for added UV or O2 barriers, scavenger technology, reduced materials or greater use of recycled material depending on customer requirement.

The PetainerJar is created using a two-stage process and can be blown by manufacturers on their own site or delivered from Petainer’s local blowing hubs as fully blown jars.

“We can create dedicated preforms for customers that are then shipped in bulk to our locations globally where they are blown close to the customers’ premises,” said Hartman-Jemmett, who explained that unlike traditional wide-mouthed jars that are produced in Europe for shipping further afield, the PetainerJars travel as preforms thereby saving significantly on transport and therefore CO2 emissions. “It’s too early to give figures for the possible savings, but for our kegs, if we blow 30 litre kegs and then ship them we can get 2,000 kegs on a truck. Instead, with our two-stage process we transport 30,000 kegs in the same truck, but as preforms.”

Technologically, it is very difficult to produce high quality jars in a two-stage process explained Hartman-Jemmett.

“In a two stage process, it is hard to blow the solid state plastic preform and obtain an even distribution of the plastic in the mould. We have applied our technology expertise and mixed different types of materials to come up with a high performance preform that works for jars. This hasn’t typically been done before, certainly not with a two-stage process,” said Hartman-Jemmett.

Currently, Petainer has production sites for preforms and blowing in Sweden and the Czech Republic, with blowing facilities to be added in these locations shortly; large container blowing facilities in Russia and Australia, plus blowing partnerships for the PetainerJar preforms specifically in Poland and the UK. Additional strategically positioned blowing lines will come on stream for PetainerJar blowing as we roll-out the product, and we are looking for further blowing partner hubs in the US and Europe,” said Hartman-Jemmett. “Having hubs geographically close to our customers reduces the transportation costs and lead time. Lead times can be lengthy and inflexible when bringing preforms in from India or China, for example, which can leave customers with large investments cash flow tied-up for excessive periods of time.”

Petainer is looking to overcome these hurdles for food companies and to tap into the potential growth of quality jars made from PET.

“The jar market is substantial, but we don’t want to capture the whole market with high volumes driven by price,” confirmed Hartman-Jemmett. “Instead, we are looking to improve the pack performance for our customers, whether with improved shelf life, improved environmental performance or lightweighting. We aim to provide an advantage over what else is available.

“Big brand owners today are concerned more and more with improving their CO2 emissions, their Corporate Social Responsibility, reduction of use of materials, and improved use of recycled materials, so we need to hit all of those buttons to be of use to them,” she said. “The market for PET jars is as yet quite under developed. Brand owners have a packaging mix open to them with glass, metal or other packs, and PET offers another opportunity to bring products to market.

“Consumer taste and acceptance is changing. Whereas glass was seen as the premium in the past for wine or herrings for example, now plastic corks are widely acceptable even for fine wine. The same logic will be applied to PET packs for premium products.”

As this potential continues, Petainer’s new PetainerJar, which is available in sizes from 300ml to 7.6litres with standard neck sizes from 63 to 120mm plus a myriad of bespoke options, is set to bring the necessary added value and convenience of supply to the market.