Today, 17 January 2018, Petainer, KHS Japan and Mitsubishi Chemical announce a new three-way partnership to bring one-way PET beer kegs to the Japanese beer market. Like other markets around the world, Japan is enjoying a boom in craft beer and the leading Japanese brands, such as Asahi and Kirin, are becoming increasing influential on the world stage.
The collaboration includes the development of a new 10L keg which is specifically designed for the Japanese market and supports the legislative trends aimed at reducing packaging weight limits. It complements the existing petainerKeg™ range of 15L, 20L and 30L kegs, which are now also available in the market.
Mitsubishi’s DLC barrier technology will be combined with Petainer’s patented petainerKeg™ technology to create the ‘DLC Keg’. The DLC replaces petainerKeg’s™ existing Nylon and Polyshield barrier technology and is clear, rather than the traditional amber. The removal of Nylon and colour ensures that the keg is recyclable as part of the Japanese recycling stream. Mitsubishi already uses DLC for some of its existing product ranges which it provides to the alcoholic drinks industry, including global brands such as Kirin.
Single-use PET kegs such as petainerKeg™, are increasingly being used as a more economical and efficient alternative to traditional steel kegs and glass bottles by brewers around the world. They are recyclable, cutting out costly return logistics and washing processes. In addition to significant cost of ownership and sustainability benefits, the kegs provide excellent product protection.
Initially, Mitsubishi will assemble the petainerKeg™ range and the DLC Keg after applying DLC technology in Japan, but will plan to manufacture the kegs by blowing from preforms.
Mitsubishi, KHS and Petainer will join forces to market, sell and distribute the DLC keg and petainerKeg™ range in Japan. The DLC keg manufactured in Japan will also available for global customers.
Commenting on the collaboration, Chris McEwan, Global Business Development Director at Petainer, said: “The partnership between Mitsubishi, KHS Japan and Petainer brings together best of breed expertise and technologies to create a much needed, cost-effective and sustainable packaging solution for Japan’s beer market.”
Mr. Yosuke Egawa, Senior Associate Director at Mitsubishi, said: “This is an exciting collaboration and one which meets the needs of the Japanese beer market. We have combined our proprietary technology with Petainer’s product to produce the DLC Keg which is perfectly tailored to the Japanese market”.
Hideo Suzuki, CEO of KHS Japan, commented: “This is an extension of our successful global distribution partnership with Petainer and an exciting development for the Japanese market. There is growing demand for cost-effective packaging solutions for Japanese breweries, large and small, to help them grow and enter new markets.”
For more information about Petainer’s range of products, visit www.petainer.com
About Petainer
Petainer is a global leader in high performance and sustainable packaging. It is a specialist engineering and disruptive technology business, an industry-leader in the development, design and manufacture of PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) food and beverage containers.
Petainer creates plastic packaging, often using highly engineered PET, which is stretched to reduce the weight of the packaging but without compromising strength and performance. This offers global brands advantages in terms of both cost and sustainability. See www.petainer.com.
Petainer is a UK-based company which has production plants in Sweden and the Czech Republic, blowing facilities in North America, Russia, India and Australia, as well as sales offices in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany, the USA, Canada, Brazil and UK.
About Mitsibushi Chemical
Mitsubishi Chemical is Japan’s major chemical company and offers a wide variety of products and solutions in two business domains ― performance products and industrial materials. We believe “sustainability,” “health,” and “comfort” are key words in 21st century society, and aim to amalgamate our lineup of products and technologies into power of “chemistry” that can help reduce CO2, for example, and greatly contribute to solving the problems that face our global society
About KHS Group
KHS GmbH is a supplier of filling and packaging systems based in Dortmund, Germany. The company offers filling lines for glass and PET bottles, kegs, and cans for the beverage, food, and non-food industries,
