Presidents, politicians, and the Pope are not the only ones who are measured on their first 100 days in office. Every person who is promoted or hired into management is closely watched by colleagues, staff, superiors, or the Supervisory Board. These days especially, establishing yourself in your new role quickly is critical. So, how were Christoph Klenk’s first 100 days as CEO of Krones? We spoke with him – about himself, the first 100 days in office, and the challenges for a machinery supplier on the beverage and packaging market. 

Is everything really becoming more complex – or does it just feel that way? 

We wanted to find out, so we asked some bottling companies: niche market operators Gropper, and Coca-Cola. Karl Klein, Managing Director for Production and Technology, and Christian Oppitz, Managing Director for Marketing and Distribution, filled us in on the market for fresh milk, fresh fruit juice and smoothies, and the challenges for PET in this niche market. Customizing and emotionalizing products for the consumer requires the filling industry to be flexible, which poses new challenges in planning and production for plant engineers, and particularly for bottling companies. As we found out in our conversation with Dr. Stefan Seiss, Supply Chain Director for Coca-Cola in Berlin, this not only affects niche markets for PET, but also established drinks with very high filling rates. 

An article by Paul Atkin from Nissei ASB brings us up to date with the current possibilities for the one step process. What’s interesting here is that technical hollow bodies, e.g. for colour cartridges for photocopiers, can also be produced this way. 

Marc Jacobs of Itim International turns once again our attention to intercultural competence. His key question in this second part of his article is „How to measure and manage your corporate culture“. 

We caught up with Dr Frank Welle and his colleagues at the Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging (IVV) in Freising, Germany, to talk about the current analytics methods for food packaging, and PET recycling. 

IN BUSINESS focuses on recycling technologies and recycling plants, gives a review on CHINAPLAS and a preview on the PET PASSION WEEK 2016.

The edition’s OUT OF ROUTINE takes us to Namibia, where Christin Obst from Namibia Breweries gives us an insight into a fascinating country: “her” Namibia. Both the interview and the article will be likely to make you want to visit this country.  In Namibia they are also celebrating the 500th anniversary of the German beer purity law in style, so we decided to take a look at the timeline of the interesting history of beer in Namibia. 

We wish you an enjoyable read.

Yours,

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Otto Appel

PETnology/tecPET GmbH