Ducona Holland BV, a producer of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles based in the Netherlands, is expanding its capabilities in food packaging. The company has installed a Sidel SBO 8 EvoBlow blow-moulding machine equipped with preferential heating technology for the production of flat PET containers for sauces. The investment makes it possible to increase production efficiency, reduce material consumption and extend the portfolio to a new market segment. This is another stage in the more than thirty-year cooperation between the two companies, based on the implementation of lightweight, energy-efficient and flexible packaging solutions.
Portfolio expansion into the sauce segment
Since the start of its operations in 1991, when it produced bottles for Selchemie, Ducona has gradually developed into a specialised supplier of PET packaging. Today, the company serves many categories of beverages and food products.
As emphasised by Gerben Schepers, general manager at Ducona: "We are growing not only in terms of production volume, but also in terms of product diversity and market segments, offering higher value-added packaging for water, syrups, juices, smoothies and now also sauces." The new investment enables entry into the sauce packaging segment, where more complex bottle geometries and high repeatability of mechanical and visual parameters are required.
Ducona’s business model is based on flexibility and short lead times, including shipment within 48 hours. Maintaining this level of service requires the use of modern, automated solutions. In this area, the company consistently relies on technologies supplied by Sidel.
Preferential heating technology for flat containers
The key element of the latest investment is the Sidel SBO 8 EvoBlow blow-moulding machine with preferential heating. The applied technology enables control of the temperature profile in the preform, tailored to the final, flatter and more complex container shape. The machine reaches an output of 16,000 bottles per hour while allowing for a reduction in the packaging weight by up to 10 percent compared with traditional solutions.
Preferential heating has proved particularly useful in the production of flat, top-down type containers for sauces, where uniform wall stretching and the formation of a stable base are required. According to the company, the technology allows it to achieve high quality while maintaining competitive process costs compared with conventional blow-moulding.
The Sidel blow-moulding machine also supports the achievement of sustainability targets. The installation enables efficient processing of preforms with a high share of recycled PET (rPET). At Ducona’s plant, rPET accounts for around 80 percent of the total amount of processed material, depending on final customer requirements.
Processing rPET and energy efficiency
The use of secondary raw material requires more rigorous process control than in the case of bottles moulded from virgin PET. As explained by Gerben Schepers: "Of course, we use recycled PET in many of our products. Depending on what the customer expects, we have products containing from zero to one hundred percent of this material. When producing with rPET, the process is more demanding than when blow-moulding bottles from virgin resin. Thanks to Sidel's preferential heating process, we achieve the highest packaging quality and a better bottle base shape, regardless of the share of recycled material. We also have a double air recovery system that allows us to save energy, which is a very important aspect for Ducona."
The company’s strategy also includes investments to improve the plant’s energy balance. More than 30 percent of its electricity demand is covered by an installation of 8,800 photovoltaic panels. This solution is a response to the limited availability of electrical power in the Netherlands and reinforces the need to use energy-efficient production technologies, including machines with optimised consumption of process media.
Managing a wide packaging range
Ducona produces more than 300 million bottles per year, covering over 500 stock-keeping units. Such a broad portfolio requires frequent changeovers, short mould change times and flexible production planning.
The advanced Sidel technology is designed to enable fast line adaptation to different container formats. Gerben Schepers pointed out: "Thanks to Sidel's quick changeover technology, we can easily produce a wide range of bottles while maintaining the expected delivery time." Quick mould and parameter change functionalities are an important factor in maintaining short shipment times, which are one of the pillars of the company’s customer service model.
Long-term technology partnership
Ducona’s relationship with Sidel has lasted for more than three decades and covers successive stages of production equipment modernisation. The first Sidel machines, implemented in the early years of the company, contributed to improved bottle quality and standardised process parameters.
Today, the cooperation extends to areas beyond equipment supply alone. According to Ducona, Sidel provides support that includes packaging design, testing, mould preparation and operator training. This model makes it possible to benefit from one-source solutions that cover both hardware and process optimisation know-how.
Summarising the cooperation to date, Gerben Schepers said: "We are very satisfied with the new equipment, which delivers higher output, greater cost efficiency, better quality and a reduction in packaging weight, helping us to increase our market share." The investment in the Sidel SBO 8 EvoBlow blow-moulding machine with preferential heating is part of Ducona’s long-term strategy to develop towards lighter, more resource-efficient and technologically advanced PET packaging.
