Already an established leader in the cap-making sector, the Sacmi Group is now a pivotal player in PET production. The reason? Solutions that increasingly focus on total integration in order to provide an all-round response to the needs of a fast-growing industry.
The Food&Beverage industry is the biggest contributor to Nigerian manufacturing. It generates sales estimated at 16.5 billion dollars and has created 1.5 million jobs. And it is this growing demand for packaged drinks and foods in what is one of Africa's fastest-emerging economies - which has a population of no less than 170 million people - that has led the main international players to set up operations in the country. These, of course, include Sacmi, soon to play a key role at the coming edition of Nigeria Food + Bev Tec, the international fair being held as part of Nigeria Agrofood (27-29 March 2018, Landmark Centre, Lagos).
Needless to say, the Sacmi Group will be there with its own display area (HALL 1 1D.2.1) to illustrate the latest developments in its technology, a technology that has made Sacmi the leading supplier of plastic cap production solutions in terms of both market share (above 80%) and perceived quality. Already the main supplier to top converters operating in Nigeria in beverage flat-top cap and PET preform production, Sacmi is now expanding its acknowledged market leadership in cap production to the role of pivotal player on the preform production front.
This change is being driven by a series of production and business aspects. On one side, Sacmi is the world's only competitor capable of providing solutions for every stage of beverage production, from pellet to pallet. On the other, the Group's far-reaching sales network (Sacmi has two African branches dedicated to the sector, in Morocco and South Africa) and support from the Sacmi Beverage R&D facility, certified by key international players in the industry, provide customers with further guarantees at both the plant design stage and during the subsequent after-sales period.
A further step towards integrated plant engineering and process optimization takes the form of the new Sacmi Heroblock, an all-in- one solution that merges every stage of container/cap production and filling/labelling into a single, high performance process.
With this innovation - which eliminates intermediate handling, thus improving process efficiency and logistics - Sacmi reinforces its role as a provider of turnkey solutions for the global beverage industry. The resulting development and growth prospects are particularly relevant on consumer markets like Nigeria, which is now worth 130 billion dollars and is being fuelled by strong demographic expansion and an ever-larger middle class.
