Leading metal crown manufacturer Coleus Packaging will produce between seven- and eight-billion metal crown closures for bottling companies, breweries and other beverage industry players in South Africa and the rest of Africa in 2024, and going forward.

Coleus Packaging has invested R40-million in a metal crown manufacturing machine, the PMC500, which will produce 5 000 metal crown caps every minute, according to Nokusa Packaging MD, and 25% black economic-empowerment Coleus Packaging shareholder Phillip Sathekge.

Astir Vitogiannis MD Stelios Vitogiannis – whose company has a 75% stake in Coleus – asserts that this investment was made to enhance the capabilities previously harnessed by Coleus Packaging by upgrading the operational level at the Coleus Packaging Alrode factory in Alberton, Johannesburg.

Consequently, product output will increase, there will be optimal efficiency and product quality will remain consistent. The facility’s overall energy consumption will also decrease significantly, which will, in turn, contribute to minimising the company’s carbon emissions and lowering its carbon footprint.

The PMC500 will also enable Coleus Packaging to make its in-house manufacturing process more efficient, and operational costs will be reduced for metal crown production, as jobs will run at an increased speed while the manufacturing of “high-quality” metal crowns will be maintained.

“This new line of machinery will give us 90% to 95% efficiency. This new machine will manufacture what two machines, in the past, would have manufactured,” Coleus Packaging MD Ian Victor tells Engineering News.

The increased speed in terms of monthly and yearly output will ensure fewer customer complaints and reduced prices for brewery and beverage industry customers. This will enable the company to acquire more customers and increase its market share.

Victor adds that Coleus Packaging – with its anticipated enhanced output – is expected to grow alongside the brewery and beverage industry in South Africa, and the rest of Africa.

“The PMC500 machine will help us meet the demands of the local brewery and beverage industry in South Africa, which we expect to grow by between 6% and 8% in the coming years.”

For Vitogiannis, the PMC500 will be a significant benefit for Coleus Packaging and for South African brewery and beverage industry players: “With this machine, we can . . . lower the steel gauge, enhance . . . output and volume, with less overall effort.”

Going forward, Victor believes that Coleus Packaging will increase its reach in the rest of the African continent and supply more African countries than it already does.

The company is set to become a preferred supplier in the market for metal crown cap manufacturing and will soon cement its place as an organisation capable of achieving volume-based accomplishments previously observed in multinational global companies that operate in the same market, he concludes.