Expansion now in progress at Crown Bevcan Middle East’s cans manufacturing facility at the Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai will help boost its regional capacity.

This year will see the start of commercial production at Crown Emirates Company’s new state-of-the-art second beverage can line and a new end-making facility. Preparations are underway for both projects, which equate to an investment of more than $40 million and will see the plant become one of the most technologically advanced beverage can making facilities anywhere in the ME.
The new facility will produce 1.5 billion beverage can ends per year.  The new cans line and another expansion at Crown Bevcan ME’s Jeddah plant will together have a capability of  1.5 billion cans.
Another expansion is in progress at Crown ME’s Jeddah facility for the production of cans at the same capacity.
The Dubai plant has won a number of plaudits both externally and from within Crown. In addition to securing a number of ISO and HACCP industry accreditations, it has won Crown Middle East’s ‘Best Safety Award’ for six consecutive years and in 2004 it won Jebel Ali Free Zone’s ‘Best Factory Award.’ 
Currently Crown operates four other plants across the region - Crown Arabia Can and Crown Jeddah Can in Saudi Arabia, Crown Middle East Can in Jordan, and Crown Maghreb Can in Tunisia. Between 2003 and 2006 total capacity at these plants has more than doubled to approximately 6 billion cans.
All cans and ends produced in the Middle East, are made from aluminium. The company also uses inks, lacquers and coatings. Raw materials are sourced from major suppliers all over the world.
“The market has been growing as the beverage can is the preferred pack for carbonated soft drinks in this region given the particularly hot climate and wealth of export markets,” says Ralph Lambert, vice president, Crown Bevcan Middle East. 
“In addition, they are the ideal packaging format for exporting beverages over long distances. 
The company is part of Crown Holdings, a leading name in global consumer packaging and manufacturer, it is claimed, of one out of every five beverage cans used across the globe and one in three food cans used in Europe and North America.
Crown operates two large R&D centres across the globe, which are recognised as being leaders in their class. In Europe, the R&D centre is located in Wantage, UK. These two facilities offer a range of support services for both its businesses and customers – with over 300 packaging, product and materials experts.
In terms of training, Crown is able to offer its customers in-depth support on its filling lines with a dedicated Customer Technical Service team, expertise well known in the industry.
“Crown is also renowned for its technical experience and expertise in the area of can seaming. Indeed the company has within its team the world’s leading experts in can-seaming, and we offer customers in-house consulting and a unique service in the form of a seamer training school,” says Lambert.
“In house, the company operates a World Class Performance programme (WCP) which is dedicated to achieving the very highest standards throughout the R&D and manufacturing process.”
All of Crown plants in the Middle East and North Africa are joint ventures with local partners, AH Algosaibi & Bros. The Algosaibi group is a large Saudi holding company with a broad range of business interests. The partnership dates back more than 25 years.
Commenting on the challenges and future of the industry, Lambert says the market for beverage packaging will continue to be highly competitive and as with all manufacturing industries, Crown is facing very significant raw material cost increases.
“By remaining at the forefront of technology, consolidating its highly experienced team and offering superior supply to major soft drinks manufacturers across the Middle East, Crown is set to meet these challenges and opportunities head on,” he remarked.
The company’s origins are in the US where in the 1880s it started manufacturing corks and seals for cans and bottles. Then through a series of strong acquisitions over the years it became a leading worldwide manufacturing company.
Today Crown supplies packaging products to consumer marketing companies around the world. It caters to virtually every aspect of daily life, from food cans in the kitchen to aerosols in the bathroom and beverage cans for a multitude of indoor and outdoor drinking occasions.