One of the busiest officials at Emballage was Murali Krishna, the business development manager of the UAE group Iffco’s Intergulf-Empol subsidiary.

The company is one of the biggest producers of PET preforms in the Gulf with manufacturing going on in two factories, one in Sharjah and the other in Dubai. Intergulf-Empol also makes closures and polypropylene in-mould label (IML) containers. The closures it makes are meant for mineral water and non-carbonated drinks, while IML containers are produced mainly for packing margarine and butter.
It was a good thing that Intergulf took part in the Paris show, as Krishna had the opportunity of meeting representatives of many European companies interested in obtaining economical yet high-quality supplies from non-traditional sources. “Our European sales mainly relate to Germany and Malta; we’re hoping to penetrate additional markets on the continent and negotiations are ongoing with some interested parties,” said Krishna.
Exports form a major portion of the preforms sales volume, with 65 per cent accounting for that segment. Most sales go to the GCC states and Africa, mainly South Africa, Western Africa and Sudan. Intergulf’s preforms have also been shipped to markets as far as the US, Venezuela and Australia, testifying to the widespread confidence manufacturers have for the raw material that the UAE firm is providing for their packaging requirements.
“We’re the only PET preform and closure manufacturer in the Gulf region that offers concept to completion services that include bottle design, prototyping, performance testing and mould manufacturing,” said Krishna. “In everything we do we take into consideration customers, their requirements and the applications for the product.”
The company’s preforms and blow moulded bottles are widely used in mineral water, edible oil, ketchup, carbonated drinks and hot fill bottle applications.
“The secret of our success is a combination of quality, affordable prices and a good service tradition,” said Krishna. The company is ISO 9001 and HACCP certified.
The preforms capacity is 40,000 tonnes per year (tpy) with a vision to reach 100,000 tpy by 2008. The company has been in expansion mode since it started making preforms for the first time in 2000 at a capacity of 4,000 tpy.
The capacity for closures is 1,000 tpy, while IML container capacity is 2.25 million pieces per month. The company diversified into IML containers only in 2005 and most production is utilised by Iffco group companies.
The in-house preform and bottle design facility uses Pro-E Wildfire, Pro-E manufacturing, Autodesk Inventor and Mouldflow Advisor platforms.
The company has erected air-conditioned and vapour-protected warehouses. Products are stored at optimum temperature, and transport and logistics facilities are organised in a way that customers receive on-time deliveries
Iffco, of which Intergulf –Empol is part, manufactures a wide range of integrated mass-market consumer products whose business segments cover food and beverages, personal care and cleaning, industrial products and packaging and logistics.