Cibapac enters PET tray market
CIBAPAC has gone up a gear with the commissioning of a PET sheet extrusion line and thermoforming equipment at its plant in Johannesburg, marking its entry into the thermoformed tray market.
This is a significant venture by the Cibapac team that shows its confidence in its production and sales abilities. The project involves the installation at the plant in Alrode of an Erema PET sheet extrusion line along with thermoforming machinery from Inpak Makina of Turkey. Installation was completed earlier this year and the plant is in full operation.
Cibapac has come a long way since its was purchased out of business rescue by a team led by Jaco du Plessis in September 2020, at which point some analysts did not foresee success. Besides the negative financial situation inherited and low staff morale, Cibapac had closed its Cape Town plant and customer confidence was waning.
Part of the issue was that polystyrene trays was a core market sector for the company and some believed the PS tray market’s days were numbered. However, it was only one of a number of market sectors which Cibapac trades into, along with the PVC cling film and multi-layer film sectors. Not only have the new owners succeeded in continuing and even expanded the PS foam tray business, they have stabilised the PVC and coex films businesses as they have traded their way out of the business rescue hoodoo. It now sees its Cibapouch, Cibatray and Cibawrap products regaining market traction.
In the interim the company had also exited the polony casing sector after the former owners opted to sell the manufacturing equipment when the listeriosis crisis hit in 2018. The line was sold off at a rockbottom price equivalent to a single month’s turnover. (It is believed the new owners are now running the equipment at full output.)
There were however a number of positives at play for the revived Cibapac, including the fact that the plant in Alrode in the south-east of Johannesburg is situated in an accessible industrial zone with sufficient installed power. The company is in fact expanding within the business park in Dan Jacobs Street.
Another big positive for the ‘new’ Cibapac was that the jobs of nearly all of the 400 employees at the Alrode site were saved following the investment by the new owners. The company’s management has in the process been able to identify a number of capable production, sales and management personnel and reignited their interest in the success of the project.
Experience at core of turnaround
Experience in the market sectors lies at the core of the Cibapac turnaround. As well as being in contact with customers in the sectors they are involved in.
The decision to purchase Cibapac out of business rescue in 2020 was backed by Kobus du Plessis (Jaco’s father), one of the most experienced individuals in the relevant market sectors in South Africa. Du Plessis senior was originally at Bakke in Paarl (now known as Mpact Versapak), was then one of the founders of Sun Packaging in Atlantis in the Western Cape, later started Atlantic Forming in Montagu Gardens in Cape Town (which was bought by Linpac group of England, which subsequently became Cibapac), then a founder of Lion Packaging (also in Atlantis), which was later absorbed into Versapak. Du Plessis snr retired in about 2015 but retained interest in the market. Son Jaco had followed a similar trajectory but had been working as a consultant prior to the purchase of Cibapac.
The management team at Cibapac includes Jaco du Plessis as MD and Philip Brand as financial director, with du Plessis senior as chairman.
Its entry to the PET tray market is symbiotic for Cibapac as many of the customers in the PS tray, cling and coex film markets (being the fastfood and food packaging sectors) which it already services are likely to be customers for PET trays too.
In 2021 Cibapac also purchased the production assets of Pearl Star of KZN as it continued the process of developing both staff and customer confidence in the turnaround process.
Solar power supply and going ‘green’
Cibapac has in parallel with the recent capex projects also made a major investment in off-grid power supply, with a large investment in 3 MegaWatt solar installations at the Alrode plant which went live recently.
And all its products are now available in a fully recyclable option, said Jaco du Plessis
“Cibapac’s general focus is on becoming more ‘green’ and focusing on the recyclability challenges. We are not turning a blind-eye on the challenges out there.
“And apart from our AA+ BRC accreditation, we will soon finalise our Halaal standard accreditation,” added Du Plessis.
