The French Sidel Group (F-76053 Le Havre Cedex) again posted higher sales and earnings in 1999. Sidel is the world´s leading company for the planning and production of bottling plants for PET-packaged drinks (for detailed profile, see Plasteurope.com 24, 1999). Sales rose 9.7% to EUR 878.2m. As of December 31, 1999, the company had orders on hand worth EUR 500m, which was over 16% above the corresponding figure for the previous year. Growth was spread evenly over all sections of the company, and about half of it came from acquisitions.

At the same time, Sidel announced the first licensees for the “Actis” barrier process. In the United States, this is Plastikpak, in Japan, Hokkai Can, and in Europe, Alpla-Werke in Austria (A-6971 Hard) and Logoplaste in Portugal (P-1070 Lisbon). Apart from this, the Kronenbourg brewery has become the first company to order a complete bottling line with integrated “Actis” process.