Future's afizz for reborn plastics moulder

By DITA DE BONI

A new management structure and a vitamin-packing drink bottle look set to propel Henderson-based Alto Plastics into a special place on the world stage.

The plastics division of the PDL electronics group was sold as a $25 million management buy-out in October. Renamed Alto Plastics, it is now in a better position to take advantage of a national and international plastics market that offers "unlimited opportunity," says managing director Mark Wheeler.

New Zealand's largest rigid plastic moulding company's roster of shareholders now includes the ANZ Bank, which not only helped finance the buyout but has become a stakeholder in the business. But unlike many other bank-backed management buyouts, the managers have retained 75 per cent voting control.

Mr Wheeler says Alto may earn a special place on the world manufacturing map with a specially designed plastic drink bottle that releases an effervescent tablet packed with vitamins into a drink once the consumer pops a patented top.

The product has been developed in response to a growing demand for designer drinks, many of which contain vitamins that can deteriorate in a product over time.

The new design will release the vitamin punch into the drink on the user's first swig, and may ultimately be used to administer pharmaceuticals, including aspirin, to consumers.

Mr Wheeler says the company has several people working on the new drink bottle design.

"The only way to stay competitive in the long term is to come up with competitive products. It's something we take very seriously, and we spend many millions designing machinery that can manufacture the products our clients need," he says.

"The growth opportunities are endless - plastics are a very large market. The market for PET [polyethylene telephtalate ] bottles alone grows in excess of 20 per cent worldwide each year."

PET plastic beverage bottles - increasingly replacing glass, thanks to their recyclable, cost-effective properties - are around 30 per cent of Alto Plastics' business.

The company makes fruit juice bottles primarily for drink manufacturer Rio Beverages. It competes in the domestic market with Tetrapak producers and traditional glass manufacturers like ACI, which have also tapped into the burgeoning PET market.

The company also supplements the dairy industry's self-generated supply of plastic milk bottles, and continues to supply its old parent company, PDL, with custom-moulded plastic components for its electronics and electrical lines.

Mr Wheeler says one highly promising segment of the business is cosmetics packaging. One of Alto's major clients is the direct-marketed Nutrametics cosmetics brand, which fills product in New Zealand for export.

Energy drinks and cosmetics make up the bulk of Alto's 20 per cent export segment.

Employing almost 400 in plants in Auckland and Christchurch, Alto says it will expand the business by 10 per cent for the next two years, and aims to top $50 million for the first time.

"PDL had a great culture and was a good, caring company," Mr Wheeler says. "But in a corporation like PDL, you've got to fight for capital. Now we can put our [earnings] back into the business."

"Recently, we've been re-inventing ourselves as the 'plastics hot-shop' that's bristling with ideas and innovation. That's where our growth will come from in the next few years."