Ball Packaging Europe opens new beverage can plant in Belgrade

The new plant has one production line with a production capacity of some 650 million aluminium beverage cans annually for beer and soft drinks.

03/10/05 Ball Packaging Europe, one of Europe's leading beverage can producers, has officially opened its new plant in the Zemun district of Belgrade. Attending the opening ceremony were the Prime Minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, as well high-ranking politicians from Serbia and Montenegro and most important customers from various European countries.

"Through our new production site in Serbia, we are contributing to the economic development of the region and at the same time benefiting from the dynamic trend in demand in central and eastern Europe, a beverage can market which reports double-digit growth rates", said Hanno C. Fiedler, Chairman and CEO of Ball Packaging Europe. 

The new production facilities were constructed in the record time of just ten months. Following the granting of building permission by the Serbian authorities in July 2004, construction work started at the beginning of August and the plant was ready for commissioning in May 2005.  The accompanying infrastructure measures, such as the construction of access roads and car-parking facilities were completed by the end of September.

The Serbian architects firm, North Engineering, prepared the construction plans for the building comprising an area of 31,000 m².  An international project team from Ball Packaging Europe was responsible for construction management.  During peak periods, almost 500 building workers were employed on the construction site.  A large proportion of the machines and systems for the Belgrade plant were pre-assembled in St. Louis, USA, and shipped to Europe in 120 containers.

The building costs for the beverage can plant totalled more than EUR 50 million. This means that the new plant is currently the largest foreign investment project in Serbia.  For its Belgrade project, Ball Packaging Europe was voted "International Investor of the Year" by the OECD organisation "Investment Compact" at the conference of ministers representing south-eastern Europe, held in Vienna in July 2004.  The criteria for the award were total investment volume, export significance for the region and number of jobs created as a result of the investment.

The new plant has one production line with a production capacity of some 650 million aluminium beverage cans annually for beer and soft drinks and currently employs approximately 120 staff.  The Serbian employees are qualified predominantly in technical skills and in addition altogether received 3000 days training at German, French and Polish production plants belonging to the company, in preparation for their new assignments in the high-tech production facilities at the Belgrade site.  "We have created skilled jobs with long-term prospects and continue to invest in further training for our employees because sound expertise is required to supply our international customers with premium products", Fiedler explained.

The major proportion of the output from the Belgrade plant will supply export markets, including Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia.  The plant supplies international beverage producers (e.g. Coca-Cola, Pepsi, SAB Miller, InBev, Heineken, Carlsberg) as well as many regional customers (Pivo Lasko, Knjaz Milos, Osijek etc.)

The beverage can market in central and eastern Europe reported a 27% increase to 1.3 billion cans in 2004, according to Beverage Can Manufacturers Europe. The rise is largely attributable to the economic growth in the region.

Over the next few years, double-digit growth rates are predicted in the central and eastern European beverage can markets.  In the event of a positive sales trend, Ball Packaging Europe plans to extend the production facilities in the medium term by installing a second production line. The facility as it exists today is already fully prepared, from an auxiliary equipment point of view, to accept a second line easily.