Crown's New Beverage Can Plant Opened to Strengthen Supply to Central and Eastern Europe

This significant achievement can be attributed to the synergies between Crown’s teams, globally and locally, and has allowed us to serve our customers quicker.

28 Apr 2010 --- Crown Holdings, Inc. announces that it has officially opened its new beverage can plant in Kechnec, in eastern Slovakia, allowing Crown to better serve customers in Central and Eastern Europe. Crown marked the official opening with a special ceremony held on-site on April 23, 2010. Among the participants were Terry Cartwright, Senior Vice President, Crown Bevcan Europe and Middle East, Ken Jeffs, Crown Bevcan Slovakia Plant Manager, Mr. Pavol Paška, Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Mr. Lubomír Jahnátek, Minister of Economy of the Slovak Republic, Mr. Jozef Konkoly, the Kechnec municipality Mayor, and a number of Crown’s key customers from the region.

"The new facility in Kechnec was completed ahead of schedule, with the first cans produced only nine months after the start of construction,” said Terry Cartwright, Senior Vice President of Crown’s beverage business in Europe and the Middle East. “This significant achievement can be attributed to the synergies between Crown’s teams, globally and locally, and has allowed us to serve our customers quicker."

With the addition of Slovakia, Crown now operates fourteen beverage can plants in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The new plant expands Crown’s global footprint by allowing it to provide local support and capacity for major international brewers and soft drink companies, providing a strong supply base for customers in Slovakia and bordering countries, including Hungary, southern Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania. It supplies 33cl and 50cl aluminum cans and provides an initial capacity of 750 million beverage cans per year, with the ability to support additional production lines as required by future customer growth.

Minimizing environmental impact was an important objective for Crown when building the plant. To continue its support of ‘green’ initiatives, Crown uses the latest sophisticated water treatment technology to ensure that 95 percent of all water used will be recycled. To further support sustainability, Crown is supporting local recycling programs.

The recycling initiative is enhanced by the inherent benefits of metal packaging. Metal can be recycled again and again and again without loss of or alteration in quality. It is permanently reusable in any form. In addition, the beverage can is the most recycled drinks pack in the world. From the moment a can is collected for recycling, it can be back on the shelf within 60 days.