Sidel named Global Strategic Partner Supplier of Yili Group

28 May 2019 --- Sidel, one of three industry groups under Tetra Laval, has been selected as Global Strategic Partner Supplier of Yili Group, a prominent Chinese state-owned dairy company. The company currently operates in the largest business segment in the Yili portfolio, bolstering its growth efforts in Asia. To date, Sidel is the biggest partnering supplier of the PET product line within the Chinese firm’s Liquid Dairy Division. Since 2009, Sidel has implemented more than 100 complete aseptic PET lines in Greater China.

At Yili’s recent supplier conference in Xiamen, China, Sidel was presented the Innovation Award. Sidel was awarded this distinction in recognition of its broad application of Sidel aseptic complete PET packaging lines to produce Yili’s Ambrosial Yoghurt for ambient distribution – all of them integrating the company’s patented dry preform and cap decontamination technology, Aseptic Combi Predis (“Predis”).

The use of PET as a packaging material is expected to continue its growth within the global liquid dairy sector, Sidel told PackagingInsights in an interview last August. Traditionally packaged in carton or HDPE containers, liquid dairy products bottled in PET are forecasted to grow by 4.4 percent in the period from 2018 to 2020, according to Guillaume Rolland, Vice President Sensitive Products at Sidel.

PET bottles qualified for 5-months of shelf-life
Since 2016, Sidel has been working together with the Yili Liquid Dairy Division to produce PET bottles for the company’s flagship product: Ambrosial Yoghurt, which offers an attractive look and unique texture. To meet Yili’s needs for additional capacity around this product, Sidel has been installing multiple complete aseptic PET lines, equipped with the company’s cutting-edge dry preform sterilization technology, Predis. 

Sidel accepts Yili's Innovation Award.Traditional aseptic solutions use peracetic acid, which requires the bottles to be rinsed with chemicals or hot water, while Sidel’s Predis system sterilizes the preform by injecting hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) vapor into the preform right before the preform heating stage in the oven. Sidel states that this has allowed Yili to reduce waste and resources consumption, while benefiting from a competitive and cost-efficient solution that ensures food safety and product quality.

Sidel’s experts in liquid dairies and packaging performed a range of laboratory tests to determine the behavior of different liquid dairy products (yogurt, UHT white milk) in several PET barrier solutions (PET multi-layers and mono-layer with different rates of TiO2). The scientists evaluated different caps’ opacity to achieve the optimal light and oxygen barrier and ensure the product’s stability without any alteration in terms of taste or color. All these analyses confirmed that the combination of approved barrier PET and cap solutions with the Sidel aseptic filling packaging solution will allow reaching a 5-months yogurt shelf-life, plus safety throughout the supply chain for distribution at room temperature. The team at Yili was particularly impressed by the technical support given by Sidel in new product development, as well as in the variety of testing methods implemented to qualify the PET barrier solutions. 

Sidel recently decided to bring dry aseptic solution manufacturing to the Chinese market and scale up their plant in Beijing with an aseptic laboratory. This is mainly used for validation tests of locally produced aseptic and ultra clean packaging manufacturing equipment. The expert team in Beijing – closely collaborating with the Sidel Packaging scientists based in Shanghai and in Europe – was set up to ensure “360° service” to domestic and international clients, during the pre-/in- and post execution phases. The company notes this is particularly important regarding aseptic applications, which are increasingly gaining the favor of its customer base.

Future directions
Qiming Fu, Senior Sales Manager and Key Account Yili at Sidel, who accepted the Innovation Award, comments, “This award represents Yili’s seal of Sidel’s best-in-class service and production quality and is a positive signal regarding our companies’ plans for long-term cooperation.”

“We provided our global strategic expertise, technical and after sales support, and other experienced resources to fully ensure the performance of Yili’s production lines. We are extremely proud of this recognition because it will also act as an additional trigger for Sidel’s teams to further improve the quality we can offer.” 

Sidel is ideally established to continue working closely with Yili to achieve their “Hundred Billion Goal” sales ambition by 2020.