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SPECIAL FOCUS
SMART PRODUCTION

Krones AG

Country music and energy drinks – at first glance a pretty unusual combination. But Carabao has proven that
in Thailand at least it is crowned with success.

Yuenyong Opakul, better known under his stage name of Ed Two canning lines for more export
Carabao, is a star in Thailand with his eponymous band. As a country In order to more than double the exports of its canned energy
singer, he’s been spectacularly successful in the music business drinks in future, Carabao has now installed two new canning lines ,
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for 40 years now. He has harnessed this popularity for an idea that each of them rated at 60,000 cans per hour. For national distribution,
he developed together with his business associates, Mr Sathien the company has also invested in two high-speed glass lines , each
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Setthasit and Ms Nutchamai Thanombooncharden, and has now with an hourly output of 72,000 bottles. But that was not yet enough:
finally translated into corporate reality: launching a new energy drink Carabao has also inaugurated a new plant , to which the existing
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under the band’s name. glass line from the old facility will be relocated. .
In retrospect, this idea was as simple as it was logical. After all, The special features of this project is that for Carabao, bottling
the target group for his country music and the potential energy drink and canning on the new high-speed lines means significantly improved
consumers are largely identical. While Carabao guaranteed high efficiency, while perceptibly reducing the labour costs. And this
levels of public awareness, Sathien Setthasit and Ms although the new lines run at a higher speed than the existing ones.
Thanombooncharden contributed their experience from the beverage In other ways, too, Carabao’s stipulations were quite stringent, which
industry: since 1999, three giant brewpubs have been opened under is why the entire project entailed numerous challenges. These
their management in Bangkok, seating 1,000, 2,000 and 2,500 guests included:
respectively, the first of them was the Tawandang German Brewery. A tight time schedule of supplying: a total of four new lines ,
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all of them within a period of twelve months. The two glass lines had
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Their hunch paid off to be installed on two different floors: depalletiser and palletiser on
The three of them trusted their instincts – and were triumphantly the ground floor, and the line itself on the first floor. This was solved
vindicated: back in 2002, the year it was launched, the brand soared by providing an extremely high discharge of seven metres for the
to third place in the rankings for energy drinks in Thailand, and in the depalletiser and a worm elevator to the palletiser.
third year advanced to second. Until 2012, Carabao was still working High ratings: each of the two glass lines possesses a relatively
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with a major international soft-drinks producer as its distribution high capacity of 72,000 bottles per hour. In order to run at a
partner. The problem here: most of the latter’s beverages went to the consistently high level of performance, two labellers in parallel for
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catering trade, whereas energy drinks are mainly purchased in each line has been incorporated.
convenience stores. Which is why Carabao promptly set up its own A compact layout: the space available for the second canning
distribution company, called Tawandang DCM. After that, things moved line was only around half the width as for the first line, so the layout
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really fast: is very compact.
In 2018, following the installation of all new in
2014 Vertical diversification by acquiring the glass manufacturer Asia the new plant, a service team will organise the
Pacific Glass, and an IPO with a market capital of 77 million relocation of the existing bottling line from the old
US-dollars facility to the new one.
2015 Sponsoring the English football club Chelsea FC to the tune of ten
million pounds a year
2016 The group’s total turnover with beverages, distribution and basic ข้อมูลเพิ่มเติม/Additional Information
foods: 2.2 billion US-dollars 1 2 Two new canning lines installed by Krones
- sales in Thailand: 890 million bottles Carabao 3 Two high-speed glass lines installed by Krones
Relocation to the new plant is also done by Krones
- export sales: 400 million cans Carabao 4 Solomatic labeller from Krones

JUN 2018 FOOD FOCUS THAILAND 41