The Central European group Mattoni 1873 is investing significantly in its home region of Karlovy Vary.
Today Mattoni 1873 put into operation a brand new modern canning line in Kyselka at a cost of more than CZK 200 million. The group has been investing in its plants for a long time, more than CZK 1 billion in the last three years alone. With the new canning line, Mattoni 1873 becomes the first Czech producer to bottle mineral water into this popular and fully recyclable packaging. In addition to Mattoni's popular flavoured mineral water, it will also produce canned beverages from the Pepsi portfolio and other licensed brands that have been imported to the Czech Republic until now.
"Our position of the largest producer and distributor of non-alcoholic beverages in Central Europe together with our strong growth requires us to further develop and invest in production capacities. Over the last three years, we have invested more than one billion crowns in our production facilities within the Group. And we have not forgotten the place where our company was born, the Karlovy Vary region and our plant in Kyselka. The biggest share of our investments were therefore directed to Kyselka," says Alessandro Pasquale, CEO of Mattoni 1873.
Mattoni, the Czech leader in the flavored mineral water category, was the first local brand to bring cans into this category last year. The brand supplies the market with its Imuno, Essence, Multi, Black and Cedrata variants in this popular packaging and is planning further innovations.
"The new, state-of-the-art production line enriched our portfolio with the last type of packaging we were missing. We now supply the non-alcoholic beverages market by all types of beverage packaging, from kegs to cans. And we are the first producer in the Czech Republic to bottle its mineral water to cans. At the same time, we will be better able to supply the Czech market with beverages from the Pepsi portfolio, whose products in cans we have had so far to import from abroad," adds Alessandro Pasquale.
The installed line is at the highest possible technological level and contains the latest generation equipment available on the market. From next year, the line will run in three shifts and 9 new jobs have been created with the start of its operation.
Mattoni 1873 invested more than CZK 200 million into the installation of the line and related modifications to the building, syrup technology, technical connections and to the expansion of storage capacity. This makes this project one of the largest investments in the Kyselka plant. Since 1991, a total of CZK 1,8 billion has been invested in its modernisation and capacity. CZK.
Cans are fully recyclable and sustainable packaging, it is only necessary to improve collection
The cans into which beverages are bottled at Kyselka are fully recyclable and also contain at least 70% already recycled aluminium.
Mattoni 1873 has long been striving for full circularity in beverage packaging. It uses returnable glass packaging, and strives for local re-cycling of PET bottles and cans. It was also the founder of the Zálohujme.cz initiative, which seeks to introduce deposits for PET bottles and cans in the Czech Republic.
A nation-wide deposit system would enable the launch of circular recycling, which makes enormous sense, saving energy, water and carbon emissions in the production of the primary raw material. "Aluminium, like PET, is an excellent material for beverage packaging. But it needs to be managed in a circular way. In order to do this, we need to ensure efficient collection. Currently, only 3 cans out of 10 are collected in our country," says Andrea Brožová, spokesperson for the Zálohujme.cz initiative.
Summary data on the new can line at the Kyselka plant
- An area of 1 300 m2 , more than 1,500 m of various connection pipes
- Each can travels over 210 metres on the line. A full pallet holds 1 512 half-litre cans
- The line can bottle into up to 12 variants of cans
- Total investment (line plus related modifications): more than 200 million CZK.