One of Russia’s leading producers of margarine and vegetable spreads chose Sipa when it decided to enter the vegetable oil market recently. Sipa supplied Atkarsky Mez with an entire high-output PET bottling plant when the Russian company made its move into sunflower oil production and selling. Atkarsky Mez is part of the Solnechnye Produkty (“Sun Products”) group, one of the top three oil and fat businesses in Russia today. Solnechnye Produkty is also the country’s second largest sunflower processor, handling 13% of Russia’s total harvest. Atkarsky Mez, which is based in the Saratov region of Russia, some 400 km north of Volgograd and 750 km south-east of Moscow, can handle up to 3000 tonnes of sunflower seeds every day. From packaging development to complete bottling plant. Atkarsky Mez was able to take advantage of Sipa’s 25 years of experience in the development of packaging systems and the design of complete bottling plants. It relied on Sipa, not only to supply the entire plant - from the production of preforms to bottle blowing up to the bottling by weight filling, and including two sets blow moulds for different bottle sizes – but also to develop the packaging itself. Sipa developed a container with a simple design and high technical performance, especially in terms of its inherent stability and resistance to palletising. One of the first edible oil line with capacity of 36,000 b/h With its capacity of 36,000 bottles per hour, the plant is one of the first in Russia to guarantee such a high productivity. Atkarsky Mez appointed Sipa for the design and supply of the whole plant because of the flexibility which the company was able to offer. Sosnin Grigoriy Ivanovich, general director of Solnechnye Produkty, says the two companies built up a good relationship during the project, “based on mutual trust. Sipa has shown itself to be reliable, open and efficient. We are very satisfied with the collaboration.” The Sipa plant consists of a Sipa PPS injection system with 72 cavities for production of the preforms, a Sipa SFR Rotary Blowmolder for blowing the bottles, and a fill-by-weight system specifically designed for the needs of oil producers. The company benefitted from one of the largest investment projects in the region, when its oil extraction plant was completely renovated. The two-year development turned the plant into one of het most modern and technologically advanced enterprises for the production of bottled oil in Russia. Atkarsky Mez has two brands of sunflower oil, Yarko and Rossiyanka, and also produces sunflower oil under private labels for many Russian retailers.