Octal CEO aims big with new raw material for PET packaging

Targeted first at the dairy and meat industries, its new DPET product is manufactured in a new way using what the company calls the ‘direct-to-sheet’ process. This combines the manufacture of PET sheet with the production of PET resin in a single process so that PET rigid film is no longer produced from melted granulates.

According to Octal, the new process, by cutting out several production steps, reduces energy costs and carbon footprint. In addition, the company claims that the end result is a product with “unrivalled purity and gloss” that is easy to process and run through machines.

At the Octal stand at Interpack in Dusseldorf, Octal CEO Nicholas Barakat told this publication what benefits the product could bring to packaging and which food markets the company planned to target.

Octal, which operates out of Oman, is banking on DPET delivering significant growth for the company. From a €400m turnover today, Barakat said the company expects to grow the business to €1.1bn next year.