Two turnkey lines in as many years

IN ONLY 50 YEARS, South Korea has transformed itself from an agrarian society into one of the world's major industrialised nations, a truly impressive achievement. The country's high growth rate places it in the ranks of the East Asian tiger economies, which also include Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong SAR. The term "tiger economy" is based on the association between rapid economic growth in these nations and the awesome energy of a tiger.

Per capita gross income in South Korea is currently around $19,000 (€14,256) compared to only $100 in 1960. Naturally, this torrid pace of development has resulted in altered consumer patterns
and consumption of alcoholic beverages is no exception. Soju is a traditional alcoholic beverage made principally from rice (almost always in combination with other ingredients such as wheat, barley or sweet potato) and the South Koreans have been distilling this liquor since the 14th Century. Consumers also began developing a taste for beer in the 1970s (which prior to that time had been virtually  unaffordable) and per capita beer consumption in South Korea was around 5 litres per year by the end of that decade.

Benefiting from beer's popularity
Today, the average South Korean consumes roughly 36 litres each year, making beer the country's top alcoholic beverage. After less than four decades, beer has become more popular than the traditional soju, which has an annual per capita consumption of roughly 25 litres.

Oriental Brewery is one of the main beneficiaries of beer's popularity. The company has recently succeeded in winning back significant market share, and it is now number one with a 52% share of the South Korean beer market.

"The plan now is to stabilise and continually expand the company's market leadership," says Charles Park, executive director, Oriental Brewery. "We also want to devote more of our attention to the export business." Recent growth at Oriental Brewery has been very impressive, and that is reflected in
the figures. In 2011, beer sales by volume reached almost 11 million hectolitres of which 9 million went to the domestic market and the remaining 2 million hectolitres exported primarily to Japan, Hong Kong, and Mongolia.

"The fine quality of our beer - along with an effective marketing strategy - was the prime contributor in our successful campaign to regain market leadership," says Mr Park.

"The outstanding quality of our filling and packaging systems is one of the factors that enable us to produce top quality products," he adds.

To maintain this level of product quality into the future, the brewer made an additional investment in two KHS canning lines. "The decision to go with KHS essentially reflects our strategy of active future proofing," Mr Park explains.

Turnkey canning lines
Glass bottles remain the most popular choice in the South Korean beer market (41.4% of Oriental output), followed by PET bottles (20.6%) and kegs and cans together make up the remainder. Cans have been in the ascendancy, and this trend is likely to continue. The export market is another factor
driving demand for canned beer.

Increased activity in export markets means that Oriental Brewery will be shipping more of its products in cans. "Most of the beer we export is packaged in cans, and that is unlikely to change any time soon," Park points out.

Given the current popularity of cans and the expectation that this trend will continue underscored the need for the KHS 60,000 can-per-hour line installed last year at Oriental's site in Gwangju. This canning line, which currently handles 0.5-liter, 0.355-liter, and 0.33-liter cans, is a KHS turnkey line.
An even higher-capacity line (90,000 cans an hour) is scheduled for operation at Icheon by mid-2012. The layout and configuration will be virtually identical to that of the Gwangju KHS turnkey line. Mr Park outlines tOriginals Prophere