Sidel installs a complete water line for Durrat AI Khaleej in Iraq

As one of the leading bottled water producers in Iraq, Durrat Al Khaleej aims to provide the best experience to consumers. Sidel’s packaging solutions successfully fulfilled its goal by delivering a complete waterline with a light-weighted and simultaneously stable PET bottle design, weighing only 10.5 grams for the 500 ml bottle format, at a time of very high travel restrictions in Iraq.

Durrat Al Khaleej, established in 2007, has become familiar to consumers as a symbol of good-quality water in Iraq. The company is adapting advanced production technology to adhere to national and international regulations and standards and stay at the forefront of innovation and sustainability. Ensuring the highest levels of quality and safety throughout the supply chain, from raw materials to the point of consumption, Durrat Al Khaleej has a laboratory that systematically checks the water produced to ensure it meets stringent standards to achieve its ambition for progress and development in Iraq.

Lightweight and stable PET bottle design and cost-effective line solution

To optimize bottle design and line performance, Durrat Al Khaleej chose Sidel for its expertise in packaging solutions. The collaboration between Sidel and the customer was crucial to develop a new PET bottle design and to manage the installation and commissioning of the equipment, as the site for the line was a greenfield project. After the meeting in Dubai, Sidel’s packaging experts met the customer’s expectations by proposing a lightweight solution while also incorporating the original premium look. The lightweight PET bottle in the 500 ml bottle format, weighing only 10.5 grams, has high stability and has proved to be very successful on the market. In light of its sustainability and low total cost of ownership (TCO), Sidel’s complete water line has become the perfect solution, with a speed of 24,000 bottles per hour (bph) for 500 ml. It has helped the customer save water on bottle cleaning, and no air conveyor is needed.

Great service that exceeds expectations

“Sidel provided extra support well beyond the scope of delivering the equipment to Europe by choosing trusted shipping companies and recommending approved experts for installation and commissioning of the line in Iraq. The installation and commissioning were very successful, achieving 98.1% line efficiency during the customer acceptance validation (CAV). The entire logistic flow was thus well planned and smoothly implemented,” comments Ibraheem Ghudaib, chief executive officer at Durrat Al Khaleej. Thanks to Sidel’s great teamwork, the project kick-off was in March 2020, and the first sellable bottle was launched in December 2020.