Coca-Cola to incorporate 25% recycled PET in plastic bottles

(cokecce) -- Coca-Cola Enterprises and ECO Plastics joint venture set to deliver step change in GB plastics recycling ECO Plastics' plant becomes world's largest plastics processing facility.

Coca-Cola Enterprises Ltd (CCE) and ECO Plastics announce the official opening of their groundbreaking joint venture, Continuum Recycling.

Completed on time and on budget, the GBR15 million facility is a first for Great Britain, and brings the recycling process full circle, with used plastic packaging sorted and reprocessed domestically, before returning to GB shelves as part of another bottle.

Simon Baldry, Managing Director of Coca-Cola Enterprises, said: "Our investment in Continuum Recycling shows that we are serious about setting the industry standard for sustainable packaging. Today's opening of this 15mln state of the-art facility will transform recycling in this country and ensure that we achieve our ambition of incorporating 25% recycled PET in our plastic bottles. This is a first for the industry and an important milestone in our ongoing efforts to build a low-carbon, zero waste business here in Great Britain."
MRC

(plasteurope) -- Europe's leading supplier of rigid plastic packaging RPC Group presented a very positive picture of performance in its recent pre-close trading statement for the financial year to 31 March 2012.

Turnover is expected to be well ahead of last year due to the inclusion of the Superfos business, acquired in February 2011 and higher like-for-like revenues. Volumes have been similar to the previous year, despite the continuing trend towards light-weighting, but the sales mix improved significantly towards higher added-value products, such as coffee capsules, long shelf-life packaging and personal care and pharmaceutical products.

Margins were impacted in Q4 last year as polymer prices rose by up to 20%, increases that RPC only plans to pass on in the coming quarters. Operating profit for the year, excluding exceptional items, will be well ahead of the previous 12 months, RPC said, reflecting the improved revenue position as well as expectations based on the group's half-year performance.

This will be in line with management expectations that will surely have been based on the half-year performance that saw overall revenue increase by over 50% and operating profits doubled. RPC says there was good cash flow development in the fourth quarter and the financial position remains robust, with significant headroom under the groups debt facilities.
MRC

(merckgroup) -- The Merck Groups first-quarter 2012 total revenues rose 3.2% to EUR 2,645 million compared to EUR 2,564 million in the first quarter of 2011.

Sales for the Group increased 3.5% to EUR2,564 million in first quarter compared to EUR2,478 million in the year-ago quarter.

This performance reflected organic sales growth of 1.2%, a 1.7% positive benefit from changes in foreign exchange rates and a 0.6% boost from acquisitions and divestments.

The Groups organic sales growth was entirely driven by the Merck Serono and Merck Millipore divisions during the quarter.

The Merck Millipore life science division?s first-quarter 2012 sales rose 7.3% year on year to EUR653m, driven by solid results from its lab solutions and process solutions business units.

Pharmaceutical division Merck Seronos first-quarter sales increased 5.4% to EUR1.42bn year on year, while the groups consumer health division reported sales of EUR108m, a 7.4% decline compared to EUR116m in the first quarter of 2011.

Looking at the year as a whole, Merck expects total revenues of around EUR10.5bn and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) before one-time items of EUR 2.8bn-2.9bn.
MRC

(tvk) -- Tisza Chemical Group Public Limited Company (TVK Plc) published its results for the Q1 2012 . The operating profit achieved in the first quarter of 2012 was HUF 2.3 billion higher than in the previous quarter due to the increased production volumes and the favourable change of olefin feedstock prices and polymer product prices compared to each other.

The unfavourable exchange rate fluctuation led to the significant deterioration of the operating profit, including the difference resulting from the re-valuation of accounts receivable and accounts payable in the previous and the actual quarter.

Comparing the results of Q1 2012 with the first quarter of the previous year, the operating profit declined due to the unfavourable change of the integrated petrochemical margin, the increased prices of natural gas, steam and electric energy, and the lower production and sales volumes.

TVK uses its vertically-integrated production structure to produce raw materials for plastics processing, from a variety of hydrocarbons. The production process includes two major stages: producing monomers and polymerisation.
MRC

(Reuters) -- Hungarian oil and gas group MOL launched a cost cutting drive aimed at boosting profitability, as the suspension of production in Syria drove a year-on-year fall in first-quarter profits.

MOL said it aimed to boost earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation at its downstream business by USD500-550 million by 2014, with about 60 percent of that improvement coming from cost cuts.

Among a broad range of initiatives, the group said it planned to make efficiency improvements at five refineries and two petrochemical units.

An improved performance from the downstream business helped MOL to report a smaller-than-expected fall in first-quarter net profit to 73.7 billion forints (USD324 million). That was down from 92.7 billion forints in the same period of 2011.

"2012 is expected to be a challenging year especially when considering the announced 'force majeure' in Syria or the tough refinery and petrochemical environment," MOL's Chairman and Chief Executive Zsolt Hernadi said in a statement.

MRC