F&D Business Europe July 2011

July 2011

Dairy Crest delivers on strategy

Food & Drink Business Website:

www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com

C o n t e n t s

- 41 A QUACULTURE

- 3 M ERGERS & A CQUISITIONS

Sustainability farmed seafood holds key to future global food security.

Coverage of British and international deals.

P AGE 30

- 6 S EAFOOD New reports highlight need for reform of EU Fisheries Policy.

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Peder Tuborgh, ce, Arla Foods.

Paul Neep, ce, Glenmorangie.

- 43 S OFT D RINKS Coca-Cola Hellenic achieves CRS first in European food and beverage industry.

Coca-Cola Enterprises reduces carbon footprint while growing business.

PAGE 43

- 9 C IDER

R EGULARS

Strong cider growth fuels Aston Manor Brewery.

Bottling & Packaging . . . 13-15, 19, 24, 27

Doros Constantinou, ce Coca-Cola Hellenic.

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- 17 A LCOHOLIC D RINKS

Peter Swinburn, president & ce, Molson Coors.

Processing & Manufacturing 18, 26, 47, 48 Energy & Environment. . . . . . . . 25, 38, 39 Information Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Bevisol – The new beverage industry solutions provider.

Control & Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Logistics & Distribution . . . . . . . . . . 36-38

PAGE 45

John Brock, chairman & ce Coca-Cola Enterprises.

- 21 C OVER S TORY Dairy Crest delivers on its strategic objectives.

Managing Director: Colin Murphy Editor: Mike Rohan Sales Director: Ronan McGlade

PAGE 21

Mark Allen, ce, Dairy Crest.

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Growing thirst for Scotch fuels £600m industry investment.

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Diageo announced further investment in Scotch whisky operations.

PAGE 29

Ardo UK grows a new line of business.

Production Manager: Susan Doyle

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Christian Porta, chairman & ce, Chivas Brothers.

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M E E R R G G E E R R S S M

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A C C Q Q U U II S S II T T II O O N N S S A

Nestle to Acquire Serbian Food and Beverage Company Nestle has agreed to acquire the business of Centroproizvod Company, a leading food and beverage producer in Serbia, for an undisclosed price. The Centroproizvod business, which is expected to reach sales of almost SFr30 million (Eur25m) in 2011, includes culinary products such as dry spices and seasonings, soups and dressings; beverages such as chocolate drinks and tea; and confectionery products.

The acquisition is a strategic move to strengthen Nestle’s presence in the region. Nestle has been present in the Adriatic region since 2003. The Swiss group currently employs around 500 people and operates one factory in Stara Pazova, Serbia.

being made in order to allay the concerns of the Office of Fair Trading regarding the agreed sale of Premier’s canned business, including the Fray Bentos and Crosse & Blackwell brands, to Princes for £182m.

After an investigation, the OFT considers that the deal would lead to competition concerns in relation to the supply of canned pies in the UK. In order to remedy competition concerns, the parties have offered to divest the Fray Bentos brand covering a range of meat based canned goods (including canned pies) and some accompanying manufacturing assets.

ness that discovers, develops and licenses scientifically-proven functional food, medical food and dietary supplement technologies, has agreed to purchase SiS (Science in Sport), a revenue generating, profitable company which manufactures and sells sports nutrition products.

SiS is based in the North West of England and employs 51 staff. The acquisition of SiS is for total consideration of £8.0m. The global sports drink market had an estimated $24.5b of sales in 2010. In the same period in the UK, sales of sports drinks were estimated to be £220m, sports foods £30m and sports supplements £70m. All three sectors in the UK have shown growth since 2006.

Origin Enterprises Expands Sara Lee to Spin-off International Coffee and Tea Business US-based food and beverage group Sara Lee has decided to spin-off its International Coffee and Tea business, rather than spinning off its North American meats and frozen-desserts business. Sara Lee plans to split into two publicly traded companies in early 2012. Sara Lee is currently in the process of selling its North American Bakery business to Grupo Bimbo. The transaction is expected to close early in Sara Lee’s 2012 fiscal year.

Fray Bentos Put Up For Sale Premier Foods, the UK’s largest domestic food processor, and Princes, the British food and drink company owned by Mitsubishi, are to dispose of the Fray Bentos brand. The move is

Origin Enterprises, the Dublinbased international agri-services group with strategic investments in consumer foods and marine proteins and oils, is acquiring CM Fertilisers, the fertiliser activities of Carrs Milling Industries. CM Fertilisers, based in Scotland and the North of England, is a leading provider of branded specialist fertilisers together with integrated nutrient management systems servicing the arable, grassland, horticulture and forestry sectors.

Turnover for the year ended 28th August 2010 was £59.3m and EBIT amounted to £1.9m.

Origin is 71.4% owned by Aryzta, the Switzerland-based international speciality bakery group.

Provexis Acquires Sports Nutrition Business For £8 Million Provexis, the life-science busi-

DAIRY

Arla Foods and Milko Hold Merger Talks The boards of Milko and Arla Foods are discussing a proposed merger of the two Scandinavian dairy co-operatives. Following an unsatisfactory profit performance in 2011 and in order to avoid a future liquidity issue, Milko, one of Sweden’s largest dairy companies, approached Arla with a view to investigating the possibility of a merger.

The basic principle of the merger is that the Milko members will become co-operative members and owners of Arla Foods on an equal footing with existing Arla members. The Milko members will receive the Arla milk settlement price as soon as the merger has been completed and approved the Swedish Competition Authority.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

Milko and Arla have already agreed on Arla’s purchase of the Sundsvall dairy. Arla will take over operations there on 1st July. The deal is, however, entirely separate from the merger negotiations.

Peder Tuborgh, chief executive of Arla Foods.

Lactalis Receives EC Approval For Parmalat Move Lactalis, the French dairy group, has been given clearance by the European Commission for its Eur3.4b bid to acquire the 71% of Parmalat, its Italian counterpart, that is does not already own. Lactalis acquired 29% percent of Parmalat in March before launching a bid to purchase the remaining shares on May 23rd.

If successful, the acquisition will make Lactalis the world’s largest producer of dairy products.

Emmi Strengthens its International Business Swiss dairy company Emmi is acquiring A-27, an Italian company which produces and distributes high-quality dessert specialities, for an undisclosed sum. A27’s products are sold under the Bonta Divina brand and as private label products in some 25 countries. The acquisition will enable Emmi to expand its expertise in the dessert segment

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M E E R R G G E E R R S S M while further strengthening its position in key markets.

Emmi's international activities are focused on its key markets of Italy, Germany, the UK, Benelux, Austria and the US. The acquisition will enable Emmi to further consolidate its position as a provider of high-quality branded products outside Switzerland.

First Milk Expands With Kingdom Acquisition Dairy co-operative First Milk has purchased Kingdom Cheese and Kingdom Dairies, both based in Fife in Scotland, in a move that strengthens its presence in the UK and international cheese markets. The acquisition means that, in addition to producing a comprehensive range of award-winning cheddars, First Milk will now be able to offer its customers a selection of cottage cheese, soft cheese, mozzarella products and creams.

“The acquisition is bang on target with our drive to diversify our product and customer base,” explains Kate Allum, chief executive of First Milk. “Kingdom has a growing export portfolio, which complements the work on cheese, powder and butter we have been doing recently with Eilers & Wheeler in international markets.”

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A C C Q Q U U II S S II T T II O O N N S S A

SABMiller. The proposal to acquire Foster's is in line with SABMiller's strategy to create an attractive global spread of businesses, with a focus on developing strong and successful brand portfolios.

Australia has a strong, wealthy and growing economy with consistent long term population growth in key demographics, and is well positioned to benefit from continued economic growth in Asia. Australia has a profitable beer market in which Foster's is the leading brewer with 7 of the top 10 beer brands, a national distribution platform and scale production.

The proposed price of A$4.90 a share in cash represents an enterprise value for Foster's of A$11.2b and a forecast EV/EBITDA multiple of 12.5 times. However, the board of Foster's believes that the proposal significantly undervalues the company.

Graham Mackay, chief executive of SABMiller.

Kate Allum, chief executive of First Milk.

BREWING

Foster’s Rejects A$11.2b SABMiller Approach Foster’s Group, the largest brewer in Australia, has rejected an unsolicited A$11.2b (Eur8.3b) acquisition approach from 4

Diageo and SABMiller End Brewing and Distribution Agreement Diageo, through its subsidiary East African Breweries, has agreed to purchase SABMiller's 20% shareholding in Kenya Breweries for $225m. The deal is subject to EAB disposing of its 20% shareholding in Tanzania Breweries, which is majority owned by SABMiller,

through a public offer.

The two deals effectively end a brewing and distribution agreement between Diageo and SABMiller in Kenya and Tanzania which dates back to 2002.

10 beer markets globally.

In 2009, Molson Coors UK and Cobra Beer established a similar joint venture, the Cobra Beer Partnership, which secured world rights for the iconic beer outside of South Asia.

Molson Coors to Invest £35m in Indian Joint Venture Global brewer Molson Coors has formed a joint venture with Cobra India to brew and market Cobra beer in South Asia.

Molson Coors will purchase a controlling stake in Cobra India from two existing investors and will have operational control over the new Molson Coors Cobra India.

The joint venture will be chaired by Lord Karan Bilimoria, Cobra’s founder and chairman of the Cobra Beer Partnership in the UK. Molson Coors will also be investing additional capital in Molson Coors Cobra India to meet the working capital requirements and the future expansion plans of the brewery operations. The total investment by Molson Coors is approximately $35 million.

Peter Swinburn, president and chief executive of Molson Coors, comments: “Our joint venture in India is an exciting opportunity for us to expand our footprint in Asia and represents the next major milestone in executing our global growth strategy. Over the past year, we have entered several new markets and I believe we are now in a much stronger position to leverage our experience and accelerate our international growth trajectory over the next few years.”

The capacity of the Indian brewing industry in year ending March 2011 was just under 27 million hl and it has a per capita consumption of just under 1.5 litres. The Indian beer market is growing at 12% CAGR and is estimated to grow to 50 million hl by 2020, putting it in the top

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

Peter Swinburn, president and chief executive of Molson Coors.

Fuller’s £54m Offer For Capital Pub Company Rejected A £53.8m offer by Fuller, Smith & Turner, the London-based regional brewer and pub owner, for the Capital Pub Company has been rejected. The board of the Capital Pub Company has characterised the offer as substantially undervaluing the business and its prospects. The Capital board has also deemed it inappropriate to engage further with Fuller on the proposals.

I SEAFOOD

New Reports Highlight Need For Reform of EU Fisheries Policy wo recent reports by the European T Commission add further weight to calls for significant structural change within the EU fish catching sector and a far reaching reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). The 2010 Annual Economic Report

on the EU fishing fleet shows a reduction in economic performance of the EU fishing sector in recent years. The report lays out economic trends in the EU fisheries sector in the period 2002-2008. It notably shows that 2008 was the second consecutive year in which the profitability of the EU fleet declined.

A second report, on Member States' fishing capacity, concludes that the size of the EU fishing fleet continues to decrease at a very slow pace, maintaining a situation of

overcapacity in most of the fleet. To address these issues, the Commission is currently finalising its proposals for a thorough reform of the Common Fisheries Policy, in which sustainable solutions will be proposed to turn this situation around and ensure a viable economic future for the EU fisheries sector.

The 2010 Annual Economic Report suggests that lower incomes and higher fuel prices in 2008 impacted significantly on the profitability of the fishing sector. The amount of value added generated by the sector was Eur2.1 billion in 2008, a decrease of around 23% from 2007.

Overall, fleet profits declined each year between 2006 and 2008. Although the EU fleet made an overall profit of Eur250 million in 2008 (around 6% of total income), analysis by fleet segment revealed that during the period 2002-2008, 30-40% of assessed segments made losses on average, meaning that these segments made insufficient returns on invested capital.

The data reveals that vessels operating with passive gears (such as longliners, purse seiners, netters, vessels using traps and pots) generally performed better than active gears (such as demersal trawlers, beam trawlers and vessels using polyvalent active gears), with certain gear types struggling to ensure

profitability, such as demersal and beam trawlers. The causes of this low economic performance include poor evolution of fish stocks, impacts of fuel prices and fish prices, and the existence of overcapacity in parts of the EU fleet.

The Report on the Member States’ efforts during 2009 to achieve a sustainable balance between fishing capacity and fishing opportunities confirmed the existence of overcapacity. During 2009, the overall reduction in fleet capacity continued to be between 2% and 3% on average, as it was during previous years. However, with this rate of capacity reductions, which are at least partly compensated by technological progress, it will be difficult to eliminate overcapacity in the short term if no changes are made to the current policy. J

I RETAIL MARKET

UK Consumers ‘Topping Up’ Help Discounters he latest figures from Kantar T Worldpanel, for the 12 weeks ending 12 June 2011, show the UK grocery market growing at 4.7% per year. However this conceals the sharp slow-down that was expected after the Royal Wedding and Easter boost. Growth for the four weeks ending 15 May 2011 was 7.8% but this has slumped to 2.5% for the latest four weeks.

“Against this murky background, the ‘two nations’ effect continues unabated. Both Aldi and Lidl have grown at nearly 18% year-on-year and hold onto their all-time record shares of 3.4% and 2.6% respectively,” points out Edward Garner, communications director at Kantar Worldpanel.: “Contrastingly, Waitrose posted the next highest growth at 8.9%. Further evidence for the ‘two 6

nations’ trend is demonstrated by doubledigit growth of Tesco’s Finest range.”

He continues: “The discounters are attracting some new customers but most of

their growth is coming from gaining a greater share of the household shopping list. Customers are making a main shopping trip to their favourite store and this is then ‘topped up’ with selective shopping at the discounter – this has been dubbed FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

‘canny shopping’.”

Elsewhere, Asda suffered a downturn this period dropping its share from 16.7% last year to 16.3%, with the discounters bagging a larger share of its shoppers’ expenditure.

Market share for Tesco, Sainsbury and Morrisons remains relatively constant this period at 30.9%, 16.2% and 12.0% respectively.

Edward Garner concludes: “As the household budget remains tight, there is no doubt that many shoppers are adopting coping strategies such as taking advantage of promotional offers or ‘topping up’ at the discounters.

However, there is no sign of a return to the rapid growth of budget own-label ranges that we saw in 2008.” J

Operational Excellence... Delivered Passionately

I CIDER

Strong Cider Growth Fuels Aston Manor Brewery Having invested in the region of £12 million during the last three years in expanding capacity and installing the latest and most efficient production technology, Aston Manor Brewery is benefiting from the growing consumption of English cider as well as an increase in demand for the company’s contract packing services. ston Manor Brewery is the UK’s third largest cider producer, having first entered the market in 1996. It employs 200 people and achieved net profit of £5.2 million on turnover of £80 million in 2010, up significantly on the previous year when sales were £53 million and profit was £4.4 million.

Indeed, Aston Manor Brewery is one of the fastest growing private companies, across all sectors, in the UK, ranking 35th overall, according to the most recent Sunday Times Profit Track 100, which measures companies’ profit growth over their last three financial years. During this period, Aston Manor Brewery increased its profits by 69% a year. The company has been owned by the Ellis family since 1983.

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Three Sites Aston Manor Brewery operates three sites.

The headquarters at Aston in Birmingham incorporates 70,000 sq ft of buildings on a 3.5 acre site, where about 130 people are employed. At its apple pressing facility in the Malvern Hills the company employs six people, has a 10,000 sq ft premises on a 2 acre site but has a further 300 acres of apple orchards under contract for 25 years.

The third site at Tiverton in Devon, which was acquired with the purchase of

Devon Cider in December 2009, encompasses a fermenting and bottling plant on 10.5 acres with 140,000 sq ft of buildings and employs 54 people.

The site at Malvern processes juice and supplies the traditional English bittersweet apple cider, which is used to make a range of premium amber ciders at the other two sites, where the finished product is also packaged.

Business Activities The business consists of four elements –brands, exports, contract packing and own label cider. The company’s brands, which include Knights, Frosty Jack’s and Kingstone Press, account for about 40% of

In the last three years alone, Aston Manor Brewery has invested in a new state-of-the art Krones PET and glass 24,000 bottles per hour bottling line at Aston, and opened a new cider plant in Tiverton, where it has also just installed a 72,000 cans per hour canning line.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

volume sales (cases of finished product) with the own label cider operation contributing 28%. Aston Manor Brewery’s chief export markets include the US, Russia, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Thailand, France, Ireland, Finland, Bahrain, Cyprus, Turkey, Malta, Dubai, Barbados and Australia, and this trade represents about 7% of volume sales.

About a quarter of the company’s volumes and profits are generated by contract packing. All contract packing is carried out at Aston, which is also the centre for the brands business. The Devon site is devoted almost exclusively to own label cider production. Aston Manor Brewery is the UK’s largest own label cider producer.

Aston Manor Brewery handles contract bottling and packaging for the major multiple supermarkets, all four major UK breweries plus several regional brewers. The contract packing production lines run glass and PET bottles at up to 24,000 an hour, with the ability to crowncork PET bottles offering a competitive advantage.

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£12 Million Investment Aston Manor Brewery is a well invested and technologically advanced business.

Since 2008, about £12 million has been invested in expanding and upgrading operations, including the acquisition of Tiverton-based Devon Cider Company from the administrator. The acquisition was behind the sharp jump in turnover last year and has provided substantial extra capacity. “We were at full capacity at Aston and I needed to see where I could grow the company even further. The acquisition has allowed us to expand from £50 million turnover to £80 million and we have not stopped there,” remarks Peter Ellis, chief executive of Aston Manor Brewery.

In addition to extending capacity, the acquisition has also significantly expanded Aston Manor Brewery’s customer base as the Devon facility was supplying own label cider to some of the UK’s major retailers.

In the last three years alone, Aston Manor Brewery has invested in a new stateof-the art Krones PET and glass 24,000 bottles per hour bottling line at Aston, and opened a new cider plant in Tiverton, where it has also just installed a 72,000 cans per hour canning line.

“We have invested in latest technology machinery every year for the past twenty years,” he says. “We employ a strategy of buying the best equipment available at the time, new from the manufacturer.”

Market Trends All sectors of Aston Manor Brewery’s business – cider production, exports and contract packaging - remain buoyant with each having a promising outlook. Aston Manor Brewery specialises in packaged cider and is not involved in the draught cider sector.

Packaged cider in PET, glass and cans is sold in both the on-trade and off-trade and accounts for about 75% of the 8 million hectolitres UK cider market. “Of the 6 million hectolitres of packaged cider made in the UK, we produce 1.4 million hectoliters,” he points out.

The UK cider market has been revitalised since the arrival of C&C Group with its Magners brand and ‘over ice’ serving format six years ago. “Magners created a product that was acceptable to both men and women, primarily through clever marketing. Cider has grown from 5% of the alcoholic drinks market to 10% and is still growing.” Peter Ellis elaborates: “Cider has really become the drink of first choice for many teenagers in the last five or six years

bottles featuring three thermo-chromic rings on the front which turn ‘steel blue’ when the cider has reached the optimum temperature for serving. Press 81 is available in on- and off-trades in both apple and pear variants in 473ml Cold Activated Bottles with an ABV of 4.5%. “Press 81 represents another step forwards in terms of innovation for the cider category which was reinvigorated by the ‘over ice’ ritual. There is a real gap in the market for a cider with substance and style, which research shows consumers are now looking for,” comments Helen Jones, brand manager of Aston Manor Brewery.

Aston Manor Brewery has just launched Press 81, the UK’s first cider to be sold in aluminium bottles featuring three thermo-chromic rings on the front.

and as many of these are now in their middle-20s it will continue. Cider is a real drink. Consumers know how it is made – there is authenticity to it.”

Growth in Private Label Aston Manor Brewery is also benefiting from the strong growth in private label products. “I firmly believe the multiple retailers are increasingly expanding their private label brand values. It was recently announced that 55% of everything Tesco sells is its own private label. The multiple retailers plan to dominate the world with private label because it gives them strength.”

He continues: “It is certainly showing that in my cider business as private label has grown significantly. Not many people in the trade would want to acknowledge it but that is what I think is happening. I now have the extra capacity in Devon to cope with this trend.”

Peter Ellis expects the off-trade alcoholic drinks market to continue to grow as the on-trade declines further. However, although almost exclusively supplying its cider to the retail trade in the UK, Aston Manor Brewery does have plans to move into the on-trade.

Innovation The company has just launched Press 81, the UK’s first cider to be sold in aluminium

Export Sales Aston Manor Brewery’s cider exports are expanding, no doubt helped by the entry of Heineken into the cider market following its acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle’s UK business, including the Bulmers cider operation, and the global brewer’s subsequent decision to develop cider in international markets. “We are finding that Russia is avaricious for cider and so are the African countries. So I would target these two regions as the next growth areas,” says Peter Ellis. All cider exports are currently under the company’s own brand names.

Contract Packing Aston Manor Brewery is the exclusive bottler for the major brewers in the UK for 330ml and 500ml plastic bottles with crown cork caps, which are sold at outdoor events such as pop concerts, soccer games and also in late night bars around the country. “We are seeing this year a 50% uplift on last year and we expect a further 50% growth next year,” he says. “It is a growing trend and we are the only people in the country who are capable of crowning a plastic bottle.”

Development Strategy With all elements of its business in growth, Aston Manor Brewery is well placed to maintain its strong financial performance.

“We have utilised only about half the capacity at Devon. So the plan is to maximise what we have there over the next year or two.” Peter Ellis concludes: “I invest heavily in people and give them independence, and I invest heavily in machinery.

Putting good people with good machines seems to work.” J

All contract packing is carried out at Aston, which is also the centre for the brands business.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

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FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

Constar International UK Develops Industry Leading PET Technologies onstar International UK is amongst the C world’s leading suppliers of polyethylene terepthalate (PET) containers and one

ates opportunities for Constar and its customers.

Constantly challenging its manufacturing processes as technology improves has facilitated the development of a light weighting programme, which has not only reduced costs for customers but has also succeeded in reducing the carbon footprint of the filled product.

PET is 100% recyclable through conventional PET reclamation systems, and can be fed back into the manufacturing process alongside virgin material.

of Europe’s leading manufacturers of PET preforms, bottles and closures. Constar have established a long standing partnership with Aston Manor and remain totally committed to supporting their growth plans for the future.

Over the last few years Constar have developed new and unique bottles for Aston Manor, which were designed to fulfill marketing expectations and accommodate the requirements of the filling lines.

Constar has on-going glass to PET conversion projects within both the food and beverage sectors. J The Constar relationship with Aston Manor started over 20 years ago and has developed from being a back-up source to the current position of a close working relationship with Constar supplying all of Aston Manor’s PET requirements. Aston Manor selected Constar as their preferred supplier in this area due to Constar’s ability to manufacture PET preforms and bottles, both conventional and barrier, together with plastic closures. This unique ‘one-stop shop’ facility gives Aston Manor better control on synchronized delivery timing, together with total confidence in product compatibility.

Technical Services An additional benefit in dealing with Constar in this way is that Aston Manor have access to Constar’s Customer Technical Service (CTS) team who are able to provide support and guidance in all aspects of blowing, filling and capping processes. The Constar CTS team have over 50 years combined experience in the field of closure application and have developed a reputation within the industry which is second to none.

Research and Development All customers have access to Constar’s Research and Development facilities which provide a speedy and efficient route for getting ideas and concepts from mind to marketplace. The increasing demand for innovation brings with it a higher risk to meet market expectations as well as product life cycles becoming shorter. Constar provides the solutions to specially address these issues by reducing development time and minimizing investment risk. Constar’s design engineers use the latest software and modeling techniques to ensure a successful product launch.

Constar have developed a suite of proprietary industry leading PET technologies tailored to the specific oxygen barrier needs of customers, giving up to a 5 times barrier improvement factor.

Opportunities As the demand for more sustainable food and beverage packaging increases this creFOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

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Packaging and End of Line Solutions From CBI Fleetwood BI Fleetwood, located in Doncaster, UK C is the combination of FleetwoodGoldcoWyard’s two key business locations in the United Kingdom – Central Bottling International (CBI) and FleetwoodGoldcoWyard. The merger of these two business units brought together the 25 plus years of experience CBI has specializing in new and refurbished industrial packaging equipment and services into the food, beverage and

brewing industries along with the strong historic positions of Fleetwood in the end handling market and Goldco in the palletising and depalletising market.

CBI Fleetwood is a one source supplier for packaging requirements for conveying, filling, process, palletising, depalletising, change parts, spare parts, pre-owned equipment, and services to name a few. The company has manufacturing facilities in the United States and United Kingdom to provide equipment and services worldwide.

Contact CBIsales@fgwa.com for a comprehensive review of your requirements. J

Intercaps Filling Systems Appointed European Agent For Steelhead ntercaps Filling Systems has been ISteelhead, appointed as European agent for the leading American producer of filling equipment for 19 litre/5 US gallon bottling systems used in water fountains. IC Filling Systems will be offering both sales and after sales service for the UK and Europe, through its offices in Scotland and Italy via its commercial partners in the various countries involved.

Steelhead's president Alan Pyle sees the move as a consolidation of the company’s dominant presence in Europe in this specialist field. The Steelhead fillers for 19ltr/5 gallon bottles consist of two different systems. First are the ULTRA range of washer, filler & cappers (One Operator Bottling Systems) for outputs of between 150-350 bph and second are High Speed Bottling Systems for 4503000 bph outputs. J

Tri-Star Packaging Receives BRC Certification Status ri-Star Packaging has received coveted BRC cerT tification status and has been therefore recognised for its position at the cutting edge of the food

Tri-Star’s Toni Guarnieri and Matthew Slade-Pedrick

and beverage packaging industry. Auditors certified the company to the BRC Storage & Distribution Standard, which ensures that businesses operating in the food and drink supply chain are meeting the highest standards.

The inspection process evaluated Tri-Star’s systems from beginning to end, covering a comprehensive range of procedures, including storage,

transportation, staff training and chemical handling. Tri-Star also had to demonstrate that its own suppliers were safe and provide full traceability for every type of packaging it supplies.

Kevin Curran, managing director of Tri-Star, says: “We believe we are one of the only, if not the only, packaging distributor in our sector in the UK to offer its customers the reassurance of BRC certification.”

Tri-Star’s commercial manager, Toni Guarnieri, led the company’s efforts to gain certification. J

Multivac Launches B610 – High Performance Belt-Fed Vacuum he B610 extends Multivac’s range of T small chamber, swing lid, small and medium sized belt-fed Vacuum Packing

design and tilting lid aiding both cleaning and maintenance. Multivac’s German design and build quality, comprehensive support network (24 UK service engineers), and a range of attractive finance makes the B610 a very cost effective packaging solution. For further information contact Multivac on Tel +44 (0)1793 425800 or visit www.multivac.co.uk. J

Machines. Designed specifically for high speed/volume bag packing, the B610 is ideal for primals, large cuts of meat or cheese blocks. The B610 features two 1500mm automatic height adjustable seal bars 800mmm apart, unique hygienic 14

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

I CASE STUDIES

Classic Corrugated For Classic Ales S Smith Speciality Packaging at D Lockerbie was chosen by Britain’s largest premium ale brewer, Marston’s Beer Company, to develop an eye-catching Classic Ales of England consumer mixed pack in a larger x12 pack and smaller x4 pack format.

Both packs, developed for a variety of retail outlets, feature appealing and attractive five colour litho print. They showcase a number of popular Premium Ale brands such as Wychwood Hobgoblin, Marston’s Pedigree and Brakspear Oxford Gold and deliver the compelling consumer proposition of an ‘ale trail of England in a box’.

Justin Way, Marketing Manager for Wychwood, Ringwood & Brakspear, comments: “DS Smith Packaging has worked in partnership with our design agency Drinkworks to realise the design concept and produce a stunning pack with great consumer appeal.”

These litho printed packs are great examples of how high quality corrugated print can give brands strong visual instore appeal, whilst being able to cope with all the rigours of the supply chain. It goes to show how corrugated can deliver a perfect solution for brands, retailers and shoppers. J

A Right Regal Result s close working partners of many A years standing, both Chivas Brothers and DS Smith Packaging Livingston were delighted with the results of a new corrugated pack designed to support a rebranding exercise for this very successful spirit.

It was essential for the team to represent the product accurately in print on the pack that holds twelve 500ml bottles of 12 year old Premium Blended Scotch Whisky. The pack needed to be eyecatching at the point of sale and structured to protect its valuable and delicious contents. The project team relied on DS Smith Packaging’s PackRight suite of tools to help deliver exactly the right

results.

Tommy Coia, Technical Manager for the DS Smith Livingston site, comments: “We work in partnership with the Chivas Brothers team from initial concepts and design through to print trials on press. We are all focused on achieving the very best result.”

The product relaunch has proved to be highly successful. Savings were achieved through reductions in print (from six to five colours) as well as manufacturing and tooling costs. Another great example of how corrugated really can help to increase sales and reduce costs. The print recently won a corrugated print award in the EFIA Competition. J

DS Smith Packaging Shows a Sure Touch gold EFIA print award was the A result of a great deal of hard work by the DS Smith Packaging team at Clay Cross who produced a pre-printed, 4 colour with varnish, Brabantia consumer pack for the distinctive 50L Touch Bin. Having won the business from a competitor, the team took a fresh look at the pack to find areas for improvement.

They decided to introduce a new substrate, double wall RE flute. This meant the corrugated board had a lower cal-

liper than the previous BE flute and this led to significantly improved efficiency in the supply chain for inbound supply, storage and distribution.

So DS Smith Packaging’s customer is delighted with the first class award winning print, which helps increase sales, as well as the supply chain savings that the team identified, particularly when the flatpacks are forwarded into Europe. It just goes to show how the right kind of corrugated can make products stand out in-store and save cash and carbon. J FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

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I ALCOHOLIC DRINKS

Bevisol - The New Beverage Industry Solutions Provider Based in Herefordshire, England, Bevisol is a new but highly experienced supplier of fermented products and solutions to the alcoholic beverage industry. evisol produces and supplies both supplies across the full spectrum of the alco- saving on effluent disposal costs. Bevisol is intermediate products, such as fer- holic drinks industry from smaller size also looking at ways to reduce its energy mented bases, and final products brand owners up to large multi-national usage and costs. “We plan to invest in more that are ready for dilution and pack- organisations. processing equipment for our specialist aging off site. It also provides a product “We believe that 50% of what we supply products as this business stream develops,” development service to convert customers’ will be intermediate products, that is fer- he adds. concepts into products. mented base ingredients, and 50% will be Bevisol was established earlier this year as final products. We have been surprised by Buoyant Market a result of a management buyout of the for- the amount of product development Bevisol is well placed to expand in line with mer Heineken UK-owned Universal requests we have received and, partnering its main markets as cider consumption Beverages site at Bromyard Road in with our flavour house, Dohler UK, we remains buoyant and the RTD sector is Ledbury, which produced alcoshowing signs of recovery. “The holic drinks including cider, cider market is huge and continues perry, RTD and wine. to grow and innovate. The recent Currently employing 15 people, introduction of new international Bevisol is headed by managing players is another fabulous boost director Chris Newall, a former for the sector. The RTD market, director of Universal Beverages. having been in decline, is stabilising Universal Beverages was and, in some quarters, starting to formed in December 2007 as a grow again,” Chris Newall points joint venture between Q Group, out. a local Herefordshire-based He continues: “Innovation is the company, and Heineken UK, lifeblood of any business and we see Britain’s biggest brewer, which the growth trend for new ciders, also owns the country’s leading RTD’s and wine based products cider maker, HP Bulmer. growing. We are responding to this The rationale behind the joint by offering a development service venture was that the strong and working closely with customers growth in the UK cider market Bevisol was established earlier this year as a result of a management buyout of to assist in development and trialwas outstripping the capacity at the former Universal Beverages site at Bromyard Road in Ledbury. ing of new or existing products. We HP Bulmer’s cider production are also attracting more interest facility in the centre of Hereford. have developed about a dozen products in from Europe for our services and see this as Consequently, HP Bulmer needed to add the first three months of existence, some of a major opportunity.” new milling and cider making capacity. Due which are already doing very well in the to the constraints of Bulmer’s existing site, market,” comments Chris Newall.

Development Strategy the decision was taken to build the new Indeed, the company’s name is an abbre- Bevisol’s strategy is to be a non-branded, capacity at nearby Ledbury, involving viation of beverage (Bev) industry (i) solu- independent and highly confidential service investment of over £100 million. tions (sol). provider, helping its customers to innovate and to exploit market opportunities. It aims Opportunity On Target to build strong and long-term relationships “Universal Beverages were looking to close “We are on target to produce around 50% with its customers, while also partnering the Bromyard Road site as their larger pro- of the site’s capacity in the first year, which with other supply companies to provide full duction site in Ledbury was complete and it is what we had envisaged in our business turnkey solutions, when required. made more sense to produce their products plan,” he says. “We will turnover £4–5 mil“We are still a very young company but all on one site. So we have acquired an lion with a good profit in year one.” have quickly found our niche supplying entire, fully functioning production plant The plant is modern and well invested. base ingredients, final product and product that we know how to operate,” Chris “The plant is only three years old and development. Going forwards we would like Newall explains. employs highly technical and hygienic to develop our full solution service, in The Bevisol site is capable of fermenting, equipment. It was originally designed to be which we turnkey manage the supply chain filtering and processing up to 30 million flexible, which is a big advantage in being through to packaged product by working litres of high strength product per annum, able to meet customer’s needs,” he remarks. closely with our packaging partners. Export which is the equivalent of 60 million litres A new waste water handling plant has markets are also a target,” concludes the of sales strength drinks. The new company since been installed that is delivering a 50% Bevisol managing director. J

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FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

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Pentair Haffmans’ Inpack TPO/CO2 Meter – Complete Analysis With Just One Sample order to provide the Itonhighest quality product consumers it is important for brewers and beverage manufacturers to monitor both oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) from production to packaging. Carbon dioxide must be present as it enhances the beverage’s flavour and freshness. Oxygen must be as low as possible as it negatively affects the product quality. Both are decisive to the customer’s acceptance of the product.

Pentair Haffmans’ automatic Inpack TPO/CO2 Meter, type c-TPO, provides a differentiated measurement of headspace oxygen (HSO) and dissolved oxygen (DO) and measures CO2. It helps to identify the source of total package oxygen (TPO) and gives immediate insight in the performance of the filling operation.

Up to 100 product types/packages can be programmed into the unit. Suited for the most common sizes of bottles and cans, the instrument prevents inferior packaged beverages from entering the market.

With more than 60 years of experience in CO2 and O2 management, Pentair Haffmans goes beyond traditional measurement methods. With just one sample, Pentair Haffmans’ state-of-the-art multi-parameter analysis reduces measurement time to a few minutes and minimizes product losses. Unlike conventional instruments, the Inpack TPO/CO2 Meter measures the headspace O2 and DO as the package is filled with the liquid remaining in the package. This eliminates sample preparation and minimizes lab space. For further information contact Haffmans BV on Tel +31 (0)77 323 23 00 or visit www.haffmans.nl. J

Pentair Haffmans’ Inpack TPO/CO2 Meter, type c-TPO. Photo: Pentair Haffmans.

Bevisol Chooses Puresep to Provide Filtration and Water Treatment Plant Solutions uresep, the global filtration and P water treatment specialists have been commissioned by Bevisol as their key partner in providing top of the range filtration and water treatment plant and solutions to facilitate their production plant requirements. Along with a 24/7 PureCare service and maintenance agreement.

Filtration plant installed includes: The PureFlow Crossflow system. It is used for product clarification following fermentation and boasts high performance and productivity through quality design and engineering along with maximum filtration efficiency. The system is made of stainless steel, ensuring a long service life as well as preventing odour pickup and adverse taste. It utilises high quality 0.2 micron membranes, ensuring exceptional product clarity. The system is fully integrated and automated with a self cleaning facility that requires no operator intervention. It is scalable to suit production requirements.

The Puresep Water treatment plant boasts cost effective and 18

efficient water supply for process, product and CIP use across the plant.

A duplex ion exchange softener system is used to remove scale forming salts such as calcium and magnesium from the incoming water. The softeners operate on an ‘on demand’ basis and automatically regenerate when the set volume of water has passed. Whilst one softener unit is in regeneration the second unit is bought online The Triplex Granular Activated Carbon filters are in place to remove chlorine from the incoming water supply down to very low levels. The carbon filter vessels also operate on an ‘on demand’ basis and each will backwash on manual initiation.

A PureChlor Chlorine Dioxide system was installed to ensure sterility to softened water for CIP applications and for treating the carbon filtered water for process applications. This is an effective and efficient way of generating Chlorine Dioxide, with a central PLC control system it is fully automated. The PureChlor system is fully scalable allowing multiple points of use across a site. J

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

Skanem Develops Superpeel Label Solution kanem has together with its multinaS tional customer Oriflame developed a ‘Superpeel’ label solution. This is an innovative concept with front and reverse printing on the adhesive side. Only one layer is now required with the option of also having much more information on the product. Oriflame sees this as a major innovation, which allows them to provide a cost effective single variant solution whilst ensuring sufficient regulatory information on products.

The solution is to be on plastic bottles and flexible tubes, aerosols and glass nail varnish bottles.

Brian Olesen, Multinational Key Account Manager for Skanem, reports that one of the reasons for this project was the fact that Oriflame often has to have multiple languages on their products: “This will in many cases require a 2 or 3 ply with 3 to 5 pages Peel’n Read solution. With a combination of either

removing some text, or simply squeezing it more together, the e.g. 3 pages will now fit into 2 pages on the ‘Superpeel’ solution.”

Skanem as a Strategic Partner According to Component Sourcing Manager at Oriflame, Tony Igoe, the project started with Skanem as their strategic partner due to an ever increasing regulatory demand from sales markets: “This has lead to the need for more legal text to be included on packaging. To take care of this Oriflame has had to launch multi variants of each product, up to 6 in some cases to cover the global marketplace.” He further explains that contrary to this, Oriflame has a need to be as flexible and responsive in the supply chain as possible, which multi variants do not provide.

Tony Igoe adds: “Over the last 2 years there has been a push to provide a cost effective solution to the multi variants by trying to provide a single variant solution for all packaging types. Adding additional cartons to products was not an option due to costs and adding multi page booklets was also rejected on cost grounds. We came up with the concept of using the latest technology on label production to produce a 2 side printed, single ply label, with a peel and reseal side and a permanent hinge to apply to bottles and flexible tubes. This in theory had the advantage of using less material but 2 side printed, which for most of our products gave us the possibility to achieve a cost effective single variant solution. So this was the theory, but the label actually did not exist, so we started to work together with Skanem Poznan to solve the theory and make the label a reality.”

A Receptive Skanem Team When asked how the process has been with Skanem as a partner, Tony Igoe says: “The Skanem team has been receptive at all times to try out new ideas and provide samples and think about the solutions being presented. At the start of the project there were some concerns about how possible this type of label was to produce, but once the team started to think in more detail about how to produce such a label, the development process was really smooth to arrive at an approved label. There were many options investigated and tested, but we always moved forward with each submission. After FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

just over one year we managed to agree on a solution that would work for our bottles and more importantly our plastic tubes.

Well done to the whole development team!.”

A Super Concept!

Brian Olesen further explains the concept: “The new concept is also better for the environment as it uses less material and they may even be able to turn a 3 ply Peel’n Read with 5 pages into a 2 ply Peel’n Read with 4 pages, as the Superpeel solution on 2 ply will offer 4 pages. The 2 ply Superpeel is next step on the development.”

The solution is made so it can be resealed again when the end-user has seen the information, Brian says: “You can say that the Peel’n Read solution is not new, but as far as I can tell, we have never seen a 1 page solution with print on both sides to go directly on a bottle and/or tube product before.’”

The project is approved by Oriflame.

Next step is to implement the solution on two specific products. Oriflame and Skanem are now looking forward to apply this final solution across the portfolio where suitable. For further information contact Skanem on Tel +47 51 85 97 20 or visit skanem.com. J

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COVER STORY

Dairy Crest Delivers on its Strategic Objectives Dairy Crest plans to remove another £20 million worth of annual costs from its business as the UK’s leading dairy company seeks to mitigate the impact of price inflation on customers and consumers.

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lthough turnover slipped by 2% to £1.61 billion for year the ended March 31st 2011, Dairy Crest managed to increase adjusted profit before tax by 5% to £87.6 million in challenging trading conditions. Profit before tax remained static at £77.8 million and net debt was cut by £25 million to £312 million.

“We have a very fragile consumer base in the UK at the moment.”

Dairy Crest will continue to pursue the same tried and tested development Mark Allen, chief executive of Dairy Crest. strategy during its current financial year.

This entails building market leading positions in branded and added value markets, while at the same time reducing exposure to commodity markets in order to improve the quality of earnings.

It also involves an ongoing focus on cost reduction and efficiency improvements, and generating growth through acquisitions and disposals.

Broadly Based Being a broadly-based dairy business is a major advantage in the current economic climate, according to chief executive Mark Allen. It meant that although the Dairies division had a tough

Dairy Crest is delivering on its strategic objectives.

time last year with operating profit dropping from £35 million to £27 million, the Cheese business performed strongly with profit advancing from £17 million to £28 million. The reverse was the case in the previous year. Profitability at Dairy Crest’s third division – Spreads – was slightly down last year, slipping from £54 million to £53 million.

Spreads is Dairy Crest’s most profitable business, contributing 49% of group profit last year while only accounting for 18% of sales. Cheese chipped in 26% of profit on 14% of sales. The Dairies division is a much lower margin activity which generated 68% of group sales and 25% of profit last year.

£20 Million Cost Reductions Having achieved £20 million of annualised cost reduction initiatives during its last financial year, Dairy Crest has identified a further £20 million for 2011/12. “Taking costs out of our business is part of our DNA. We have been doing it for years,” says Mark Allen. “The £20 million is made up of production synergies – operating our factories more efficiently – it’s out of distribution – running our fleet more efficiently – it’s out of central overheads, doing that more efficiently – and then ultimately out of purchasing – buying better than we bought last year. Our plans will deliver a similar amount this year and we think we can do that for a number of years going forward.”

Dairy Crest’s continued focus on reducing costs includes efforts to make the UK spreads business Dairy Crest will continue more efficient; the installation of two to pursue the same tried and new biomass boilers and further planned tested development strategy renewable energy projects at the during its current Davidstow cheese financial year. plant; and continuation of the £75 mil-

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

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lion capital expenditure programme at the liquid dairies.

“We have our dairies positioned around the country in what we think are strategically the right locations,” he remarks. Dairy Crest’s priority is to remain competitive on cost, as well as from a quality and a service perspective. “If we don’t carry on investing in those sites, we won’t remain competitive in those areas,” he adds.

The focus on efficiency right across its business activities has allowed Dairy Crest to invest more in brand marketing and innovation, while simultaneously limiting the increase in input costs that it has to pass on to customers and consumers.

Brand Building In line with its strategy of increasing the “We are happy with Dairy proportion of added value sales and Crest as an independent plc. improving the qualiWe think we are performing ty of its earnings, Dairy Crest is conwell in a difficult market and tinuing to develop its five key brands - there is no reason why we can’t spreads Clover and Country Life in the go on doing that.”

UK and St Hubert Omega 3 in France; Cathedral City, the UK’s leading cheese brand; and Frijj flavoured milk drinks. Dairy Crest invests constantly in these brands in terms of marketing spend, TV advertising and innovation. During the past four years sales of these five brands have grown by 57% and by 7% last year.

In its Dairies business, Dairy Crest has been increasing its sales to major retailers, which rose by 9% last year including the resumption of liquid milk supply to Tesco after a lapse of six years, while refining its doorstep operation and restricting its presence in the troublesome middle ground of the market.

Innovation Innovation has played a crucial role in helping Dairy Crest Eyes Yoghurt Market Dairy Crest is reported to planning to move into the £1.2 billion UK yoghurt market either through developing its own business or by acquisition. Dairy Crest had been a key player within the UK yoghurt market through a joint venture with French dairy group Yoplait before selling its stake in 2009. A condition of the deal was that Dairy Crest would not compete in the yoghurt market for two years. That exclusion period expired in March.

“We want to develop a yoghurt business over time - that means developing a brand or going out and acquiring one,” says Mark Allen, chief executive of Dairy Crest. “In terms of our aspirations for the group, we are also looking at other businesses across our dairy categories.” Dairy Crest is involved in the cheese, liquid milk and spreads categories of the UK dairy market and also has a spreads business based in France.

According to Mark Allen, Dairy Crest could easily manage to pay £100 millon for the right acquisition without compromising its internal net debt targets.

Dairy Crest to build its added value sales. Over the past five years Dairy Crest has successfully launched ‘lighter’ variants of its three key UK foods brands – Clover, Cathedral City and Country Life.

Other innovations include milk&more, its Dairies online doorstep delivery business.

Dairy Crest’s goal is to generate 10% of annual sales from products developed within the past three years. “That is a very challenging target. It means that £160 million of our sales each year need to come from new products. For a business, like ours that is a tough ask,” says Mark Allen. In its last financial year, Dairy Crest reached the 9% mark. “I would hope that over the next couple of years we can get to 10% and then keep it at 10%,” he remarks.

Positive Outlook “We have a very fragile consumer base in the UK at the moment,” the Dairy Crest chief executive points out. “Set against this background we have to make sure we do the right things for the business. The right things for the business are making sure we are as efficient as we possibly can so we can minimise the impact of inflation on consumers, and to make sure we advertise, promote and innovate our brands to ensure they continue the good growth seen over the past few years. But we also need to make sure that we invest in our facilities to drive improvements in quality, service and cost.”

He adds: “If we carry on doing those things, we have a very positive future for this business.”

Acquisitions Acquisitions are unlikely to play a part in this development in the short-term. “We have said over the last twelve months that we would like to find an appropriate acquisition. We are out there looking but it has to be at the right price and bring synergies into our business. The fact that we have no announcement to make says that we haven’t found one.”

Mark Allen is unconcerned about recent media speculation about a possible takeover of Dairy Crest. “All good businesses are speculated about and I guess we are no different,” he comments.

“We are happy with Dairy Crest as an independent plc. We think we are performing well in a difficult market and there is no reason why we can’t go on doing that.” J

Dairy Crest’s goal is to generate 10% of annual sales from products developed within the past three years.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

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AutoCoding Systems Develops Bespoke Cheese Weighing and Labelling System for Dairy Crest, Davidstow utoCoding Systems, specialist systems integrator for packaging A line solutions, has worked with Dairy Crest, Davidstow to develop a bespoke cheese weighing and labelling system. The Davidstow site is the largest Cheddar cheese factory in Europe, producing over 43,000 tonnes of cheddar cheese, 27,000 tonnes of whey powder and 2,000 tonnes of whey butter per year.

When Dairy Crest needed to replace its obsolete cheese weighing system the company approached AutoCoding Systems for assistance.

Bespoke System AutoCoding Systems and Dairy Crest worked together to develop a bespoke cheese weighing and labelling system which could cope with the increased volume and speed of cheese production, whilst maintaining the essential continuity of product flow.

The AutoCoding application consists of a Nova Weigh checkweigher, one Logopak main print and apply labeller, a backup Markem Labeller and a Markem outer case coder. A wall mounted stainless steel control panel housing an industrial PC and PLC controls, incorporates a touch screen interface to enable operators to manage and control all aspects of the system operation.

The 20 kg blocks of cheese are accurately weighed and a barcode label is automatically printed with all the manufacturing data and applied to the cheese block. If the scanner fails to read the barcode or a label is not applied, the second print and apply printer is activated immediately without stopping the line.

If a cheese block is overweight or underweight, the system will not allow the block to move from the checkweigher. A reset panel

24

with warning indicator lights shows if a cheese block is out of tolerance, if a label has not been applied or if the second printer has been activated The labelled cheese block is boxed and an outer case coder prints an inkjet barcode before the boxed cheese goes into storage for up to 20 months to mature. All the manufacturing data is stored in a database for retrieval and reporting, eg average weight, total production and standard deviation per batch, per product and per day. By linking this database to its other system, Dairy Crest is able to track and trace individual cheese blocks from supermarket shelves back 20 months to the farm where the milk was first produced.

Reliability Neil Flood, System Engineer at Dairy Crest, says: “Auto Coding Systems took the time to listen and understand our specific requirements and developed a modular and bespoke system. The system has proved to be virtually 100% reliable resulting in near zero downtime and gives us an accurate reporting and product trace facility.”

He continues: “The cheese manufacturing process is not tolerant of any delays to the line. Continuity of product flow is the most vital aspect of the system and with a major emphasis on back-up redundancy, we are able to quickly and simply swap out faulty equipment, thereby allowing continuity of production at all times.

A major challenge was that all development, testing and commissioning had to be done on the active packaging line with no delays to the product flow. AutoCoding Systems successfully achieved this with little or no disruption to our normal production process.”

Dairy Crest has been so impressed with the dedication and work ethic displayed by the AutoCoding team that they are now working together on other projects within the business. J

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

Clean Up Your Act With Zehnder Clean Air Solutions s companies are having to A review their budgets and reduce costs, all areas of opera-

polypropylene fibres which attract and catch the dust. As such it filters the particles of tion are coming under scrutiny. dust from the air like a continuOne area which is often overous vacuum cleaner whist looked, but can generate sizeable maintaining the ‘clean air delivcost savings across the business is ery rate’ through the equipthe removal of dust. Zehnder ment. This ensures a prolonged Clean Air Solutions, one of service life and low pressure loss Europe’s leading providers of during operation. And unlike energy efficient, healthy and human cleaning the units also comfortable indoor climate syswork 365 days of the year, and tems, makes light work of indusdo not cause any disruption to trial cleaning with a comprehenon-going operations. sive solution to dust manageWith low noise emission and ment. low energy and operating costs Zehnder Clean Air Solutions Zehnder Clean Air Solutions installed within a fruit and vegetable warehouse.

Dust Generation are available in a range of Generated by production mobile, ceiling and wall/shelfprocess, particularly those involving pow- teeism due to the reduced air quality for mounted units ensuring a solution to fit ered chemicals or ingredients, plus generic employees. In fact, for many companies any new or existing building. Easy to working practices such as forklift truck industrial cleaning, as part of a dust man- install, as no pipe or ducts are required, the operation, the movement of people within agement programme, has become an audit- units can be fitted while normal warehouse a building, truck traffic to and from load- ed part of their health and safety process in operations continue. ing bays, and the influx of environmental order to ensure they are within WHO Working together with food and drink dust particulate from outside fields and (World Health Organisation) guidelines manufacturers, logistics operators and roads, the presence of dust unfortunately and are providing acceptable working con- retailers to resolve their individual dust cannot be avoided. ditions for their staff. management challenges, Zehnder offer a So with the consequences of comprehensive, no obligation testing peridust accumulation being so od. This includes a thorough assessment of wide-ranging and the cost existing dust related issues, plus their assoimplication so significant, it is ciated costs to the business, and forms the clear to see how the elimina- basis of a bespoke dust management protion of nuisance dust through gramme. the installation of an effective Eliminating airborne dust Zehnder Clean industrial air cleaning system Air Solutions is an intelligent, efficient and can benefit a company’s bot- economic solution for a cleaner and healthtom line. ier working environment. For further information on Zehnder Clean Air Solutions Cost Saving Potential please contact Zehnder Technical Services Designed to remove and con- on +44 (0)1252 515151 or visit www.zehntrol high dust concentration der.co.uk. J levels across all industry setZehnder Clean Air Solutions installed within a bakery. tings, Zehnder Clean Air Solutions offers high levels of As dust accumulates it can have a detri- dust removal, helping companies achieve mental effect on machinery, increasing the savings of up to 30% on their annual cleanlikelihood of break down and consequential ing costs when using floor care appliances costly downtime. It can also contaminate to clean the buildings and increasing to up products and escalate the number of reject- to 70% when cleaning by hand alone. ed or returned items. Moreover, in facilities At the forefront of innovative industrial with automated equipment dust can affect air filtration technology Zehnder Clean Air sensors which in turn can lead to opera- Solutions utilises a highly effective filtration tional failures and increased servicing costs. system. By comparison to standard filters, Additional indirect effects of dust accumu- the dust is recovered not by deposition on a lation include the impaired performance of fibrous fabric, but by the use of the The familiar consequences of dust existing HVAC equipment, reduced visibil- Flimmer Filter. This unique filtering techaccumulation. ity within the facility and higher absen- nique uses electro-statically charged, fine FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

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Further Advances by Eclipse Scientific Group clipse Scientific Group, one of the E UK’s leading providers of food and drink testing services, is continuing to expand. Eclipse has over 20 years of experience of offering a range of high quality analytical testing services across the UK and Ireland through its UKAS accredited laboratories.

The company has been revitalised over the past couple of years following the appointment of a new senior management team in 2009. While well respected within the food and drink industry nationally, the business was considered to be falling short of its full potential and under-utilising the Eclipse brand.

The new management team, including sales director Nigel Richards, IT director Sarah Hammond and operations director Declan Burns, has advanced the business considerably since 2009, extending its geographical coverage and introducing new services for customers.

The Eclipse brand was re-launched with a new website and logo in November 2009 and the management and laboratory teams have been further

Eclipse Scientific Group is one of the UK’s leading providers of food and drink testing services.

strengthened as Eclipse has extended its market standing by attracting new customers. The business has also been significantly enhanced through developments on the IT side with the launch of ‘EOS’ (Eclipse Online Solutions).

‘EOS’ is a secure web-based solution that is accessible anytime and anywhere.

Its capabilities are being constantly enhanced in response to customer feedback. For example users can now register samples and check their results history by mobile phone using ‘EOS Mobile Lite’.

Evidence of the progress made and the

acceleration in Eclipse’s development strategy is the recent acquisition of Leeds-based ‘PMS Micro’, one of the leading independent microbiological laboratories in the north of England with over 25 years of experience.

The acquisition marks a further chapter in Eclipse’s on-going expansion plans in the north following the opening of its Mirfield laboratory in January 2010. It also allows Eclipse to provide PMS’s customers with direct access to a wider range of testing as well as providing Eclipse an opening into retailer due diligence testing. J

MCE Engineering Enters US Cheese Processing Industry K-based machinery manufacturer MCE U Engineering is looking to profit from America’s growing appetite for speciality cheese after forming a partnership with a producer in Vermont. MCE Engineering has entered into an agreement with the Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company, which will help it to market its products among the United States' ever-increasing number of cheese producers.

MCE Engineering recently supplied the company with an automated cheese pegmill, which breaks up curd during the cheese-making process and will allow the firm to increase its production, while enhancing the quality of its English-style cheddar.

It is the first transatlantic order ever received by the UK company, which manufactures equipment for a wide spectrum of industries but has established itself as an expert in the design, manufacture and installation of food production machinery.

It already serves some of the biggest names in the food and confectionary industry, including Premier Foods, McVities, United Biscuits, Dairy Crest, KP Nuts and 26

Thorntons, and is one the UK's leading specialist manufacturers of cheese processing equipment.

MCE Engineering secured the Vermont order last year after the Americans contacted it through its website, having failed to find a suitable supplier on the other side of the Atlantic.

“There has been a big increase in the demand for independently produced cheeses over in the States and the company

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

needed the curd mill to keep up with demand,” explains Peter Murray, director of MCE Engineering. “However much they sell, they are determined to make it authentic and when they couldn't find a suitable machinery supplier over there, they decided they would look for a company in England, which is the home of Cheddar cheese. We were delighted to have received the order and we're now looking forward to working with the Vermont Farmstead Cheese Company to find more work in America.”

MCE Engineering was founded in 1996 and employs 25 people. It works in stainless steel, aluminium, mild steel and plastics and as well as the cheese and food production sectors, it serves other industries including construction, rail and marine.

For further information contact MCE Engineering, Unit 6, Empire Business Park, Parcel Terrace, Derby DE1 1LY, UK. Tel 01332 366228, Fax 01332 341847, Email info@mcelimited.co.uk, Web www.mcelimited.co.uk.

Come and visit the MCE Engineering stand at The Nantwich International Cheese Awards 2011. J

Riggs Autopack Filling Machines For Sauce, Preserves and Condiment Production n excellent reputation for building high quality depositors and filling machines for the food production industry, has secured Riggs Autopack a recent order from TCD Foods, A a UK food manufacturer producing fine quality chilli sauces, jam, condiments and marinades. Following initial consultation, Riggs was able to recommend a bespoke Model 1000 Option 1 semi-automatic filling machine.

It was supplied with a 100 litre hopper, height adjustable filling table, choice of depositing nozzles to suit varied containers, and an integrated conical pouch opener which uses food grade quality air to open stand-up plastic pouches. It has been easily integrated into the production kitchens and is fulfilling all food depositing requirements. For further information contact Riggs Autopack on Tel +44 (0)1282 440040 or visit www.autopack.co.uk. J

Kliklok Packs Luxury Chocolates ollowing Kliklok’s success of Interpack F in May, the SFR150 end load cartoner that was demonstrated at the show has been sold to a large food producer in Belgium. In 2007, food manufacturers Natra acquired the All Crump company, a leading private label brand specialising in chocolate and cocoa products. To accommodate the increase in production, the company has chosen the Kliklok SFR150 for its factory in Malle, Belgium to pack foil bags of luxury truffles in single and doubles. The SFR150’s modular design enables a variety of infeed options – either hand loading, automatic product transfer, re-orientation, collating or stacking. With this flexible approach, the SFR150 can be reconfigured if production

requirements change.

With over 60 SFR models installed throughout the world, this medium speed end load cartoner has proved to be a winning choice for global companies like Findus, Masterfoods, Heinz, Cadbury and McCain.

The machine offers a short footprint, patented rotary carton feeder, interactive colour touch screen and robust stainless steel construction. This versatile cartoner also has the benefit of easy and repeatable size change plus the option to run 5-crease sleeves and conventional cartons on the same machine, at up to 150 cartons per minute.

For further information contact Kliklok International on Tel 44 (0)1275 836131 or visit www.kliklokint.com. J

Measom Freer Extends Stock Bottle Ranges he design team at Measom Freer have T again added more shapes to their stock bottle ranges. There is the tall elegant tapered ‘Nature’ range which launches with both 100 and 200ml options, manufactured in house in clear PVC, with colours and

PETG available to order and the ‘Pageant’ bottle which is designed with a flowing triangular shape and a good on-shelf presence with large front and back panels for product graphics and details. The Pageant is currently available as a 100ml in clear PVC with other sizes to follow.

Both shapes stand out on the shelves from other bottles and will give your products the ‘presence’ they deserve. The neck sizes on both shapes are standard European R4 (USA 415) which suit Measom Freer’s stock range of caps, dispensers, neck plugs and pumps giving you flexibility on how you want your product delivered.

Screen printing in one or several colours is also available to complete the desired look. These bottles are ideal for oils, seaFOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

soning, sauces and other liquids.Measom Freer also manufacture and stock an extensive plastic packaging range, from jars and boxes to measuring scoops and fasteners with all their products designed and manufactured in-house. Speak to their Sales team now to find out more about how these new and interesting bottles can enhance your brand image and shelf presence. In addition, their stock packaging has a minimum order quantity of just a single box which means minimal lead-times, optimising your cash flow and stock management. Their Sales team look forward to discussing your requirements soon: For further information contact Meason Freer on Tel +44 (0)116 2881588 or visit www.measomfreer.co.uk. J 27

I SCOTCH WHISKY

Growing Thirst For Scotch Fuels £600 Million Industry Investment In response to the continual growth in export sales, the Scotch whisky industry has invested in the region of £600 million during the past two year in expanding and upgrading capacity in distilling, bottling and warehousing. espite the tough economic environment, Scotch whisky export sales remained buoyant throughout 2010 with global shipments rising by 10% to reach £3.45 billion, reflecting continued premiumisation across the industry, as sales value increased despite a marginal decrease in volume. According to the Scotch Whisky Association, encouraging growth was achieved across different Scotch whisky categories. Single malt exports increased by 18% to £577 million and bottled blended Scotch whisky shipments rose by 5% to £2.6 billion.

Eight of the top ten markets grew in value, with a strong performance in the US (+19%), which is Scotch’s largest export market by value. The ‘BRIC’ markets continued to develop, with exports growing to Brazil (+12%), Russia (+61%), India (+46%) and China (+24%).

“Scotch Whisky is a world class industry that consistently delivers for the UK. Global exports increased for the sixth con-

D

The SWA estimates that in excess of £800 million in new capital investment into production capacity has been made over the last three to four years.

Edrington, adding new capacity. The Scotch Whisky Association estimates that in excess of £800 million in new capital investment into production capacity has been made over the last three to four years.

New distilleries opened, include Roseisle by Diageo and Ailsa Bay by William Grant & Sons.

Diageo’s new £40 million Roseisle site in Speyside is the first malt distillery of scale to be opened in Scotland in over 30 years and has been built in response to the high demand for the group’s Scotch whisky brands such as Johnnie Walker and Buchanan’s around the world. The £40 million investment in Roseisle is part of a capital investment programme in Scotland

by Diageo that has totalled £600 million over the past six years and has focused on building high quality capacity.

is the world leader in luxury Scotch whisky, selling more than 85% of Scotch whiskies aged 21 years old and over globally. To support its ambition to make The Glenlivet the leading single malt whisky brand in the world, Chivas Brothers has expanded The Glenlivet Distillery in Speyside following investment of £10 million.

In line with its strategy of developing its premium Scotch whisky brands, Chivas Brothers has also been upgrading and expanding capacity at its bottling and distilling facilities. The Dumbarton site has now been refurbished and expanded, while capacity and efficiency has also been increased at the bottling plant at Paisley. £45 Million Spend By Glenmorangie A second French-owned Scotch whisky distiller, The Glenmorangie Company, which

Christian Porta, chairman and chief executive of Chivas Brothers.

secutive year and are now 60% higher in value than in 2000,” says Gavin Hewitt, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association.

Investing For Growth The Scotch whisky industry has been investing heavily for growth in recent years with distillers, including the major players such as Diageo, Chivas Brothers, John Dewar & Sons, Glenmorangie and

Distillery Expansions Recent major expansions of distilleries include The Macallan, owned by the Edrington Group, and The Glenlivet, part of Chivas Brothers. Edrington Group, which produces The Macallan malt and The Famous Grouse blended Scotch whisky brands, has undertaken a £40 million expansion programme at The Macallan Distillery.

Chivas Brothers is the Scotch whisky and gin business of French global spirits and wine group Pernod Ricard. Chivas Brothers FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

Chivas Brothers has expanded The Glenlivet Distillery in Speyside following investment of £10 million.

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Distillery Company is planning to construct a new £5 million distillery, which will become the first to operate in the town since the Rosebank Distillery was closed in 1993.

Construction work has commenced on restoring the former Johnnie Walker distillery at Annandale – 92 years after it ceased production. Husband and wife team David and Teresa Thomson purchased the old distillery site, which was on Scotland’s Buildings at Risk Register, in 2007. The restoration project is expected to cost £6 million.

Paul Neep, chief executive of Glenmorangie.

is part of Paris-based LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, has just completed a £45 million investment programme designed to support the continuing growth of its premium single malt whisky brands – Glenmorangie and Ardbeg. The two-year development programme entailed the construction of a new bottling facility and expansion of the Glenmorangie Distillery at Tain and the Ardbeg Distillery on Islay, the restyling of the visitor centres and the relocation of the company’s headquarters to central Edinburgh.

Another global spirits group, Bacardi, is also investing heavily in developing its Scotch whisky operations. Bacardi, which is the world’s largest privately owned spirits company, is investing $250 million (£155 million) in its John Dewar & Sons subsidiary to develop the necessary infrastruc-

Bacardi is investing $250 million (£155 million) in its John Dewar & Sons subsidiary.

ture to support higher inventories of maturing whisky and increase blending, bottling and packing capabilities. Dewar’s is the top-selling blended Scotch in the US and the company’s products are also growing significantly in Asia and other emerging markets. John Dewar & Sons employs 300 people at seven locations throughout Scotland. The expansion project, which started in July 2007 and was one of the most significant investments ever in the Scotch industry at the time, will be completed in phases over ten years.

New Openings There are also plans to open distilleries at Annandale and Falkirk. The Falkirk 30

Investing in Irish Whiskey In addition to opening a new distillery at Ailsa Bay, William Grant & Sons is reported to be considering establishing a distillery in Ireland, following its acquisition last year

Scotch whisky is a cornerstone of the Scottish economy, supporting 35,000 jobs and generating around £4 billion in added value.

of Tullamore Dew, which with annual sales of 600,000 cases is the world’s second largest Irish whiskey brand. Founded in 1886 by William Grant, the company has remained independent and today is controlled by the fifth generation of his family.

William Grant & Sons’ Scotch whisky portfolio incorporates Glenfiddich, the world’s top selling single malt, and Grant’s, the world’s number four blended Scotch.

The purchase of Tullamore Dew, for about £150 million, is in line with William Grant & Sons’ strategy of developing the non-Scotch element of its business.

Building a new distillery in Ireland would allow the company to bring in-house the production of Tullamore Dew whiskey, which is currently supplied by Irish Distillers Group, part of Pernod Ricard. A new distillery would cost in the region of £10 million and would likely be built in Clonmel, where William Grant & Sons’ existing Irish operations are based.

Further Investment by Diageo Diageo has just announced that it is considering investing £19.5 million to expand its production capacity in the Speyside region (see page 31). The world’s leading Scotch whisky producer has submitted a planning application for the redevelopment of its Dailuaine distillery complex. These plans FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

envisage a £9.5 million upgrade of the existing bio-plant at Dailuaine, which also handles whisky by-products from a number of Diageo’s distilleries, opening the way for further production capacity increases across Speyside.

In association with the Dailuaine project, Diageo is developing a series of proposals to expand production capacity at existing distilleries by over 10 million litres per annum over the next two to three years, with investment of around £10million envisaged.

Diageo is also continuing to invest in expanding its Scotch whisky operations outside of Speyside. It is spending £3.2 million in increasing capacity at the Glen Ord distillery near Inverness, and earlier this year announced a £3.5 million investment at its Caol Ila distillery in Islay.

Economic Impact Scotch whisky production is crucial to the prosperity of the Scottish economy and is also a major contributor to Britain’s exports sales and the balance of trade. The whisky industry’s annual turnover in Scotland is about £6.4 billion and with yearly shipments of £3.5 million Scotch is the country’s second leading manufactured export after the oil and gas.

Capital spending by the Scotch whisky industry is £355 million a year, of which nearly a third is invested in Scotland. The industry also plays a vital role in providing employment and stimulating economic activity in the more remote rural regions of the Highlands and Islands, where a fifth of the Scotch whisky jobs are located.

“Scotch whisky is a cornerstone of the Scottish economy, supporting 35,000 jobs and generating around £4 billion in added value. That economic impact benefits every corner of Scotland, with distillers spending over £1 billion across the supply chain,” points out Gavin Hewitt. J

Glenmorangie’s new two-storey bottling facility at Livingston has been purpose-built.

I SCOTCH WHISKY

Diageo Announces Further Investment in Scotch Whisky Operations iageo is considering investing £19.5 D million to expand its Scotch whisky production capacity in the Speyside area. A

The Speyside region is home to 17 of Diageo’s 28 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland. Diageo has already invested heavily in the region with the opening of the

planning application has been submitted to Moray Council for the redevelopment of Diageo’s Dailuaine distillery complex in Speyside. These plans would see a £9.5 million upgrade of the existing bio-plant at Dailuaine, which deals with whisky by-products from a number of Diageo’s distilleries, opening the potential for future production capacity increases across Speyside.

Diageo, which runs more Scotch whisky distilleries than any other company, is also developing a series of proposals which would follow the Dailuaine proposal and which would see production capacity increased at Diageo’s new £40 million distillery at Roseisle in Speyside. existing distilleries by over 10 million litres per annum over the next two to three Roseisle distillery last year at a cost of £40 years – the equivalent capacity to building a million. major new distillery – with an investment “Scotch whisky has never been more of around £10 million. The details of these popular around the world. In recent years plans are still being developed and will be we have been able to translate that into sigrolled out gradually over the next two to nificant capital investments in our operathree years, subject to the relevant planning tions as we build our capacity to meet the processes. global growth potential of Scotch,” points

out Diageo’s malt distilling director Brian Higgs. “Speyside is already at the heart of our malt distilling operations and I am delighted that, beginning with the Dailuaine proposal, we are looking at further enhancing our business in this area.”

The announcement is the latest in a significant ongoing Scotland-wide investment in Scotch by Diageo. “Over the past six financial years Diageo has invested around £600 million in its business in Scotland, including our new £40 million distillery at Roseisle in Speyside which we opened last year.

This announcement is another demonstration of our confidence in and commitment to the future of Scotland and Scotch,” says Bryan Donaghey, managing director of Diageo Scotland.

Diageo is also investing in Scotch whisky growth outside of the Speyside area. This year will also see £3.2 million capital investment in increasing capacity at the Glen Ord distillery near Inverness. Earlier this year, Diageo announced a £3.5 million investment in increasing capacity at its Caol Ila distillery in Islay. J

I ENVIRONMENT

£60 Million Collaboration on Renewable Energy onstruction has commenced on a £60.5 C million biomass/feeds combined heat and power plant in Rothes in Speyside, Scotland. It will use Scotch whisky distillery by-products to generate electricity, produce animal feed and drastically cut carbon emissions.

Helius CoRDe - a consortium comprising Scotch whisky producers The Combination of Rothes Distillers, energy firm Helius Energy and project equity company Rabo Project Equity - is behind the plant. The Combination of Rothes Distillers comprises BenRiach, Chivas Brothers, Diageo, Edrington, Glen Grant, Inver House and John Dewar and Sons.

Thought to be the first of its kind in the world, the plant will generate 7.2MW of electricity, enough to power 9,000 homes, most for export to the national grid. It will also produce as animal feed in the form of

pot ale syrup. It is estimated it will save 46,642 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

The project will create approximately 100 jobs during construction and it will employ around 20 full-time people when operational in 2013.

“This project underlines the Scotch whisky industry’s commitment to investing in the future. In 2009 the industry made a commitment to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels as a source of energy,” comments Gavin Hewitt, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association. “The project shows how we can create a virtuous circle within the Scotch whisky production process.”

He adds: “The innovative project is an excellent example of what can be achieved through collaboration between Scotch whisky distillers.”

The Scotch whisky Industry’s enviFOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

ronment strategy, introduced in 2009, provides an assurance that 20% of its primary energy requirements will be derived from non-fossil fuel sources by 2020, with a target of 80% by 2050. The Scottish Government has pledged to produce 100% of Scotland’s electricity through renewables by 2020. J

31

I ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING

Solarsoft Adds Key ERP Ingredient to Bruichladdich olarsoft’s Tropos ERP software S cuts lead times by over a week, eliminates overtime and delivers HMRC reporting at the click of a button at Scottish whisky distillery Bruichladdich. Bruichladdich is a small, privately-owned Scottish distillery on the remote Atlantic Isle of Islay. It specialises in producing artisanal single malt whisky, just as it was in 1881.

The business is growing at a rate of 10-15% a year, its latest annual revenues exceeding £7.5 million.

As a result of this growth, Bruichladdich found that it was becoming increasingly hard to efficiently monitor and optimise its production activities and stock levels. The company makes over 100 different products, which is a lot in the whisky industry.

Although Bruichladdich had installed an automated system for managing bulk stock movements in recent years, many of its core processes, including those managing the bottling side of the business, were still handled manually using spreadsheets.

“As the business grew, we found we had to throw more and more people at the administration,” recalls Simon Coughlin, operations director at Bruichladdich. “It was becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile stock numbers; things had become difficult operationally.”

Meanwhile, due to the growth of its business, the distillery was coming under increasing pressure from HM Revenue & Customs to implement approved systems for financial reporting.

manufacturing and distribution. This included modules specifically designed for managing distillery businesses.

Simon Coughlin says: “We read about the Tropos ERP system in a trade magazine article. It appealed because it would allow us to automate and control all aspects of the business. We wanted a system that could extend right from the front end of the business – something we could use as a customer database, managing everything from incoming orders to eventual export.”

Bruichladdich has implemented an integrated suite of solutions from Solarsoft, based around the company’s core Tropos ERP system. This includes Tropos Whisky Workbench, a module which gives complete control over cask stocks and blending.

Together, these products allow the dis-

Calling in the Experts Bruichladdich had asked its existing software provider to develop a system that would automate the management of its bottling operations. When the system eventually materialised, however, Simon Coughlin was disappointed with its scope.

This prompted the distillery to approach Solarsoft, which has a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions covering all aspects of process 32

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

tillery to record, track and manage all orders, stock levels, production planning, bottling/packing and despatch on an end-toend basis.

“Often, companies put in automated systems later down the line, to reduce overheads,” he notes. “We wanted to strike proactively, investing in better systems up front so that we wouldn’t have to reduce staff numbers later.”

The systems were up and running within a year of the initial approach to Solarsoft, which impressed Simon Coughlin and his team. “Tropos is completely embedded in our organisation now, from buying barley to bottling and storing the whisky, right through to export,” he says. “It’s all-encompassing.

We can’t operate without it.”

Accelerated Exports Visibility is a significant area of improvement. “Tropos is a live system, with accurate, up-to-date, integrated data from right across the business, including bulk, production, bottling and despatch,” Simon Coughlin explains. “Tropos links everything together seamlessly, even integrating with our i2i export document management system, another solution that Solarsoft recommended, which takes care of export paperwork.”

The impact on the productivity and efficiency of the business has been “enormous”, he notes. Most significantly, Bruichladdich is now processing export

orders at least a week faster than previously. “Being on a small island, our lead times can be quite long, but now our sales teams around the world can log in and see our stock,” he says.

“They no longer have to send an email or wait until the next day to be able to check our supplies.”

The accountants have a much easier time now, too. “The number-crunchers are more comfortable that we are in control of our stock and what its value is,” remarks Simon Coughlin. “There are very, very few surprises now.

Before Tropos, we were under a lot of mental stress and strain, especially when it came to doing the month-end returns for HMRC. We needed to relieve that pressure.”

Now, fully automated HMRC reporting has reduced this process from several days’ effort (spent consolidating fragmented data from across 4-5 departments) to a simple click of a button. And when HMRC conducted an audit recently, the process took no more than a day, with no concerns raised. “Before, the audit might have taken 2-3 days, but it went very smoothly. More importantly, we had complete confidence in the data,” he adds.

From Fire-fighting to Business Forecasting If Bruichladdich had not implemented Tropos, it would have at least 2-3 additional staff looking after administration by now, Simon Coughlin calculates.

“That figure would be even higher if the market was stronger. Before Tropos, peak

periods demanded a lot of administrative overtime and late nights, which wasn’t great for people and was costing us money. Now everything is running smoothly, live information is readily accessible, and we have full confidence that it is accurate.”

Previously, staff could spend ‘forever’ reconciling information before they could see a clear picture of any aspect of the business, he says. Now they can be more proactive because up-to-the-minute information is available on tap. The need for overtime during peak periods has been eliminated as a result, while managers are now able to allocate more time and energy to strategic planning.

Simon Coughlin comments: “In my own case, the Tropos system means I am no longer immersed in the dayto-day detail. I have a lot more brain space to look at the business as a whole, which means I can look at new suppliers, consider stock levels and formulate new plans – the things I could never get to FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

before, because I always had problems in my face.”

Currently, Bruichladdich is in the process of extending Tropos (including mobile barcode scanning), into a new warehouse facility for storing bottled products. Here, Tropos Mobile RBA (Role-Based Applications) will be used to track and record movements in real time, using the latest handheld scanners. “The aim is to avoid using paper, to maintain efficiency and keep our lead times down,” Simon Coughlin explains.

Looking ahead, he would like to see the distillery further exploit the business forecasting facilities of the Tropos system, to boost strategic planning. “There is so much more that Tropos can do,” he points out.

With Solarsoft’s close support, Bruichladdich is in good hands.

“I’ve been very, very impressed with Solarsoft from the beginning of this whole process,” Simon Coughlin concludes.

“They have shown a complete and in-depth understanding of our business from start to finish, and the implementation has been exceptional.

Whereas other software providers in the past haven’t always delivered, Solarsoft has delivered exactly what was promised “There is no question that the Tropos solution has made our business more controllable and more easily accessible. This is important not only to the company, but to the people who work here. It has transformed what we do.” J

To find out how Tropos ERP or Tropos Bulk Spirit Workbench can help you, please contact Solarsoft.

E: marketing@solarsoft.com T: 08447 700 900 w: www.solarsoft.com

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Ardo UK Makes Next Move With Motoman Robots hen Ardo UK decided to invest in its W Charing facility, the company chose Compere Systems to provide the robotic

individual layer patterns as required.

In order to achieve maximum performance from the system, the designs were

palletising solution together with its robotics partner Yaskawa UK. The key objectives were to achieve consistent quality and efficient production together with flexibility of operation.

The system, which was fully operational in March 2010, contains four Motoman EPL80 robots, capable of handling a wide variety of cases of frozen fruit and vegetables at line rates of up to 20 cases per minute.

The fast and efficient operation provides the ideal solution to this otherwise labour intensive process.

Yaskawa’s 80 kg EPL80 robot proves ideal for this type of application, due to its ability to load and palletise product onto both full size Chep and Euro pallets in extremely confined spaces with minimal footprint.

Maximum speed is achieved by picking the cases in pairs and placing them either in pairs or individually in order to build the

34

optimised using Yaskawa’s MotoSim EG off-line programming and simulations software. This allowed the robot movements to be verified to ensure that reach, access and maximum speed could be achieved under all conditions. In addition practical trials were conducted at Yaskawa followed by a field trail at Ardo to proof out the high speed palletising process, thus ensuring that the system could be installed with zero risk to production.

Since their installation the robots have proven to be extremely reliable in operation and the cells have proven easy to manage. At the same time the Ardo staff have found that the robots are simple to programme and as a consequence they are able to develop new palletising programmes or modify existing ones as the situation demands. J

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

I FROZEN FOODS

Ardo UK Grows a New Line of Business Now operating from its new £16 million facility at Charing in Kent, Ardo UK, which specialises in processing and packaging own label and branded frozen fruit and vegetables for the retail, industrial and catering market, has added peas to its portfolio. rdo UK has entered an agreement with Anglian Pea Growers to buy the co-operative’s annual pea crop of about 15,000 tons for the next three years. The co-operative of 150 farmers had lost a similar supply contract with Birds Eye in February 2010 and Ardo UK stepped in to fill the gap.

The peas are now being harvested and prepared and frozen within two and a half hours of picking to ensure maximum flavour and vitamin retention. The Ardo UK site in Kent is responsible for the marketing, packaging, distribution and sale of the peas. Ardo UK has invested £0.5 million in new frozen pea packaging facilities.

Due to the rising demand for local quality products, the entire production is destined for the British market.

the heat from the freezer cooling system is being used to generate hot water, yielding 15% savings in energy consumption. The move to a single site has also significantly reduced lorry movements and resulted in a 35% reduction in the company’s carbon footprint.

A

£150 Million Market The UK is Europe’s largest producer of frozen peas. Peas account for almost 40% of the UK frozen vegetables consumption and have a retail value of £150 million.

“Increasingly, British consumers are looking for local products where the provenance can be traced, and we will be the only major supplier of East Anglian peas,” explains Stephen Waugh, managing director of Ardo UK. “There is a longstanding tradition of pea growing in East Anglia and we are delighted to have been able to play a part in securing it for the future. The produce is of the highest quality and the Anglian Pea Growers’ members are constantly researching ways of providing consumers with the sweetest, most succulent, peas on the market, grown to high environmental standards.”

The peas grown for Ardo UK by Anglian Pea Growers are being sold as a premium product to retailers and food service.

“This is a three year deal,” point out Simon Baxter, marketing director of Ardo UK. “We would like to firmly establish ourselves with the peas and be a UK pea supplier. At that point we could branch out into other British staples.”

Ardo UK’s new £16 million facility is helping the company to meet the increasing demand from consumers for freshfrozen vegetables and fruit. Market growth is being driven by stable prices, good availability and the growing consumer perception of the quality aspects of deep freeze products.

Well known for its Ardo and Shearway brands, Ardo UK has a turnover of about £50 million. Ardo UK was formed in 2004 following the merger of its two British operations – Ardo Shearway and Ryan Foods. The merger of two highly complementary companies served to enhance the market standing of the combined business while also improving customer service.

Consolidation Last year, Ardo UK consolidated its business operations into a single site. To accommodate the change, the company’s site at Charing was expanded with the construction of a new state-of-the-art processing and packing hall for freezing and packing fruit, pasta, rice and vegetables for the retail trade and the food service industry. The new £16 million building also incorporates additional cold storage space to increase capacity to 20,000 pallet spaces, along with extra office space and employee facilities.

The new development features ‘zero impact’ on the community building visibility and a green approach. For instance, FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

Enhanced Competitiveness Consolidating its operations into a single site has streamlined the business and enhanced competitiveness. It has helped the company to remain a low-cost producer at a time when competitive pricing is vital to retaining customer and consumer loyalty. The redevelopment has also resulted in additional versatility and flexibility to the Ardo UK operation, bringing on site the capacity not only to pack, but to handle new and unusual pack types. For instance, Ardo UK is now able to pack fruit, vegetables and corncobs with sauces and seasonings in pillow bags, stand-up bags and punnets.

Ardo UK’s headquarters at Charing is an ideal operating base for both exporting to and importing from continental Europe and part of the expanded storage space has been made available for external customers.

Ardo UK is part Belgium-based Ardo Group, Europe’s largest supplier of frozen fruit and vegetables. Ardo Group operates 14 production and packing units in eight European countries. Last year the group grew, froze and sold 600,000 tonnes of fruit, vegetables, pasta and rice to 54 countries, and achieved a turnover of Eur600 million. J

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I INTERMEDIATE BULK CONTAINERS

Liquid Solutions - Contraload Group Launches New Range of IBC Units elgium based Contraload Group (offices B in the UK, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy) has a new way of looking at Liquid Solutions and has therefore launched a brand new range of user friendly IBC units.

The group is best known in the B2B ingredient supply chain for its Pooling and Rental of plastic pallets to a wide portfolio of Blue Chip companies. The range of pallets is specially geared to the ingredient and packaging sectors that suit the demanding food safety requirements of today’s supply chain. For Pooling solutions Contraload has Conditioning Services strategically positioned across Europe in addition to Contraload’s own specialist unit in the Netherlands for hygienic washing of drums and IBC’s.

Having launched IBC’s into the fruit juice, concentrate and fruit puree markets in

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2005 using the ‘Arca Combo’ 1,000 litre units and 200 litre plastic drums, Contraload is now expanding its range to fit the needs of its customers.

Liquid Solutions Concept This year the LIQUID SOLUTIONS concept was launched in the UK/Ireland and on the Continent. Contraload claims to have the greenest bins and drums in the world thanks to the sustainable design, 100% recycling and controlled re-use through its online recovery system.

Studies have shown that the plastic drums can save up to 95% on CO2 as opposed to metal drums and be cheaper per movement at the same time, where the Contraload 1000 litre IBC’s can save over 75% on CO2 as opposed to metal drums or alternative bins. With this new line, Contraload is aiming to support companies in transporting

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

liquids in a safer, greener and most importantly more cost effective manner.

New Range The first newcomer of the extended range has been introduced in conjunction with Milford IBC. The Qube 1000 litre and Qube 500 litre based on the 1200 x 1000 and 1200 x 800 footprint respectively are geared to transport sauces, edible oils, egg and dairy products in either a rental or Pooling scenario. They provide major benefits of hygiene, stacking and product protection.

The second new bin is the EasyLiquid unit, with 1,000 and 1,250 litre capacity. An innovative development for long distance transport of liquids and long term storage, supplied on a sale-and-buy-back concept.

These light weight (16 kg) units have proven to reduce flex cracking of the liner during

long transit and bring a big cost incentive.

The unit is designed to be used without a pallet and ideal for container movements.

Liners Liners are a very important part of the package and Contraload has teamed up with

industry leaders Qbig in the Netherlands who have developed a range of liners including aseptic and Free Flow Gusset liners to complete the user friendly package.

These include a comprehensive range of filling and discharge valve options.

The range of units is available for demon-

stration and trial at clients own production facility so that the cost effective benefits can be assessed. For further information contact Nigel Davies - UK/IRL at Nigel.davies@ contraload.co.uk or Andrew Wilson - EU Group at Andrew.wilson@contraload.com, Telephone +44 121 270 1007. J

I INTERMEDIATE BULK CONTAINERS

Latest IBC Innovations From Schutz chutz has introduced an array of innovative products and services to its IBC S business. They include: the latest model of the IBC MX that has been further developed for optimised overall performance; an IBC with new, high-performance full-plastic pallet; an IBC with plastic pallet for use in ex-zones; an IBC for ex-zones with a conductive nanoflange; and an IBC with integrated check valve.

The group has also further developed its Schultz Ticket Service for the collection and reconditioning of empty IBC s worldwide.

Schutz is currently expanding its global network of 35 international sites on all continents. During 2011, a number of new sites have already opened, while production capacities at existing sites have been significantly increased.

According to Schutz, customers can reduce the costs they incur by up to 50% along their entire supply chain by opting for the IBC over other packaging and logistical tools.

High-Quality, Full-Plastic Pallet For IBCs Schutz has enhanced its product portfolio for IBCs by adding a newly developed, high-grade pallet made entirely of plastic.

The new premium product offers an array of attractive properties that make it ideal for diverse applications.

The material is extremely robust, shockproof, resistant to mechanical, chemical and thermal influences and friction, and absolutely corrosion-proof too, making this new development ideal for multi-trip use.

What’s more, the pallet guarantees bestpossible handling on conveyor belts and excellent stacking for storage purposes. The pallet is made of 100% recycled material.

More Flexible Valve Solutions For Ex IBCs Schutz has also developed a new, metal-free conductive discharge valve for IBC s. The valve has a threaded flange with a moulded earth cable made of electrically conductive composite nanomaterial with integrated carbon nanotubes. IBC s fitted with the moulded earth cable are designed for use in ex-zones, hazardous areas with a high risk of explosion.

The Worldwide Schultz Ticket Service Schutz has relaunched one of its most important services, the Schutz Ticket - a global system for the return and reconditioning of used transport containers.

The Schutz Ticket Service is the only worldwide system of its kind for the collection and reconditioning of used IBCs.

Empty IBC s are collected free of charge from the end user and uniform process standards guarantee top service quality worldwide. All reconditioning units are certified in compliance with the highest safety and environmental requirements. All IBC components which come into contact with the filling goods are substituted (inner bottle, valve fittings, screw caps, etc).

100 per cent of the recycled material produced in the reconditioning process is reused to produce pallets, corner protectors and other product components.

Reconditioned IBCs are equipped exclusively with original Schutz components after which their UN certification is extended for a further five years. J

The Dolav 1000-Ace olav Direct has introduced the Dolav D 1000-Ace plastic pallet box. The 3-runner, one-piece Dolav 1000-Ace is designed for hygienic high care/high risk areas in food processing, pharmaceutical applications and clean environments. It is built for harsh use.

This intermediate bulk container (IBC) is stronger, takes increased weight loading and is very easy to clean with no enclosed cavities.

Made from top quality food-grade HDPE, the Dolav Ace features three runners injection moulded-in during one-piece manufacture, positive stacking and a range of colours.

Direct from Dolav, the 1000-Ace external size is 1200 x 1000 x 740 mm with 620 litres

Dolav 1000-Ace with 3 moulded-in runners and no enclosed cavities.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

internal volume. The weight loading capacity is to a maximum unit load of 900 kg with the maximum load on the bottom box in a stack to 5000 kg.

Dolav added even more detailed design improvements by increasing runner strength, chamfering around the pallet base to reduce possible forklift blade damage, adding a dimpled area for adhesive labels and offering an optional cardholder. The three runners also add greatly to safety when tipping and as a one-piece moulding ensures there are no ‘add-on’ parts which could fall off. Increased internal corners radius makes the Ace easy to clean and release tipped content. J 37

FrieslandCampina and Heinz Combine Dutch Transport Services airy company FrieslandCampina D Benelux, food producer HJ Heinz Benelux and logistics service provider Nabuurs have launched an initiative to further increase the efficiency of their supply activities in the Netherlands. It involves combining consignments from each manufacturer to reduce transport-related emissions of CO2.

The combined initiative is part of the strategy underlying the Dutch Lean &

Green Award, which the three companies won in 2010 for their plans to reduce the CO2 emissions associated with their logistical activities by 20% over a five-year period. To cut their transport-related emissions, the three companies teamed up with clients of HJ Heinz and FrieslandCampina Benelux to investigate ways of combining their deliveries.

Clients who order less than a full truckload of goods have been supplied along these lines since mid-April 2011. This reduces the annual kilometrage driven.

Combining deliveries also means reducing the overall number of deliveries that need to be made. This new loading combination cuts the number of deliveries by more than 3,000 a year, thereby helping to minimise pressure on the Dutch road transport network. The initiative is substantially reducing the number of delivery kilometres trav-

elled, saving over 90,000 kilograms of CO2 per annum. This is equivalent to a CO2 reduction of over 5%, i.e. a quarter of the total 20% reduction target. J

Nestle Wins Stockholm Industry Water Award estle is the winner of the 2011 Stockholm Industry Water N Award for its leadership, performance, and efforts to improve the water management in its supply chain.

Awarded by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), the honour recognises Nestle's aim to improve the water management and efficiency of its operations. The Swiss company's water consumption has decreased from more than five litres of water per $1 of sales ten years ago, to less than 1.4 litres today.

The SIWI also praised Nestle’s work with suppliers, particularly farmers. Nestle employs 1,000 agronomists and water experts who work directly with farmers to help them reduce their water requirements, increase crop yields, and minimise pollution.

Water has been an issue of concern and constructive action for Nestle for nearly 80 years - the first waste water treatment plant of the group was built in the early 1930s - and it is one of the three pillars of Nestle’s concept of Creating Shared Value.

The company's focus on water also gains additional importance and relevance in the context of its work with the 2030 Water Resources Group (WEF-WRG).

Chaired by Nestle chairman Peter 38

Brabeck-Letmathe, Nestle plays a leading role Together with its partners WEF-WRG, Nestle seeks to address the water issue with a broad-based approach. The problem of freshwater shortage is increasing, and urgently requires comprehensive solutions due to concerns that within 15-20 years, water shortage will lead to huge shortfalls in staple food grown by farmers.

The WEF-WRG offers governments a set of analytical and practical tools to overcome shortfalls and to re-allocate water in case of new demand. Projects are underway in Pakistan, South Africa, Jordan, Mexico, and most recently, in Mongolia. The main element of the toolbox is the water cost curve - a fact-based, comprehensive combination of demand side and supply side levers to bring overall water withdrawals in individual watersheds back into line with natural renewal.

“We have identified water as the biggest challenge for future food security, and beyond that, for economic growth,” says Peter Brabeck-Letmathe. “This is probably the most prestigious award in this area for a company - and it will strongly encourage us to continue with our efforts.” J

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

UK’s Biggest Brewer Sets Out Environmental Goals olson Coors (UK & Ireland) has M committed to divert all production waste away from landfill for each of its

Molson Coors (UK & Ireland) has also saved over £60,000 in landfill tax over two years by diverting waste from landfill. Byproducts from the brewing process are also

four UK breweries by the end of 2012.

Increasing costs and the drive for a more sustainable business has led Molson Coors to focus on the efficiency of its resource usage and maximise the value extracted from its raw material supplies.

In the UK, Molson Coors has over 2,000 employees and breweries in Burton on Trent, Alton and Tadcaster. It has a market share of over 20% of the UK beer market. Its portfolio includes Carling, the UK's best selling lager for three decades, The Molson Coors brewery at Burton on Trent.

Coors Light, Grolsch, Worthington's, Caffrey's, Corona, Cobra and a range of speciality put to beneficial uses, with spent grains beers. going to farmers for animal feed and Molson Coors’ 2010 Global CR report- excess yeast going to the production of ing shows the UK & Ireland business has Marmite. The brewer is collaborating and decreased waste to landfill by a massive sharing best practices with industry bodies 27% in recent years and the business is such as the UK IGD Efficient Consumer intent on reusing and recycling wherever Response Food and Packaging Waste possible. In fact, waste improvements have working group, and by signing up to saved 1,348 tonnes of waste to landfill in WRAP’s Courtauld Commitment to supthe last year; equivalent to the waste from port the industry in reducing overall sup428 homes in one year. The business now ply chain waste. has its sight on zero production waste to “As Britain’s biggest brewer we have to landfill. be aware of our environmental impact and

we want to set out our achievements across the business and some of our next goals for the coming years,” explains Lee Finney, supply chain director of Molson Coors. “Achieving our goal will have commercial and environmental benefits both now and in the future. Reaching zero production waste to landfill across our breweries not only requires excellent inventory management but innovation and collaboration too. In addition, many of the by-products of the brewing process are valuable resources for farmers and food producers, as well as being a potential energy source.”

Other highlights from Molson Coors UK & Ireland’s environmental performance include: the reduction of carbon emissions by 5% between 2008 and 2010; an 11% improvement in energy efficiency in the last three years; and saved 650 million litres of water since 2005-2009 with plans in place to save 1 billion litres by 2012 (from 2005 levels) in the UK, equivalent to about a 30% saving. UK beer miles in 2010 were reduced by 2.6m km and newly designed tear drop trailers help reduce petrol consumption and cost. Part of this success has been through an innovative partnership with Asda. J

PepsiCo Europe Gets Greener epsiCo’s Frito-Lay manufacturing facility in Azov, Russia, has P been officially awarded LEED Silver by the US Green Building Council (USGBC). The manufacturing facility is the first site in PepsiCo's European network to receive the prestigious LEED certification for New Construction/Major Renovation, bringing the total number of LEED certified PepsiCo facilities around the world to 27.

LEED certification is an internationally recognised distinction for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. To achieve LEED certification, the Azov facility boasts a number of impressive sustainability results including: * More than 18% projected energy savings, * More than 40% projected water savings for installed plumbing fixtures, * 100% reduction in potable water use for landscape irrigation, * High performance electric lighting and daylighting for more than 75% of the building spaces, * Increased ventilation rates and low toxic materials for improved air quality, * Occupant control of lighting, temperature, and indoor environment.

PepsiCo’s 27 LEED certifications, include its Frito-Lay North

America headquarters in Plano, Texas, Chongqing plant and office in China, PepsiCo Plaza and Sustainability Center in Chicago, City of Industry manufacturing facility in California, and Frito-Lay plants in Casa Grande, Arizona and Killingly, Connecticut. J

PepsiCo’s manufacturing facility in Azov, Russia.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

39

BAADER Quality in all Phases!

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For Further Information Please Contact: Anders Lorentzen al@baader.co.uk Simon Jahnke simon@baader.co.uk

I AQUACULTURE

Sustainably Farmed Seafood Holds Key to Future Global Food Security The first-ever global assessment of the environmental costs of aquaculture shows that farmed seafood is less ecologically damaging than livestock production, and that there is great potential for improvements in efficiency. new and comprehensive analysis released by WorldFish Center and Conservation International (CI) has investigated the environmental impact of the world’s major aquaculture production systems and species, and offers a firstever global assessment of trends and impacts of cultivated seafood. The analysis has found that, from the 75 species-production systems reviewed, more production means more ecological impact, but that compared to other forms of animal protein production such as livestock, aquaculture is more efficient.

The report, ‘Blue Frontiers: Managing the environmental costs of aquaculture’, along with a companion policy recommendations paper, concludes that the demand for aquaculture products will continue to grow over the next two decades as a key source of animal protein for growing urban populations, and that the industry needs to meet this demand with improved efficiencies and reduced environmental impacts.

A

Two Key Highlights Among the landmark report’s major findings are two key highlights: (1) the environmental impact of aquaculture varies dramatically by country, region, production system and species , and (2) a review of published information found that aquaculture is more efficient and less damaging to the environment, compared to other animal protein production systems such as beef and pork, and is likely to be among the most important sources of protein for human health and nutrition in growing urban populations in many parts of the developing world. The report also highlights that there is great room for improvement, by identifying and sharing best practices, increasing investment in innovation, and strengthening policies and regulations. $100+ Billion Industry Driving the scientists’ research was the recognition of aquaculture as one of the fastest growing food production sectors in the world.

It has grown at an average annual rate of 8.4% since 1970 and total production reached 65.8 million tonnes in 2008 according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Today, aquaculture is a $100+ billion industry that now provides more than half of all seafood con-

sumed in the world, surpassing wild-caught seafood.

Using all available data from 2008, the study compared aquaculture’s global demands across a wide variety of species groups (13), geographies (18 countries), feed types (5) and numerous production systems in use today, allowing scientists to compare and contrast 75 different types of species-production systems, to determine their environmental impacts on acidification, climate change, energy demand, land-use demand, and other ecological factors.

Findings Following almost two years of data gathering and analysis, researchers found that: * China and the rest of Asia collectively supply an overwhelming majority of the world’s cultivated seafood, at 91% of global supply. China alone accounts for 64% of global production. * On the other end of the supply chain, Europe produces 4.4%, South America produces 2.7%, South American produces 1.9%, and Africa produces 1.6%. * Most popular aquaculture by country: carp tops the list for China and the rest of Asia; salmon is number one for Europe and Latin America, finfish (tilapias) rank highest in African aquaculture. * Aquaculture with the highest environmental impact include: eel, salmon, and shrimps & prawns, due to significant energy and fish feeds required for production – these represent greatest opportunities for improvement. * Aquaculture with the lowest/least environmental impact include: bivalves (mussels and oysters), mollusks, seaweed (those toward the bottom of the food chain; don’t require additional feed). * Efficiency of salmon production methods: while salmon production trends toward the high end of the environmental impact scale

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

due to the use of wildfish for feed, production methods in northern Europe, Canada and Chile were found to be more efficient than those in China and other Asian countries (in terms of acidification, climate change, energy demand and land occupation). * Efficiency of shrimp and prawn production methods: cultivation in China was found to be much less efficient than other producer countries (e.g. Thailand) in terms of acidification, climate change and energy demand. * Aquaculture vs wild-caught fisheries: aquaculture today accounts for a significant majority of all consumed seaweeds (99%), carps (90%), and salmon (73%), and also delivers half (50%) of the total global supply of tilapia, catfish, mollusks, crabs and lobsters.

Looking toward the future of seafood cultivation, ‘Blue Frontiers’ projects that global aquaculture production will continue to grow at current rates, with conservative estimates of 65-85 million tones produced in 2020, and 79-110 million tones by 2030. By comparison, 69 million tonnes of cultivated seafood were produced in 2008.

“China, India and the rest of Asia with their growing middle classes are where we can expect demand for fish to rise most significantly,” says co-author Mike Phillips, a senior scientist at WorldFish. “Current trends indicate that the majority of the increase in global production will come from South and Southeast Asia, with a continued drive by major producer counties such as China and Vietnam towards export to European and North American markets.” J 41

I SOFT DRINKS

Coca-Cola Hellenic Achieves CRS First in European Food and Beverage Industry Coca-Cola Hellenic, which is one of the world's largest bottlers of Coca-Cola beverages with sales of more than two billion unit cases annually, is continuing to lead the way in terms of sustainability within the global drinks industry. he Athens-based soft drinks producer has become the first European food and beverage company to reach an ‘A+’ rating for its CSR report. The accolade reflects Coca-Cola Hellenic’s rigorous focus on its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities across operations in 28 countries. Its just published 2010 CSR report, ‘Towards Sustainability’, has been reviewed by an external Stakeholder Review Panel, which provided input and a critical assessment of the report’s strengths and improvement opportunities. In addition, the auditor carried out an independent third-party valida-

T

Cold drink equipment is progressively being replaced with models which are free of HFCs and are up to 63% more energy-efficient than previous coolers, substantially cutting CO2 emissions.

tion of the contents in accordance with the international standards AA1000 (2008) and GRI (Global Reporting Initiative).

Cutting CO2 Emissions Amongst the initiatives by Coca-Cola Hellenic to combat climate change is the construction of 15 Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants, which will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 66% at each facility (see Panel). “Our aim is to cut CO2 emissions by an average of 20% across all 80 of our bottling plants,” points out Doros Constantinou, chief executive of Coca-Cola Hellenic. Doros Constantinou will be retiring as the group’s chief executive in the third quarter of 2011 and will be succeeded by Dimitris Lois, currently chief operating officer.

The company has also launched a programme to install solar panels on rooftops.

Energy-saving activities also involve improving efficiency of power use in bottling operations, transportation, and cold drink equipment which is progressively being replaced with models which are free of HFCs and are up to 63% more energyefficient than previous coolers, substantially cutting CO2 emissions.

Water Resources Another primary environmental focus is protection of water resources. More than 97% of wastewater was treated at bottling plants in 2010, and systems put in place enabled the re-use and recycling of 1.2 billion litres of water in production processes.

Water stewardship programmes in communities in partnership with governments, NGOs and conservation groups were

Pictured at the opening of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s new Irish facility were (left to right): Northern Ireland Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster; First Minister Peter Robinson; Marcel Martin, general manager of Coca-Cola Hellenic for the island of Ireland; Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness; and Doras Constantinou, chief executive of Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company.

aimed at awareness-raising, education and practical efforts to restore and maintain waterways, catchment areas, and wildlife habitats. Through the European Water Sustainability Sounding Board for Sugar, Coca-Cola Hellenic is examining the broader impact of water use in agriculture, especially in regard to sugar beet.

Environmental Protection The company achieved improvements in protection of the environment and of natural resources by recovering and recycling an average of 64% of packaging waste across 19 countries, and 85% of production waste across its operations. Through lightweighting, 5,000 tonnes of PET were saved.

Progress continued to be made in the protection of the health and safety of

New €130 Million Irish Facility Coca-Cola Hellenic’s Irish business recently opened a new energy efficient bottling plant, a fully automated warehouse and a community-focused visitors centre at Knockmore Hill in County Antrim. The new Eur130 million factory employs 600 people and has the capacity to produce 1.5 million litres of Coca-Cola beverages each day for delivery throughout the entire island of Ireland.

The facility operates seven filling lines - four for PET bottles, one for glass, one for cans, and one for post-mix. It also houses a PET moulding unit with six blow moulders capable of handling 750,000 bottles per day.

A key component of the new bottling plant is a combined heat and power (CHP) system, which has been constructed in partnership with ContourGlobal, a leading international company specialising in the development of efficient energy installations. It supplies the highly efficient, clean electricity, heat, CO2 and chilled water needed for the soft drink production facilities and is the first ‘quad-generation’ plant in the UK and Ireland.

The CHP plant at Knockmore Hill will cut CO2 emissions at the plant by up to 66% while supplying excess clean electricity to the local power grid.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

43

Coca-Cola Hellenic serves more than 560 million customers annually.

employees. Following the introduction of a concerted programme introduced in 2009, serious accidents declined 39% and the number of manufacturing plants certified to the international OHSAS 18001 stan-

dard reached 84%.

Furthermore, the CSR report details numerous other aspects of Coca-Cola Hellenic’s performance including its work with suppliers to improve energy efficiency and directing them in abiding by responsible social and economic practices; contributing to the well-being of communities by investing Eur9.5 million in a variety of projects and engaging more than 1.2 million people in sports and fitness programmes; and providing consumers with an increasing choice of beverages suited to individual lifestyles.

With more than 560 million customers buying its products annually, Coca-Cola Hellenic offers a diverse range of ready-todrink non-alcoholic beverages in the

sparkling, juice, juice drinks, water, sport, energy, tea and coffee categories. J

Coca-Cola Hellenic and ContourGlobal are building 15 Combined Heat and Power (CHP) plants in 12 countries.

I SOFT DRINKS

Coca-Cola Enterprises Reduces Carbon Footprint While Growing Business Now focused on its European operations, Coca-Cola Enterprises has reduced its overall carbon footprint by 4% and its water use ratio by 6% while growing business volume by 4% last year. oca-Cola Enterprises employs 13,500 employees and operates 17 manufacturing facilities across Western Europe, where the company distributes a wide range of beverages including regular, no- and low-calorie sparkling, energy and sports drinks, waters, juices and juice drinks, coffees and teas.

The company has just released its sixth company-wide Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability (CRS) Report. The report – ‘Committed to 2020: Shaping a Sustainable Future in Europe’ - is CCE's first as a

C

John Brock, chairman and chief executive of CocaCola Enterprises.

European-focused company and provides a detailed overview of its progress towards achieving its CRS targets and goals in its focus areas -- Energy Conservation/Climate Change, Water Stewardship, Sustainable Packaging/Recycling, Product Portfolio, Active Healthy Living, Community, and Workplace. The report also reviews how CCE is engaging with stakeholders across its European territories to discuss what sustainability leadership entails and the implications for CCE as a European company.

“CRS is core to our business and at the forefront of our company's priorities. We are committed to being the CRS leader in the food and beverage industry in Europe and are proud of our significant sustainability progress,” says John Brock, chairman and chief executive of Coca-Cola Enterprises. “We recognise this is an on-going journey and believe that partnering with our stakeholders is the only way to determine how to shape our CRS commitments so we continue to be a viable part of the solution to environmental and social challenges.”

Carbon Footprint In 2010, CCE calculated its operational carbon footprint at 795,181 metric tons, a reduction of 4% since 2009, while the business grew volume by 4%. The company has invested in carbon reduction projects, focusing on its cold drink equipment and improving efficiencies in manufacturing and distribution.

FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

CCE also exceeded its water use ratio reduction target one year ahead of schedule, using 1.42 litres of water to make one liter of product, down 6% from 1.51 litres in 2009.

Recycling Through CCE's internal recycling infrastructure in its facilities, the company achieved a 99.5% waste recovery rate across its territories.

In March 2011, CCE announced a £5 million investment in a joint venture with ECO Plastics to develop one of the biggest plastic reprocessing facilities in Western Europe.

When operational, the facility is expected to make a step change in the plastics reprocessing industry in Great Britain by producing 25,000 tons of recycled PET (rPET) annually, more than doubling the amount of high quality rPET produced in the country at present.

The facility will supply CCE with enough high quality rPET to include 25%t rPET in all its plastic packaging in Great Britain by 2012.

Other initiatives by CCE last year included investing $8.1 million in making cold drinks equipment more efficient and the installation of 2,800 doors on open-fronted coolers. J 45

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Thermo Fisher Scientific Increases Production of Screening Solutions in Response to E. coli Crisis hermo Fisher Scientific, the world T leader in serving science, has responded to the E. coli O104 crisis in Europe by increasing production and distribution of its Brilliance ESBL Agar plate, a chromogenic screening plate for the detection of Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase-producing (ESBL) organisms, such as the outbreak strain, within 24 hours. With worldwide concern over E. coli O104, food microbiologists need to ensure that they can detect enterohaemorrhagic E. coli (EHEC) in foods, water and food processing environments in order to prevent, investigate or combat outbreaks of EHECrelated food poisoning.

The current outbreak highlights the importance of rapid and reliable identification of EHEC, which cause bloody diarrhoea and haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS), for the assurance of food safety.

This large outbreak is unusual in several

other ways.

Historically, most outbreaks of HUS have been associated with E. coli O157, but the current outbreak strain belongs to the E. coli O104 serogroup. The causative strain produces Shiga toxin 2 and shows high resistance to 3rd generation cephalosporins (due to ESBL resistance mechanism), as well as broad antimicrobial resistance to, among others, trimethoprim/sulphonamide and tetracycline (ref 1.). Media to detect ESBL are among the methods recommended when screening for the outbreak strain. When undertaking identification of the outbreak strain from food samples, by using Oxoid and Remel products (Thermo Fisher Scientific), you have the reassurance of products that have been developed by scientists with a heritage in microbiology.

For further information about the products available from Thermo Fisher

Scientific for the identification of E. coli O104 and other EHEC, customers should contact their local Oxoid and Remel products representative, or visit www.oxoid.com or www.remel.com. J

New Line Designed to Help Boost Arla's Capacity To Increase Production of Powdered Whey Protein Products PX Corporation’s Flow Technology segS ment has been awarded a contract to custom design, build and install a new powder processing line for Arla Foods Ingredients of Denmark. Utilizing SPX's highly advanced Anhydro brand drying technologies, the new systems are designed to help Arla increase its capacity to produce whey protein concentrates, and contribute to Arla's broader strategic goal of doubling its sales of powdered whey protein by 2015.

“Through our 2010 acquisition of Anhydro and its broad portfolio of evaporation and drying solutions utilized by dairy and food producers worldwide, SPX is now a leading global

supplier of dry powder processing systems and technologies,” says Don Canterna, president of the SPX Flow Technology segment.

“Increasing our competitive presence in Denmark is central to our overall growth strategy, so this newest contract with Arla Foods is a significant achievement. We look forward to working with Arla, and leveraging our proven engineering expertise and food processing technologies to help them reach their whey protein production goals for 2015.” J

Fortress Technology Establishes Manufacturing Facility in the UK a total investment worth some £2m, InFortress Technology Europe has con-

Sarah Ketchin, managing director of Fortress Technology.

firmed it is now manufacturing high performance ‘Phantom’ metal detectors for the UK and European food and pharmaceutical industries from its new 10,500sq ft state-ofthe-art facility located in Banbury, Oxfordshire. In addition, the company has more than trebled headcount during the past 12 months, launched a raft of new products, made several high ranking promotions and invested heavily in skills training.

Sarah Ketchin, managing director of Fortress Technology, explains: “The decision was made on commercial grounds after careful consideration of the needs of the UK business, and as a direct result of the increasing market demand for the Fortress FOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

range of metal detection systems, most particularly within the territories supported by the European office.”

She continues: “The new production facility is an important milestone for the on-going development of Fortress Technology which up to now has solely concentrated on manufacture at its headquarters in Canada and from a production unit in Brazil. We have already shipped a number of metal detectors from the UK and look forward to further expansion both in the domestic market and overseas.” For further information contact Fortress Technology Europe on Tel +44 (0)1295 256266 or visit www.fortresstechnology. co.uk. J 47

New E TranSlicer Cutter Defines Efficient, Engineered Excellence ngineered to produce continuous preciE sion slices with extensive detail given to key elements throughout the machine, the new E TranSlicer Cutter joins the production-proven TranSlicer series in the Urschel line-up.

“In 2010, we celebrated the company’s 100-year anniversary. On the heels of that, we are proud to announce the introduction of our latest TranSlicer.

Building on a tradition of Urschel quality, this new machine demonstrates the company’s engineering-driven spirit which has been key to the company’s ongoing success all these years,” states Tim O’Brien, vice president of sales at Urschel.

The E TranSlicer uses the same 20" wheel and delivers the same types of cuts as its predecessor, the TranSlicer 2000 Cutter. The machine also accepts the

same size infeed of 4" (102 mm) diameter firm products, more compressible products up to 6" (152 mm) diameter, and offers the same production-proven operating principle. In addition, the E TranSlicer provides a newly designed cutting wheel mount/holder assembly that simplifies cutting wheel changeovers.

Hinged/sliding access panels offer full access to all key areas of the machine.

To further ease washdowns, surfaces are sloped. Sanitary design ensures that all mechanical components are separated from the food zone. Electrical cables are slightly raised off of the machine frame to simplify washdowns and alleviate trapped food particulates. The E TranSlicer is available with across-the-line start or with a variable frequency drive. Other options include a prep table to assist operators and a remote operator stop button. The inte-

grated electrical box uses circuit breakers instead of fuses and incorporates a brake motor button to easily release the brake when needed. Durable stainless steel guardlocks and sensors offer indicator lights that illuminate when guardlocks are properly engaged. The machine features continuous operation for uninterrupted production. To learn more about the E TranSlicer visitwww.urschel.com. J

Fortress Launches ICON Metal Detector urther underlining its reputation at the F forefront of metal detector technology, Fortress Technology Europe has launched the ICON. The groundbreaking new metal detector features an eye-catching touch screen front panel with membrane interface, and has been specially designed to be future proof as well as easily retrofitted to older models in the company’s Phantom series.

Using robust Quad-Core processing, the ICON delivers fast accurate detection of metal contaminants, and detailed data col-

lection. Information gathered such as Product Configurations, Rejects and Faults

is stored in an onboard database and accessible via USB or wired Ethernet. All collected data can be exported as Microsoft Excel or Adobe Acrobat PDF file formats.

The ICON features an intuitive graphical experience with custom designed icons and comprehensive menus that will allow users of all skill levels to easily set up products, perform tests and produce reports.

For further information contact Fortress Technology Europe on Tel +44 (0)1295 256266 or visit www.fortresstechnology. co.uk. J

Star Treatment For Arla Foods’ Dairy tar Refrigeration has installed a high efficiency multi-temperature cooling S plant at Arla Foods in West Yorkshire. The project by industrial cooling and heating specialist Star formed part of Arla’s third phase of investment in additional production facili-

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ties at its flagship dairy in Stourton, Leeds.

Having been involved in refrigeration works the previous construction phases, Star was responsible for designing a high efficiency cooling system to allow Arla to manufacture cottage cheese for the first time in the UK. With an overriding commitment to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions, Arla was looking for an environmentally conscious cooling solution. Star designed, supplied and installed a state-of-the-art central ammonia refrigeration plant, with energy saving equipment and control.

The plant has a 5MW total cooling demand and operates at three separate temperature levels. A chilled water circuit provides cooling for the building’s heating, venFOOD & DRINK BUSINESS EUROPE, JULY 2011

tilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. Ice water is circulated to meet various process cooling demands within the production facility. Sub-zero glycol also provides cooling for a 2 degrees Celsius cold store and a blast chilling tunnel.

Star Refrigeration’s group sales and marketing director Rob Lamb says: “Arla’s main focus was on an energy efficient, environmentally-sound cooling solution and we worked in close partnership on the design of the system. We opted for naturally occurring ammonia refrigerant because it has zero global warming potential and is non-ozone depleting.” For more information, contact Star Refrigeration on Tel +44 (0)141 638 7916 or visit www.star-ref.co.uk. J