Twinings has just carried out a multi-million euro investment at its tea processing and packaging facilities in Andover, UK, which has included carton and erecting equipment supplied by Partners in Packaging.
The investment in compact cellular processing and packaging manufacture required cartoning equipment that met Twinings exacting requirements for flexibility of operation, footprint, ergonomics and cost.
Partners in Packaging's principle Vepatec, a German cartoning machinery manufacturer specialist, beat off competition from Twinings existing supplier and a number of other suppliers to secure the order valued at £1m (€1.4m).
Vepatec has already installed eight carton erectors and closers, with more in the pipeline. The machines are designed to automatically erect and close sift-proof webbed corner cartons at 70 cartons/minute and standard glue closure top load cartons, at speeds of up to 100 cartons/minute.
Twinings placed particular importance on the adaptability of the closing mechanism and the ability to remove the need for a film outer wrap on certain products, while also having the facility to produce standard tuck closures. Fast tooling changeover through the provision of bolt-on change parts and the ability of Vepatec's equipment to meet the required speeds have now made them Twinings supplier of choice.
Just as important was the ability of Vepatec to provide machine systems with a footprint that fitted the cellular manufacturing processes employed by Twinings.
"Vepatec through Partners in Packaging came out top of the list for all our key manufacturing milestones and has been extremely flexible in meeting all the demands for machine adaptations placed on them. By developing systems that allow fast changeover between different closure methods line efficiencies have been greatly enhanced," said Jim Sharp, Twining's works engineer.
According to the company, pre-acceptance trials at Vepatec's manufacturing facilities in Germany meant that the all problems were sorted out prior to shipping resulting in zero defects on installation.
Duncan Macintyre, Partners in Packaging's joint managing director, said: "Our philosophy is a complete service from the inception of a project through machine build to after care service. By ensuring that our levels of service are second to none we are able to build lasting relationships with clients as illustrated by our partnership with Twinings."
After the success of the recent contract, Partners in Packaging says that with further expansion planned at Twinings' Andover manufacturing and packaging plant, Vepatec is gearing up to supply further equipment for future projects.