Major Cosmopack order for H & A prestige bottling

Despite the COVID 19 lockdown the UK agents for Cosmapack International Srl, Makro Labelling UK, have received the largest order for the Italian manufacturers of case packers comprising American carton erectors, pick & place carton loading, division inserters and case sealing machinery from H & A Prestige Bottling in Chorley.  This brings the total number of machines supplied by Makro Labelling UK to Halewood Wines and Spirits Group to 40 and this latest order has a value approaching £1m.

Richard Portman, Managing Director of Makro Labelling UK commented on this latest order, “The Halewood Wines & Spirits Group have been a wonderful customer since I established Makro in the UK ten years ago, both for Makro Labellers and equipment supplied from the agencies that I have represented over the years.  I took on Cosmapack as an agency last year and this latest order for three lines is not only their first case packing order in the UK but also their largest single order.”

Richard continued, ”When the machinery comes to the UK in October it will all be installed by my UK team of engineers, something that I attach a lot of importance to, should any travel restrictions come into force in the coming months due to COVID19. In the first 12 weeks of the lockdown my team have been working flat out to help keep our ever growing list of UK clients working to full capacity as they have done such a wonderful job keeping the UK Supermarket shelves full at all times.

This multiple machine order came about as H & A wanted to upgrade the speeds of three of their lines to 9,000 b.p.h. to a fully automated system which, up to this point has been packed manually. The motivation for the upgrade has come due to the volume increases for some of their core spirit brands such as J.J Whitley, Whitley Neill, Dead Man’s Fingers Rum, Pogues Irish Whiskey, as well as some high profile contract packaging clients such as Kraken Black Spiced Rum, and Brockmans Gin.”

The three Cosmapack lines will include; a carton erector with Nordson hot melt glue systems, bottle laning device, pick and place packer, division inserter, powered carton conveyors and case sealers. The units will run at 9,000 b.p.h. handling 6 bottle cases with the bottle sizes of 70cl to 1.5 litre. On line 8 at H & A the units will be also be able to run oval flasks for 25cl, 30cl and hexagonal bottle formats in 50cl and 70cl.

Richard concluded, “This latest project will give H & A Prestige greater flexibility, fast changeover for their high value, lower volume production multiple flavour variant run products and at the same time greatly increase the line speeds as automatic case packing will be replacing what is currently manual case packing. The Cosmapack equipment is ideal for those smaller Distillers and Wineries that want to upgrade the end of their lines to increase throughput, the ROI once installed can be as little as a year so making it a sound investment.

 

Further upgrades at BrewDog

BrewDog was founded in Fraserburgh in 2007 by James Watt and Martin Dickie, it has been one of the great brewing success stories of recent times.  Quickly growing, BrewDog purchased a site in nearby Ellon in 2012 and consolidated all their production at Ellon in 2014.  By the end of 2018 the company and its franchises operated 78 bars worldwide and established production operations in Australia, the US and Germany.

At the Ellon facility they have further expanded the production, with the installation of a bottling line for their gin and spirit products, Zealots Heart, Lone Wolf, Cloudy Lemon, Five Hundred Cuts and Rogue Wave which are all sold in 70cl bottles in UK and 75cl bottles in USA, by purchasing a Enolmeccanica T-Corker from the UK agent Makro Labelling UK Ltd.

Richard Portman, Managing Director of Makro Labelling UK said of this latest order, “Bearing in mind this order was concluded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, whereby both our client BrewDog and Makro UK have been continuously working to support our clients, this order for the T-Corker is rather special.  Due to be delivered at the end of July it will be applying closures in three cork formats and also the Vinolok perspex closure at speeds up to 2,000 b.p.h.”

Richard continued, “BrewDog have brought across an existing rinser filler bloc from their German operation, the T-Corker and a new capsuler are the only new pieces of kit going on to this line.  For us at Makro UK it is great to be part of the continued expansion of this dynamic company.  This latest order brings the number of Enolmeccanica capping and corker units that we have supplied to seven since we became their agents two years ago.  They are excellent machines for brewers, distillers, wine and soft drink companies who want stand-alone cappers.

Enolmeccanica manufacture a range of single head and multiple head rotary cappers and corkers for speeds up to 12,000 b.p.h. and can supply machines for the application of Alumninium ROPP cap, Plastic Screw-On cap, T-Cork for spirits, Straight Cork for wine and Press Crown for beer / soft drinks.  They are of course backed up by our team of Service Engineers based in the UK who have all been working flat out during the COVID pandemic.”