The BBI recently organised a pair of back to back visits to Chivas Bros, Kilmalid and Greencore Mineral Water at Campsie Fell, coupled with a BBI dinner between the two visits.
At the dinner, the BBI President, Ed Binsted, was pleased to announce that Wyllie Woodburn, Operations Director at Highland Spring, had joined the BBI Council. Wyllie is the first of a new crop of high-profile industry leaders being invited to join the BBI over the coming months.
Alistair MacIntosh, Operations Manager at Chivas Bros, now part of Pernod Ricard, welcomed the ‘sell out’ 30 BBI members back to Kilmalid. From the three sites in Scotland the Group produces 25 million, 9 litre cases of their flagship brands, Ballantines, Chivas Regal, Beefeater Gin,Malibu and Tia Maria.
Kilmalid is now the largest site within Pernod Ricard employing over 500 people, most of whom are in operations.
There has been a massive investment in the site over recent times, not just in the two bottling halls, which boast 15 lines between them.
The most recent investment has come in the PAD Project (Palletising, Automation, Dispatch), which was executed in four phases and included a warehouse management system designed and executed by Excel Automation of Worcester.
LGVs (laser guided vehicles) have also been utilised, so essentially removing fork lifts from the warehouse area.
Delegates were shown over the whole site, which included cask disgorging, blending, filtration, and then the two bottling halls and new warehouse previously described.
It would be fair to say that all the major engineering companies have supplied equipment to Chivas Bros, and with the large number of lines, there is always investment within the bottling halls, such as the Stork fillers that are currently being refurbished.
Alistair and his team looked after the BBI delegates extremely well, a lively Q&A session took place at the end of the plant tour.
The second visit was to Greencore Mineral Water where our hosts were Chris Hatcher and Eddie Inglis.
Greencore’s Campsie Fell operation is dedicated entirely to own label production, producing 190 million litres of water a year for its seven main customers, Sainsbury’s, M&S, ASDA, Waitrose, Morrisons, Booker and Brakes.
There are four main production lines that produce mainly in PET but there is some capability to produce in glass. The 190m litres equates to 4,000 pallets a week, with a staff of 120 people. Chris Hatcher was fulsome in his praise for the way that Eddie and his team had turned the plant around over the last four years.
Without a huge budget to spend the efficiency and cleanliness has changed the plant beyond recognition. Efficiencies have to be high as this is an own label producer without the back up of their own branded products.
The recent investments have been in an Sidel SBO, Ocme palletiser with Aetna Robopac pallet stretchwrapper, a Dimac Stor shrinkwrapper and Krones labeller. The Procomac lines have been in for some time and are working well.
Again the Greencore team were very hospitable and following the plant visit the Q&A session covered a large number of industry issues.
Colin Barker, National Chairman is keen to explore other double visits in the months ahead as it gives BBI delegates a chance to debate industry issues and Provides better opportunities for networking.
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