Steve West, Factory Manager of Fairplaste, hosted the visit, which took place on the 24th March 2004, and was supported by members of the Fairplaste, and Procter and Gamble teams.

On opening the proceedings Steve gave us a very informative presentation, and explained that Fairplaste is part of Logoplaste, a Portuguese group of companies, established in 1976 and operating, solely in plastic packaging, in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Brazil and the UK. The group specialises in ‘hole-in-the-wall’ operations. West Thurrock is one of three sites in the UK, the others being the supply of Sunny Delight bottles to Procter & Gamble in Somerset and a new greenfield site in Leeds supplying milk bottles to Arla Foods.

The ‘hole-in-the-wall’ operation at West Thurrock commenced production in July 2000 and the main processes involved are injection moulding, using four Husky machines and associated resin handling equipment, and stretch-blow moulding, using five Sidel high-speed machines. All bottles are produced in PET material, 96 % being clear, and are fed into Storage silos, containing 1 hrs supply, within the Procter and Gamble side of the wall. The buffer stock of preforms held is sufficient for approximately five days bottle production.

A very interesting tour of the bottle production area was conducted by members of the Fairplaste team and included a demonstration on the finer elements of stretch and blow technology within a Sidel blow moulder. We were able to see 100% inspection of bottles using the latest Camera inspection system, scanning through base and top seal. This is part of the stringent QC procedures adopted by Fairplaste to ensure the customer on the other side of the wall is entirely satisfied. Fairplaste are presently achieving the highest award level for plant audits from Procter and Gamble. This being the result of a learning and sharing culture, operating a well laid out plant and run by a highly motivated team

Members of the Procter and Gamble team conducted a tour of the Fairy liquid filling lines. Procter & Gamble fill bottles at West Thurrock ranging from 375ml to 1500ml on high-speed lines. These lines were seen to be traditional in their concept consisting of unscamblers, rinser/fillers, labellers, carton erectors/packers and finally palletisers with the lines being arranged in order to achieve back-to-back operation with efficient manning levels. After palletising and stretch wrapping finished product is fed into an automated warehouse operated by Wincanton .The site operates 24 hours per day Monday to Friday and supplies product to countries all over Europe and beyond.

Our thanks are to Steve West and his team for providing an excellent visit and some fine hospitality all rounded off by a substantial buffet lunch. On behalf of BBI members Brian Gibbs congratulated Fairplaste on the high standard of the visit and also expressed thanks to Procter and Gamble for a very interesting tour of their plant.

We were left with the impression that this operation is an excellent example of supplier and customer working together in partnership to achieve a low-cost, quality conscious efficient operation, in a clean and hygienic environment, producing an International Branded product.

Brian Gibbs. Southern Section Coordinator. The British Bottlers’ Institute.