This was a visit worth waiting for. It had to be postponed from earlier in the year, and the fear was that enthusiasm would wane having had nearly thirty interested in the first date. For this date we had 26 applicants with some absentees, one of whom had a car accident while travelling down. His car was written off but mercifully he was unscathed. The object of our day was to see the new £11m ‘state of the art’ bottling line which was built on a green field site. The contract for the plant was awarded to KHS and the plan was to put in a 50,000bph line to fill 330ml and 250ml bottles with Stella Artois.

Interestingly the plant was designed with flash pasteurisation, not the usual tunnel found in the UK. This therefore meant clean-room filling which needed to be closely managed. The project was project was completed in an extraordinary short time. From the first sod being turned in August 2003, the first commercial production took place during May 2004.

Chris I’Anson explained the thinking and preparation that went into the project. The idea was to create a ‘High Performance Culture’. The first thing that was done was to set up the four teams that were going to operate the line. Each team was comprised of I team leader and 7 technicians and most of them were recruited externally. Firstly they created a vision which was to focus on:

• Leadership Excellence

• Technical Excellence

• Quality and

• High Performance Culture

The ‘High Performance Culture’ was explained though ‘What’ we do is a given, ‘How’ is our competitive advantage, so that means attitudinal, behavioural and cultural mindsets are instrumental. It was then explained how a model was created to embrace to vision.

The resulting operation is certainly one that is enviable. Firstly there is space – everyone can see what is going on. Secondly, the hall is well lit and the floors tiled. Thirdly the layout is simple. The accumulation has been kept to a minimum and the number of SKUs restricted. The Stella is packaged into a wraparound carton, palletised and despatched. There are plans to increase the types of pack and this will no doubt affect efficiencies, but high efficiencies in the 80s are being achieved – a figure only associated with canning lines! Also there are no infection issues is the setting the scene for the demise of the tunnel pasteuriser?

We thank Chris I’Anson and his team for giving the BBI such a great day and luncheon. He talks of further expansion which I am sure is on the back of Magor’s initial success and , of course, rising sales of Stella Artois!

Jeremy Browne

Northern Section Coordinator