The visit was hosted by Gordon Sitch Factory Manager and opened with a presentation given by Gordon on the site history. Gordon explained that the 16 acre site was built by Beecham Bottlers Ltd. at a cost of £20m and commenced production in 1982. Ownership changed to Britvic in 1987 and by 1990 had been developed to operate 3 Can lines with a hole in the wall can supply facility provided by the Continental Can Company. With the commissioning of a Small Pack PET line in July 2004 the factory now operates 3 Canning lines and 2 PET lines with an annual output of 33 million cases.

One of the main objectives of the visit was to view and gain information on this new line and Gordon explained that it was a £10.5 million investment for Rugby Factory for a Small Pack PET line operating at 600 bottles per minutes filling 250 ml to 750 ml bottles sizes with on line bottle blow moulding and Film Multipacking. In order to match this increased production capacity it was necessary to upgrade the site services by the installation of a new 10 inch water main, add a fifth carbon filter and increase chlorinated water storage by 90 cubic metres. Additionally new high and low air pressure compressors and driers were installed as well as new water pumps and the upgrading of high voltage transformer and panels. Attention also had to be given to syrup manufacturing; a new Scanima powder blending unit was installed together with three 30,000 litre syrup blending tanks providing syrup batch sizes ranging from 8,000 litres to 30,000 litres.

The new Line at Britvic Rugby

The line was supplied by KHS as a Turnkey Project and was installed in an area previously used for warehousing, the conversion from warehouse to packaging hall took place in an impressive182 days. Other line features include reel fed labelling of empty bottles and volumetric filling with filler valves being controlled via individual electronic flow meters. Full pallets are transported from Palletisers by a Laser Guided vehicle to the Despatch area.

Another interesting feature of this visit was the showing of a film, which was made in preparation for the Small Pack project, and was based on employee views on how the factory would benefit. The film demonstrated how the factory culture would embrace the fresh demands of the new investment and the employee commitment that would be given to make the investment a success. This seemed to be a very unique approach to employee motivation.

On our tour of the site, which operates on a 24 hour basis, we found a very smart and well laid out factory and a friendly environment with people being proud of working on the site and one which could be described as “State of the Art”. The new line had been laid out to give good working space for efficient operation and movement of materials. We also had the opportunity of seeing the new and impressive Kister can film multipacking machines fitted on two of the Can lines during 2005. These machines can wrap cans in 6s or 12s at rates of up to 300 packs per min.

The factory’s 154 employees provides a 24 hours a day, seven days a week service to the Britvic National Distribution Centre in Lutterworth and to 12 regional distribution sites located around the UK. The product range requires the use of 30 product recipes and the management of 100 stock keeping units with a peak output of 1million cases per week.

On conclusion of the visit John Yates, BBI secretary, on behalf of BBI members thanked Gordon for a splendid visit and buffet lunch and also thanked the Factory tour leaders, for taking time out to guide us around a very interesting and impressive operation.

Brian Gibbs, Southern Section Coordinator