A contingent of BBI members recently visited Highland Spring Headquarters at Blackford, Perthshire and all were well rewarded with an excellent opportunity to view a dedicated water production facility.
The visit was hosted by Wyllie Woodburn, Operations Director and Dermot Hawkins, Production Manager.

During a very informative presentation Wyllie explained how the business had grown from producing 6m litres of bottled water in 1981 with a turnover of £900k, to 246m litres in 2006 at a turnover of £58m.
The most important part of the business is the water source. The factory is sited at the foot of the Ochil Hills an area of outstanding natural beauty. Layers of red sandstone and basalt formed these ancient hills around 400 million years ago and they provide a natural filter for the fresh rainwater, which falls on the undulating heather clad slopes. The rainwater takes up to 15 years to reach the point deep below the hills and from which Highland Spring derives its source. The water comes from a protected natural underground source under the Ochil Hills where no farming, agricultural spraying, building or habitation is permitted within the 2000 acre catchments area. The land has been kept free from pesticides and pollution for over 20 years. There are 7 production boreholes and the site has 12 water storage tanks with a total capacity of 1.5m litres.

Ochil Hills

Over years of tremendous growth the company, which is privately owned, has invested over £50m in development and brand innovation including a £13m recent investment in new plant and a warehouse extension enabling a doubling of production capacity, there is now a workforce of over 320 people. In 2001 Highland Spring acquired The Gleneagles Spring Water Company, their Blackford neighbours
The business now produces 300 million bottles annually and is capable of running a 24 x 7 operation, has a 12,000 pallet warehouse capacity and despatches up to 2000 pallets per day, and distributes worldwide.

On a tour of the Factory members were able to view all the four bottling lines at the plant three of which are filling PET bottles with still water. The other line is designed for filling carbonated water into both glass and pet bottles. Each line has a capability of filling five different bottle sizes and the brand portfolio requires an average of twenty bottle size changes per week as well as twenty changes in packaging configuration.
There is also a dedicated state of the art PET bottle blowing facility with four blow moulding machines supplying bottles direct to bottle fillers.

The Blackford operation has developed as part of their continuous improvement culture a plant wide intranet system entitled Kiosk. BBI members were given a presentation on this project by Brian McNeill, Continuous Improvement Project Leader.
Kiosk is an intranet based computer system which allows collection and delivery of real time information directly at the point of use and was developed by a team at Blackford with support from Cranfield University.
After introduction on one line the system was rolled out in March 2007 to cover all operating machines and areas to give real time information to all employees. In practical terms all operators have access and input to quality control forms, standard operating procedures, production plans and performances, and many other aspects of the operation. This system has been highly praised by their customers.

On conclusion of the visit and on behalf of BBI members John Yates, General Secretary BBI, congratulated Wyllie on the success and growth of Highland Spring, and particularly on the development of brand packaging to meet the various sectors of the bottled water market. John also thanked Wyllie and his team for providing an excellent visit and some fine hospitality all rounded off by a most welcome buffet lunch.

This event was organised by Colin Clelland, BBI Scottish Coordinator.

For more information visit Highland Spring website http://www.highlandspring.com

Brian Gibbs