Bickford’s installs complete Sidel’s aseptic PET line
Bickford'southward, a family-owned Australian brand, has, for the first time, purchased and installed a complete Sidel flexible PET line, handling both sensitive beverages and carbonated soft drinks (CSD). Riding the wave of healthy living, Bickford's was not only able to expand their portfolio just also to meliorate production efficiency and sustainability. All in all, this significantly optimized their Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), while relying on new bottle designs.
Bickford'due south is one of the oldest and most valued Australian brands, belongings a premium positioning in the market with exports to 32 countries worldwide. Founded in 1839, they are an independently owned business organisation with caput office and operations based in Adelaide, Due south Australia. Its diverse product range includes CSD, cordials, flavored water, still and sparkling water as well as juices, dairy and non-dairy drinks, syrups, and alcoholic beverages, such as beer, wine, spirits, and cider.
In Bickford's domicile of Australia, every bit in many other countries, ane tin can observe increasing health consciousness and wellness concerns as key drivers for the growth of beverage categories such every bit bottled water, especially flavored options. Juices, nectars, soft drinks, isotonics, and teas (JNSDIT) are also afflicted by this change in consumer beliefs and are predicted to prove a positive trajectory in the next three years. Notably, Australia also has a strong coffee culture. Although the focus on RTD java is near taste and functionality with customers seeking a quick energy boost, futurity products might shift towards health-promoting benefits.
Furthermore, given the dandy contest inside these segments, new product developments are increasingly focusing on flavor variety, accompanied by the introduction of new packaging formats for further diversification in the market. In the beverage manufacture but in particular in water, JNSDIT, and CSD segments, PET is projected to remain a popular packaging fabric in the future.
Bickford's aseptic PET bottling with dry preform sterilization
To accommodate those opportunities, abound their share, and diversify their portfolio, Bickford's started to search for a very flexible production line able to handle both withal and sparkling, as well every bit low- and high-acid products with two different short bottlenecks and 2 distinct decoration possibilities. For this particular challenge, they turned to Sidel – the leading expert in hygienic PET applications and packaging design – for the kickoff time in their long history. This likewise marks the very first time the Australian actor invested in aseptic technology with dry out preform decontamination, which has not yet been widely adopted in the country.
"Previously, nosotros were mainly familiar with hot-filling PET applications. We decided to partially shift to aseptic PET bottling because we wanted to optimize our product set-up and reach a better TCO, which is, of form, critical if you lot plan to attract more consumers," says Angelo Kotses, Bickford'due south chief executive officer and owner. "Plus, nosotros really wanted to diversify our production portfolio by introducing new references, including dairy products and constitute-based alternatives, and by moving some drinks formerly packaged in drinking glass and tin to PET," he goes on. For such a big-calibration project, Bickford's needed a full solution partner- ane that is an good in packaging development, bottling mechanism, product, and services. The Australian brand decided to inaugurate this cooperation past investing in one complete, versatile Sidel PET line, managing both sensitive products and CSD through an Hygienic Combi Predis and a Combi SF300, respectively.
This motility helped Bickford's enjoy great freedom in terms of packaging design. They can now benefit from the full branding surface to utilize both sleeve labels and pressure-sensitive labels (PSL). Moreover, thanks to Sidel's proven dry preform sterilization engineering, the Australian thespian is also leveraging a safe, like shooting fish in a barrel to operate, cost-efficient, and sustainable packaging solution. In total, the new line now processes more than than 20 different SKUs, including however water, coffee with milk, java with almonds, 4 unlike flavored water, and eight types of juices – all in either 250 milliliters, 500 milliliters or 1-liter formats.
Outstanding canteen and ornamentation design
"At the outset of the project, Bickford'due south team visited iii of our customers' sites in Thailand, Nippon, and France and was able to experience the advantages offered by Sidel'southward Aseptic Combi Predis commencement manus. On top of that, they could rely on us through every pace of the journeying, including the choice of raw material suppliers and the right designs for the preform and the bottle," says Herve Herambert, business relationship manager sales Aseptic Southward E Asia Pacific at Sidel. He continues, "They were particularly impressed past Sidel's xl-year experience in hygienic PET applications as well as in packaging – the family-endemic visitor appreciated the support offered to design and industrialize the containers, including the perfect application of the labels to the new canteen's shapes."
Throughout the project, Sidel'southward packaging experts worked in close collaboration with Bickford'southward marketing squad to launch their products. "Looking at our water and CSD range filled through the Combi SF300, nosotros wanted to achieve an iconic shape to help our brand stand out in a very crowded marketplace. Our new bottles needed to offering user-friendly handling to our consumers and exist robust enough to hold their ergonomic shape and carbonation once opened," explains Beverley Reeves, senior brand manager at Bickford's. Talking h2o, the Sidel packaging team started from scratch – new containers were designed for the 1-liter Aqua Pura branded water, applicative both to sparkling and still water, with the latter supported by the proven StarLITETM base of operations. To suit future needs, Sidel also developed an additional 600 milliliters design, perfectly applicative to a variety of recipes, including flavored water.
A redesign was too needed around the family of drinks previously packaged via hot-fill technology. In this case, the number one priority was to optimize the packaging, while keeping the same premium brand attributes, and also light-weighting the canteen. For case, past changing the production set-up from hot-fill packaging to hygienic PET bottling with dry preform sterilization, the Australian player halved the weight of their one-liter juice canteen – downward to 32 grams – while enhancing its bewitchery and expanding its shelf life up to 8 months. The new bottles are designed with quite straight torso panels with simplified ribbing at the sides to allow the application of either sleeve labels or PSL – the about significant format (1 liter) engraved with the iconic Bickford's brand name. "We were impressed by Sidel'south packaging capabilities. To streamline our determination process, they provided many canteen pattern alternatives and smashing conceptual designs with current labels as well as new prototypes. Considering the productivity advantages we gained and the high consumer acceptance around our redesigned containers, we are planning to strengthen the cooperation with Sidel further and launch a one-liter format for sparkling products, for h2o as well every bit CSD," concludes Reeves.
All-encompassing flexibility for greater product multifariousness
Refreshed designs inside a diversified, premium portfolio are answering the needs of a niche market, which is why Bickford's is targeting modest batch production – an arroyo entirely supported by the Sidel low-speed aseptic line. To install the new set of equipment, Bickford'due south reorganized the production set-up and raw material localization – for instance, by removing two out of three hot-fill lines they had, they gained empty flooring space to be dedicated to the new consummate line. The challenge for Sidel'south team was to complete the installation without disrupting the production routines, while besides securing the very high hygienic requirements needed in aseptic product.
The new versatile PET line, set-upward at the Adelaide institute, includes Tetra Pak Processing Systems technologies, guaranteeing full product prophylactic and maximizing uptime starting from the procedure stride. Additionally, the Aseptic Combi Predis is completed by the Capdis system for dry cap decontamination. At the same fourth dimension, the CSD Combi features the compact and hygienic BlendFILL configuration, combining carbonator and filler in a single system for reduced consumption of CO2. Gebo OptiDry, a fully washable, stainless steel drying system with proven efficiency of over 99%, is integrated. As part of the line, the customer also opted for Sidel's proven Roll Adhesive labeler, ensuring loftier stability and precision in the process, plus a sleever intended to handle PSL.
Bickford'southward hyper-flexible line manages both hygienic and regular PET packaging on 2 different Combis, thus dealing with products featuring two various bottlenecks, namely 28 millimeters for CSD and 38 millimeters for the aseptically-bottled products. They chose to employ ane single End-of-Line (EOL) solution to optimize the TCO while leading to maximized uptime, every bit changeovers are very piece of cake. This EOL includes a VersaWrap wrap-around instance packer and a PalAccess palletizer. Both pieces of equipment are designed with multi-format versatility and fast and simple format changeovers in mind, therefore perfectly suiting Bickford'southward needs.
The line is now running at 12,000 bottles every 60 minutes (bph) for the aseptically filled drinks and up to 18,000 bph for the CSD products, with greater efficiency than the i committed on the purchasing agreement, thus contributing to a production capacity reaching approximately 60 million bottles per year.
Rubber and price-effective 24/7 solution
"It is important to note that this fantastic opportunity to switch from one production to another is non compromising the sterility of our product, rather the contrary. The PET aseptic line in our factory runs ten hours per day, and Sidel managed to keep the product in the filler under complete food safety conditions between the last shift of the day and the first ane the day after, meaning for more than twelve hours," highlights George Kotses, operations manager at Bickford'southward.
"By shifting from hot-fill to aseptic PET applications, we are benefitting from an optimized TCO. Namely, the Combi Predis offers a very competitive cost-efficiency ratio and a great ecology footprint because it does not consume any water and uses only very few chemicals. The solution allowed united states of america to reduce the canteen's weight drastically," he continues. Lastly, the reduced need for cleaning in identify (CIP) lowers maintenance costs.
Bickford's showtime sellable product from the new line was introduced to the market in the summer of 2019. As a final point in this successful journey, the treasured make historic the opening ceremony for the line commissioning in September in the presence of Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, and premier of S Commonwealth of australia, Steven Marshall.
Source: https://packagingsouthasia.com/type-of-packaging/rigid-plastic-packaging/bickfords-australia-boosts-flexibility-through-sidels-aseptic-technology/
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