Page 30 - Food & Drink Magazine October 2019

PLANT DESIGN & FITOUT
Sidel and Tetra Pak have teamed up to develop the new manufacturing line at Bickford’s $20 million production facility in South Australia, helping expand the beverage producer into dairy. By Doris Prodanovic.
New beverage beginnings for Bickford’s
WHEN Australian cordial and beverage producer Bickford’s opened its new $20 million bottling line, prime minister Scott Morrison and South Australian premier Steven Marshall toured the facility to see the latest in Australian manufacturing.
The new line installed at Bickford’s was developed by Sidel in conjunction with Tetra Pak, and is one of only a handful in the southern hemisphere to use aseptic filling technology.
Bickford’s senior brand manager Beverley Reeves told Food & Drink Business that when looking to upgrade the facility, the company had a vision for the future and found Sidel and Tetra Pak were the right partners to achieve this.
“They helped us design the equipment custom to us and gave us a world class facility,” says Reeves.
“The technology has two filling blocks that process liquids differently, one of which is an aseptic filling head enabling preservative free, ambient stable products.
“This makes it unique to us because most machines have a single process, single-head filler. Wewantedtomakesure
everything we wanted to make was possible, so now we have a 28mm and 38mm sizes processed differently but packed on the same backend equipment of the line.
“Because the front end is split into two halves, it gives us the opportunity to choose the right bottle shapes and filling process to suit the right products.”
The project was three years in the making and represents the most significant capability upgrade for the family-owned Bickford’s business in almost three decades.
It will produce 18,000 bottles an hour and is the eighth line
at the purpose-built, $50 million Salisbury South facility.
THE DAIRY DEVELOPMENT
Bickford’s has been producing beverages since 1874, when 1200 bottles of the Lime Juice cordial were produced each day and labelled by hand. Today, in addition to the collection of brands under the umbrella of the Bickford’s Group, the business also makes products on behalf of a group of contract partners.
Its product portfolio includes the flagship cordial, backed up byarangeoffunctionaljuices,
premium mixers, purified waters, and Bickford’s original and distinctive iced coffee syrup, which celebrates its 100-year anniversary in November this year.
According to Bickford’s the new technology will create “endless opportunity” for the
BOTTLES AN HOUR AND IS THE 8TH LINE AT THE COMPANY’S SALISBURY SOUTH FACILITY
business; it says it is now in a position to create innovative beverages in almost every drinks category, including a wider range of preservative free options, as well as dairy.
“Bickford’s has always delivered a broad range of products but one of our gaps was dairy,” Reeves told F&DB.
“The new line enables us to fill this gap and we’re now able to create dairy and dairy-free drinks – things we couldn’t do before.Wenowhaveafull
armoury that means we can participate in almost every beverage category.”
A new range of iced coffee – two dairy based and one dairy-free, made from almond milk – was launched at the start of October, which Reeves says has given Bickford’s the chance to “learn and gain new skills in new categories using the latest machinery and equipment to put out a top-class product”.
“A lot of dairy-free products are often thin and watery but what we’ve created on this new line offers a great mouthfeel with the almond base,” she says.
“The consumer feedback on the taste and flavour has been overwhelmingly positive and we definitely see the almond iced coffee as a dark horse in this space.”
Bickford’s exports to 39 countries, and more products created on the new production line are expected to hit shelves in the coming weeks.
“We’re really excited to have this new technology in the Bickford’s facility,” Reeves says.
“It’ll take the business to the next level and future-proof our productioncapabilities.” ✷
IT WILL PRODUCE
18,000
30 | Food&Drink business | October 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au