Page 80 - Food & Drink Business Nov-Dec 2019

SUPPLIER SPOTLIGHT
Fibre King launches world-first mini case packer
As Australia’s ‘craft beer boom’ continues, manufacturers are working with breweries to develop more focused, industry- specific technology.
BELOW: Little Packer is making a big difference at Gold Coast-based Black Hops Brewery. The flexible, compact and affordable machine was a collaborative project between the brewery and Fibre King.
BRISBANE-BASED packaging company Fibre King is the first in Australia to tailor packaging machinery design to the needs of independent, craft-sized breweries. The company designs, builds, installs and maintains end-of-line packaging equipment for companies across Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
While most of its customer base have high volume facilities, Fibre King saw an opportunity in the craft brewery market and set about developing affordable, compact solutions that would help brewers get their product to market more efficiently and cost effectively.
Fibre King CEO James Windsor said: “We’ve identified craft breweries as a growing industry and knew that we could develop equipment specific to their needs that would eliminate the need for manual packaging processes.
“Having had the opportunity to work with breweries such as Stone and Wood and Balter Brewing we were able to understand the challenges within their production line and alter our machines to suit.”
With the help of Gold Coast-based Black Hops Brewery, Fibre King developed the first can-specific case packer that is affordable, flexible and compact.
“This collaborative R&D project provides the market with an off-the-shelf machine that solves a common problem within small- to medium-sized craft breweries of how they can transition away from manual packaging processes to an automated one that ensures their beers are packaged and ready for distribution efficiently, consistently and cost effectively,” says Windsor.
ENTER LITTLE PACKER
The new brewery-specific case packer named Little Packer has been designed for smaller operations and will be able to pack four- and six-pack clusters, with the option to pack loose cans if required. It can run both 24-can and 16-can cartons and glue the boxes without requiring a full-time operator. Windsor said that because most machinery manufacturers focus on high value, high speed machines, the requirements of the Australian craft industry have been overlooked.
For Black Hops owner Michael McGovern, the new machine will help the two-and-a-half year old brewery jump into its next growth stage. What started asacontractgypsyoutfitin
2014, Black Hops is now producing 500,000 litres per year at its own production facility on the Gold Coast.
“It’s been almost like a new evolution in Australian craft beer,” McGovern explained. “We’re moving on from small boutique businesses into large national brands, and with that comes growth and scaling up production. This project that I worked on with Fibre King was really coming up with a solution that I couldn’t find anywhere in the world,” he says.
“I spoke to a number of case packing manufacturers and they all offered solutions but they were all just so big, just too big to suit our needs.”
The collaboration has resulted in a prototype packer and sealer that suits Black Hops’ “small but larger” canning line.
FOCUS ON EFFICIENCY
McGovern explained that with its current setup, Black Hops’ canning line can do about a 24-pack carton a minute with three or four people. “With the automated case packer and sealer, that allows us to maintain those three to four operators on the packaging line but increase our output,” he says.
“Without that case packer, we would have five or six guys there, with three or four of them just gluing boxes shut like mad all day long, every day.”
The new machine, McGovern explained, will free staff up to engage in more rewarding work and help Black Hops to compete in the larger retail market.
“The neat part is that the technology can be applied to other applications such as bottling,” says Windsor. “We have also had requests from within the packaged food industry about how to incorporate Little Packer into their production lines. The opportunities are endless, and we’ve only just scratchedthesurface.” ✷
80 | Food&Drink business | November-December 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au