When Aston Manor, the cider-led beverage company, created a new product, they used modular elements of an existing packaging line with new equipment to create the ideal packaging solution for a new rework operation.
Paul Clifford, Aston Manor’s Manufacturing & Engineering Director, looked to packaging suppliers Yorkshire Packaging Systems (YPS), who had previously supplied equipment to them, to advise on the most appropriate potential equipment options.
“The modular nature of the equipment we owned from YPS could be easily combined with new machinery to create a full packaging line for the new product. Throughout the discussions, YPS sought to find the best solution for our new requirements,” commented Paul.
The new product in question features a 24-pack of canned drinks, shrink-wrapped onto a tray for stability. The new rework operation allows Aston Manor to take multiple SKUs and sort into a mixed SKU single case. Previously the operation was outsourced and the YPS equipment had been used to wrap a different product altogether.
The finished pack sizes were fairly similar, so the ULMA heat shrink tunnel from the previous line could be included in the new line with minimal re-configuration. Aston Manor purchased a new sleeve wrapper with an integrated inline infeed to cater for the new product. The result? A new line with the same tunnel but a new sealer.
“This investment delivers additional packing capacity with flexibility that could prove invaluable as our business moves forward,” commented Paul. “We’ve been happy with the equipment, service and support from YPS in the past and are extremely pleased with the solution they put forward this time.”
