Bottling and Canning “Norfolkness”

Bottling and canning “Norfolkness”

A well-known brewery is planning on cashing in on its “Norfolkness” and exporting this spirit outside the county as it ramps up expansion plans.

Mr Parks, who recently took over the Woodbastwick-based company had built his career at Greene King but felt Woodforde’s had potential which he could not ignore.  In a recent interview Mr. Parks said “We want Woodforde’s to be about “Norfolkness”. We want to be part of the community which is why we’ll be continuing to work with the likes of Norwich City Football Club as well as working with local charities.”

“But it’s more than that, we want people to think of Norfolk beer the way they think of Cornish ale, for it to be renowned across the country.”

 

But Mr Parks also has his sights set on exporting the Norfolk dream and is making in-roads into London as well as into the East Midlands.  He said: “We all know half of London ends up on the Norfolk coast every summer, so it seems like an ideal market for us to start supplying into. I’ve appointed a sales person down there to begin handling that. We’d like to see it on the shelves of all the major supermarkets in Norfolk,” Mr Parks said. “I think it shows that it’s a Norfolk brand available to anyone here.”

The brewery has recently invested in a new small pack line to fill both bottles and cans which made it ideal for further growth in line with Mr. Parks plans. The filling line was designed and supplied by Enterprise Tondelli; a specialist company in this field based in Bedfordshire and Italy.

The area available for the new small pack facility was very compact so Enterprise Tondelli designed and supplied a dual purpose bottling and canning line. The facility was designed for maximum flexibility so can handle a range of can and bottle sizes.

To rationalise the space a labeller was supplied to label both cans with wraparound labels and bottles with body, back and neck labels prior to filling. This meant that application of the labels was much easier than labelling containers after filling where there would be condensation. Having the ability to label empty cans also means that Woodfordes can very easily and quickly produce seasonal and limited edition beers without the cost of printing a vast number of cans.

After the labeller the conveyors can take the containers either to the rotary monobloc bottle rinser/filler/crowner or through an in-line rinser to the rotary can filler. Key features of both machines are very low oxygen pick up and simplicity of the filling valves. For bottles the machine double pre-evacuates the air in the bottle and for cans the can filler flushes the empty can with CO2 to remove oxygen to give very low tipo.

To improve the throughput on the line a skid mounted carbonator for the beer was supplied by Enterprise to give more accurate carbonation and also rationalise tank time. The carbonator has a flow meter for CO2 injection and product flow coupled with a stabilisation vessel prior to the filler to give more stable carbonation not affected by start/stops down the line.

The conveyor system from Enterprise Tondelli means that operators do not need to duck under conveyors to access equipment but can easily access the operating area of the machines.  It also optimises the labour on the line by allowing dual operation.

Mr. Neil Bain head brewer at Woodfordes said “ I have worked with Enterprise Tondelli in the past on a similar bottling project at another brewery and was impressed by the knowledge and professionalism of their staff. It was also important that Enterprise came on the journey with us as the project took some considerable time in the planning phase.”

The equipment is designed for the craft market making it simple and easy to use even for small, companies and the line was easily installed and commissioned by Woodfordes own engineers.  Mr. Craig Wilson Managing Director of Enterprise Tondelli UK stated “ Woodfordes have been a pleasure to work with. Their feedback and has beein invaluable and commendation should be given to their packaging and  engineering staff who are also very skilled. We wish them very success on their expansion plans for Norfolkness ”

It is the fortieth anniversary of Woodfordes making them one of the oldest craft brewers in the UK. Their products can be bought in supermarkets or on line at :- https://www.woodfordes.com/ where you can find some of their exciting new limited edition and seasonal products – celebrating Norfolkness!

Enterprise Tondelli have been working in the industry since 1977 and supplying equipment in over 40 countries. The Woodfordes project is the latest project by Enterprise that have ranged in scope from 1,200 bottles per hour spirit line for Scotland, 25,000 bottles per hour complete PET line in Africa , canning at 1,500 to 72,000 cans per hour and turnkey soft drinks factories in Russia. This wealth of experience ensures Enterprise add something to all our projects.