Ice Co installs seven Zodiac thermal transfer printers from ICE

Founded in 1860 by Joseph Marr to provide a way of keeping the catch cold at sea for his fishing fleet, Ice Co makes quality ice products for the retail, wholesale and food manufacturing markets. Ice Co needed to replace outdated and unreliable printers as it enjoyed a rapid expansion, including a growth in exports alone from seven percent to 36 percent in three years, which resulted in the company winning The Grocer Gold Award for Exporter of the Year.

Replacement printers had to be easy to use, reliable, and simple to integrate with existing vertical form fill and seal (VFFS) machines on the company’s bagging lines.

The machines are being used to print a Julian date code for traceability on pillow pack bags of ice ready for distribution.

Philip Marr, Ice Co director, said: ‘It’s vital to ensure that the equipment we use meets the same high quality standards that we set ourselves, and which our customers demand. After meeting the team at the ICE exhibition in Munich, and seeing the Zodiac HS in action, we were impressed with the complete service they could provide.

‘The Zodiac HS is very efficient and the ribbon usage indicator is a great feature which allows us to plan ribbon changeovers. It also leaves little ribbon waste, making it efficient and cost effective.

‘The printers are reliable and print high-quality codes. Combined with low maintenance, they have helped to improve our overall production efficiency.’