Shepherd Neame orders new Makro labeler

Shepherd Neame, the family owned independent brewer, place a lot of importance on the appearance of its award-winning beers. This year it again won medals at the BBI Drinks competition held in July, scooping two awards. These beers and cider will grace the Shepherd Neame pubs and retail outlets in the coming months. 

At its brewery in Faversham, Shepherd Neame bottles its products on a single production line. With volumes increasing in recent times the company sought to upgrade to the labeler and bottle conveyor. The contract was awarded to Makro Labelling UK, which installed a new 42,000bph labeler with a bottle drier in the spring of this year.

Richard Portman, managing director of Makro Labelling UK, commented: ‘This order for the MAK-5 40-platform, wet-glue, three-station labeler will apply body, back and neck labels. The inbuilt flexibility of the Makro MAK-5 means it can label five label formats for a number of bottle sizes, 330ml generic, 330ml Samuel Adams, 500ml Samuel Adams, 500ml Shepherd Neame and 660ml generic bottles. The labeler includes the Makro camera-based visual control system, Alice (Automatic Label Inspection Control Environment). The labeler has been manufactured so that it can easily accommodate six self-adhesive units at a later stage if the company wishes to switch from wet-glue to self-adhesive labeling in the future.

‘As the main supplier for this part of the line upgrade we also included Colwall Conveyor Systems and a Matrix bottle drier. We have used both of these suppliers on numerous occasions and they have proved to be excellent partners for projects such as this one. The MAK-5 is the fastest wet-glue labeler that we have in the brewing industry in the UK to date. Our parent company from Italy have supplied Makro labelers into all the main international brewery groups around the world.

‘We were very pleased with the way the project came together, as our clients only have one bottle filling line, therefore we had to ensure there were no delays once the stripping out of the old equipment started. Colwall Conveyor Systems were excellent, removing the two old labelers and conveyors, to then re-configure the line with the new Makro Labeller, Matrix Drier and their own conveyors. The whole job was completed in just a week. As part of the contract a full set of change parts for all of Shepherd Neame’s own brands and co-pack customers were provided. The new line layout has significantly increased available space in the bottling hall.’

Mark Bowes, engineering manager, said: ‘We are very pleased with the upgrade to our bottling line, we started with an upgrade to the existing Sidel filler, which increased the line speed up to 42,000bph on the 330ml bottles. Our old labelers had given good service over the years but were not fast enough. We saw the Makro Labeller at drinktec last year and we are pleased with our choice. Our line engineers also like the new machine, it is easy to operate and set up for different bottle sizes and label configurations is also very easy. Flexibility is key to us with so many different brands going down the line, whether that is our own brands, or an element of co-packing work means time is very precious to us, the line upgrade has undoubtedly increased line efficiency and speed.’