Introduction
Welcome to the first Contract Bottling Company quarterly news letter to customers. In this edition we’ve got updates on some new capabilities and developments at CBC. These include – our new Cider Plant, an update on our Lab capability, an outline on our newest department, some information on the benefits of PET bottles, and a preview of the New Product Development / Blue Sky presentations that Judith and Wendy will be doing in the New Year. Bernard has written a review of the new carbonation line 1 year after it was installed, and finally we’ve a summary of the new team members who’ve joined CBC over the last few months.
Cider Production and Bottling
CBC now has full cider production capabilities. We start from fresh apples, which we get contract fermented for us to high strength alcohol, down in the sunny Hawkes Bay. We are able to produce cider out of season by using apples stored in cool storage over the winter months. This then gets tankered to us, and stored in our new 40,000L temperature controlled tank. Then, as required, we batch up cider ready for packaging. We can produce different types of cider, as per customer requirements, by making slight alterations by addition of water, sugar, acids, and natural apple aromas.
There is then the option of getting this cider packaged after passing through sterile filters, as per our traditional methods into normal glass bottles, or up to 1.5L PET bottles. There is also the option of getting it packaged via our new 50L keg plant.
Craig Ayres – Tank Room Team Leader
QA Department
Welcome to the Contract Bottling Company Laboratory! We are an ISO9001:2000 accredited facility currently employing three QA technicians conducting a wide range of testing from raw materials to finished products.
Due to the diverse scope of products we manufacture, we are continuously updating our capabilities.
We are currently equipped to perform analyses ranging from pH, total acidity, alcohol, and carbonation through to SO2, volatile acidity, and reducing sugars for some of our wine customers. We also have a microbiology laboratory to assist with routine sampling and testing. A full range of analyses and prices is available on request.
Sharon Allen – QA Manager
Customer Service Department
Greetings to you all, I am delighted to be able to inform you all that CBC now officially have a Customer Service Department. The department currently consists of one person (myself, I have been told that all good things start out small) with the ongoing help and support from the rest of the CBC Team on matters relating to technical issues and any other advice.
As a Customer Service Area we would like to improve the communication between CBC and you as our valued customer along with following-up on other areas of concern that you may have highlighted in our recent customer surveys. If you do not notice an improvement with communication in the near future or have any other issues that you would like to raise, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss.
For those of you who do not know me, my name is Trevor Forster and I have been with the Company for just over 5 years. I commenced working as the Dry Goods Team Leader in the Warehouse department until approximately 1.5 years ago when I was given an opportunity to take on the roll of Account Manager in the Supply & Demand Department to some of our customer base. Upon completion of our first two customer surveys it was identified that we should have more focus in the Customer Service area hence the reason for increasing the profile of this area.
To those of you whom I know, I look forward to the increased communication. To those of you who I am yet to meet, I look forward to meeting you all and working with you.
Best wishes to you all along with your families over the Holiday period.
Kind Regards, Trevor Forster
Packaging Technology
DO YOU KNOW? PET bottle packaging is now more versatile with new barrier technology to give your product an extended shelf life! Barrier technology enhances your product shelf life by adding barrier materials to protect product that have stringent O2 and CO2 requirements.
PLUS all the additional benefits of:
Moldability - PET enables fast turnaround mold designs and innovations, minus the high mold set-up cost compared to its glass or aluminum equivalents.
Unbreakability - Tapping into markets such as music and sporting events where glass bottles and cans are prohibited.
Weight - A 330ml PET bottle weighs about 10-15% of its glass equivalent.
UV Resistance - In many cases, PET has shown a better UV resistance to glass bottles.
Innovation – Bottle shape and textures can be very innovative.
Feel free to contact us if you require further information. We can help you stimulate growth and open up new markets in your soft drinks and alcoholic beverages segments.
Wendy Liew – Packaging Technologist
New Product
Development
& Innovation
As 2003 rushes to a close we have got the New Year innovation presentation coming together very well. Once again we are going to do a “Blue Skies” presentation for all the new packaging and flavour innovation that we have tapped into over the year.
This year’s presentation in April was well received by our customers and we will do out best emulate that success again. For next year we are going to pull together a lot of different ideas that you will be able to mix and match to create new products. This presentation is aimed to be quite interactive with mocked up packaging and part beverages that you will be able to fit together a bit like a jig saw. Obviously we have plenty to work on before you see the final presentation...
At this time I would like to thank all our customers for their ongoing business and for those that have launched new products it have been wonderful working with you.
Have a happy and safe Christmas.
Judith Dance – NPD Manager
New People \ Changes at CBC:
Heke Tanu has joined us as our warehouse administrator, taking over from Fiona who has moved into a sales rep role with a packaging company. Heke comes to us from Toll logistics where he was the warehouse administrator for their main Auckland warehouse. He’s a great deal of experience and is already adding a lot of value. If you have any warehouse issues or updates Heke can be contacted on 09 272 1922 or 025 808 181.
Congratulations to Carol, our long standing accountant, who got married last month to Heath. Her new e-mail address is now –
Logan Campbell our Engineering planner is now broadening his horizons and will be looking after the Tank Room & Syrup Blending area. Craig Ayres, our current Tank room team leader is finally going on his big OE – he now has more friends in London than Auckland!
Sandra Smith is our new Administrator. She started only 2 weeks ago and already has made a great impact upon the place.
Carbonation Line – 1 Year On.
October last year we started the ambitious task to more than doubling the capacity of the carbonation line. One year out this task is complete with the new line producing record through put, excellent flexibility and highly consistent quality. Upgrading this line was necessary to ensure we met future customer orders as volumes had steadily grown over 1M cases pa. Obviously capability for our existing product range was required but we also wished to have future capability to bottle beer, cider, wine and non-carbonated beverages in PET and glass.
At the heart of the upgrade was the installation of a Filling Systems filler with 60 filling valves giving the ability to bottle in glass and PET with three closure options - crowns (twist and prior off), ROPP metal caps and plastic pre-threaded CSD caps. Other built in features were;
o Single and double pre-evacuation – to ensure dissolved oxygen levels are kept low during wine, beer and cider filling
o Self levelling – highly accurate filling for non carbonated products
o Glass decontamination – detects if a bottle breaks in the filler and automatically removes the glass from the filling area
o Automatic external cleaning and sterilising
The challenge at the end of the line was to move away from hand packing and palletising to full packaging automation while also increasing cluster packing options and flexibility. The decision was made to stay with our present supplier Mead Packaging but upgrade the existing packer with two newer models that both had the same capability to pack neck through and over the crown in 4, 6 and 8 packs.
A fully automated case packer was purchased from SMI which allowed us to move from hand packing RSC cartons to wrap around cases and a CBS palletiser / stretch wrapper for case palletising and pallet wrapping.
In the last 12 months our new capability has been put to good use with new bottling opportunities developed in 1.5L PET cider, wine in glass and PET and a multitude of different CSD / RTD products pasteurised and un-pasteurised for the local and export markets. Over the next 12 months further upgrades are planned with the likely installation of Stelvin capping for wine bottling, improvement of conveyor line control to increase efficiency on PET and reverse tapered bottles and an online meter being installed at Christmas to monitor Brix, Alcohol, CO2 and Oxygen automatically.
Bernard May – RTD Technical Director