Product category:
Food Processing News
News Release from: Marco | Subject: Village Nurseries
Edited by the Processingtalk Editorial
Team on 30 November 2007
Packhouse solution for award winning
soft fruit
An eight station Packhouse System supplied by Marco is playing a pivotal role in the packing of soft fruit at the Village Nurseries establishment in Keyingham, East Yorkshire
The Marco system is part of a major GBP500K investment by the former salad growing business, which has seen Village Nurseries changeover from growing predominantly cucumbers to producing soft fruit in less than nine months Soaring energy costs to heat the massive 10 acres of greenhouses was the main catalyst which persuaded the company to rethink its operation and the decision was made to switch over to less energy consuming crops
This article was originally published on Processingtalk on 1 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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By sacrificing part of the cucumber crop in 2006, Village Nurseries were able to meet planting deadlines and the greenhouses now grow award winning raspberries and strawberries for supply to major supermarkets.
However soft fruit is much more labour intensive than salad crops, and MD Graham Clark admits that the dynamic change has presented a steep learning curve for his company in a number of different areas.
During the two main harvesting and packing periods during March to May and October to December, the permanent workforce of 15 expands to over 75 to meet throughput demands.
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The temporary posts are mostly filled by overseas students and part of the investment has involved the setting up of accommodation and recreational facilities, as well as transportation, to meet strict employment guidelines.
However despite all this Graham Clark is upbeat about the future of his business and as he explains: "The last few months have certainly been challenging, especially given the awful summer we've had.
In addition to getting the operation up and running, we have had to undergo a number of audits from the supermarkets, the BRC and even the Home Office! In the midst of all this, one ray of sunshine has been receiving the Yorkshire Post 'Growers Award' for our Tulameen raspberries".
The Marco Packhouse system, which is a module within their Trac-IT MES solution, is an integral part of the packing line, consisting of LineMaster workstations, conveyors and labellers.
Although there have been significant advances in automation, soft fruit packing still relies heavily on the dexterity of the manual packers and as Graham Clark continues.
"By their nature berries vary in size, shape and of course weight, so rapid, yet careful, handling is essential.
To maintain competitiveness, speed is of the essence, but we have to comply with the Weights and Measures (Packaged Goods) Regulations for 'e' weighing, whilst ensuring the highest quality and minimising giveaway.
Even a few grams giveaway in each punnet amounts to significant losses when multiplied by the high number of punnets we produce".
The easy-to-use Marco LineMaster workstations are specifically designed for fast efficient packing.
The LineMaster operators take individual pre-packed punnets and place them one at a time on the integral scales.
The LineMaster uses a simple, yet highly effective, coloured bar graph, which immediately gives a clear indication of whether the pack is over, under or within weight tolerance.
The operators now add or remove fruits to achieve the correct target weight.
The operators soon 'tune in' to such visual systems and simply pack to the 'green light' without having to think about the actual weights.
This system is 'language transparent' making it ideal for multi-national operators.
When within weight tolerance, the punnets are placed on the conveyor at weigh-station level and transported down to the high speed labeller and onto the packing area.
Every punnet weight is instantaneously captured by the LineMaster system together with a record of the packer responsible.
The LineMaster system features the innovative Marco Automatic Optimisation (AO) software, which has been specifically developed to maximise the use of real time data capture in high speed manual packing and portion control applications.
Pack weight trends are continually monitored by the AO system and tolerance settings at individual workstations are automatically adjusted on an on-going basis.
These continual subtle changes, which are transparent to the operators, maintain minimal giveaway whilst ensuring packs continue to comply with average weight legislation.
As Village Nurseries approach their first full year in the soft fruit arena, Graham Clark is justifiably proud of his company achievements and as he concludes: "In order to be competitive in this fast moving industry, we knew we had to invest in the latest technology.
The Marco equipment is an invaluable part of our operation and the operators need minimal training.
In fact it's so efficient, we are now considering looking for contract packing to make best use of its capabilities.
The system provides us with important data to ensure we continue to be efficient and we look forward to winning more awards for our fruit in 2008".
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