An investment in Domino’s A-series continuous inkjet printers has enabled the UK’s largestprivate brewery, Wells & Young’s, to boost
productivity and cut costs – with the company set to almost fully recoup its investment after just one year.
The Bedford-based, £189m-turnover business,which was founded in 1876 and produces arange of cask beers and speciality lagers, including the Bombardier, McEwan’s, Estrella Damm and Kirin Ichiban brands, turned to Domino after deciding to replace its existing coding andmarking machines from a different manufacturer,which it was using to code bottles, cans, trays and cardboard boxes.
The family-run company, which has installed five A420i and two new A300+ Opaque continuous ink jet (CIJ) printers, runs both a high-speed canning and a high-speed bottling line, which it uses to produce up to 30,000 bottles per hour and up to 51,000 cans per hour.
It also exports more than eight million pints of beer annually to 25 countries around the world, including the USA, Canada, Italy and Australia,which has won it a number of plaudits for its global achievements, such as inclusion in the 2012 Sunday Times International Track 200 for private businesses.
It also exports more than eight million pints of beer annually to 25 countries around the world, including the USA, Canada, Italy and Australia,which has won it a number of plaudits for its global achievements, such as inclusion in the 2012 Sunday Times International Track 200 for private businesses.
After getting the green light to replace theoutdated equipment, Justin set about obtaining quotes from different coding and marking solution providers and comparing the different packages.
He says: “I had worked with Domino in previous roles so it was the first supplier I called to quotefor the job as I had always been impressed withthe quality and reliability of both its technolog yand the excellent customer care.
“When the proposals came back from the different suppliers the Domino team stood out for having really listened to my criteria and for having tailored their recommended solution accordingly.”
Justin was instantly impressed with Domino UK’s approach to his requirements and closer examination of the solutions offered by each potential supplier revealed a key difference which helped to swing the decision firmly in Domino’sfavour.
Paul Johnson, Domino UK Area Sales Manager, explains: “Domino’s A-Series i-Tech printers are available with our SafeGuard five-yearwarranty. This warranty offers production convenience and uptime as the full cost of ownership for parts and labour are covered forthe five year period. The only additional cost forrunning the printers is the inks.”
“Our calculations revealed that, by choosing Domino, our annual running costs, including ink, would be 50% less than if we opted for one of the other suppliers,” adds Justin.
The new A-Series ink jet printers, which havebeen fully operational since last summer, arebeing used for both the factory’s bottling and canning lines.
On its bottling lines the brewery uses the A300+ Opaque printer with Domino’s 253WT white ink to apply twin lines of code onto glass bottles (brown and clear), which range in size from 330ml to 670ml.
The bottles are then placed into a case, via a Kister packaging line, which is then also coded with an A420i printer, using Domino 2BK009 black ink.
are used, with a six metre conduit, to print twin lines of code onto the cans. An OCME tray filler then places the cans onto a tray, withboth sides of the tray coded using two of the company’s new A420i machines while another of the company’s new A-Series ink jet printers isto be used as a spare, in case of any additional requirements.
Justin explains: “Our investment in Domino solutions has saved us significant costs in termsof maintenance, service agreements and machinedowntime.
“We’ve been pleased with the sales and servicewe’ve received from Domino on this project andare now considering further investment in someof their other print and apply label solutions.”