As Australia’s ‘craft beer boom’ continues, manufacturers are working with breweries to develop more focused, industry-specific technology.

Packaging company Fibre King, is the first in Australia to tailor packaging machinery design to accommodate the needs of independent, craft-sized breweries. The company designs, builds, installs and maintains end-of-line packaging equipment for companies across Australia, New Zealand, U.S., Canada and Asia.

While most of their customer base have high volume facilities, Fibre King saw an opportunity in the craft brewery market and set about developing affordable, compact solutions that would help brewers get their product to market more efficiently and cost effectively.

“We’ve identified craft breweries as a growing industry and knew that we could develop equipment specific to their needs that would eliminate the need for manual packing processes,” said James Windsor, Chief Executive Officer of Fibre King.

“Having had the opportunity to work with breweries such as Stone and Wood and Balter Brewing we were able to understand the challenges within their production line and alter our machines to suit,” Windsor said.

Collaboration

Fibre King with the help of Gold Coast-based Black Hops Brewery worked together to develop the first can-specific case packer that’s affordable, flexible and compact.

“This collaborative R&D project provides the market with an off-the-shelf machine that solves a common problem within small to medium sized craft breweries; of how they can transition away from manual packaging processes to an automated one that ensures that their beers are packaged and ready for distribution efficiently, consistently and cost effectively,” said Windsor.

Introducing the “Little Packer”

The new brewery-specific case packer named “Little Packer” has been designed for smaller operations and packs four- and six-pack clusters, with the option to pack loose cans if required, and can run both 24 and 16 can cartons and glue the boxes with no full-time operator.

“Because most machinery manufacturers focus on high value, high speed machines, the requirements of the Australian craft industry have been overlooked. Fibre King’s Little Packer is the first-of-its-kind and is designed specifically for craft breweries and is compact, flexible and affordable.

The payback on the machine can be as low as 12 months depending on the number of people you have manually erecting, packing and gluing boxes within your facility,” Windsor said.

For Black Hops owner Michael McGovern, the new machine will help the two-and-a-half year old brewery jump into its next growth stage. What started as a contract gypsy outfit in 2014, Black Hops is now producing 500,000 litres per year at its own production facility on the Gold Coast. “It’s been almost like a new evolution in Australian craft beer,” McGovern explained.

“We’re moving on from small boutique businesses into large national brands, and with that comes growth and scaling up production. “This project that I worked on with Fibre King was really coming up with a solution that I couldn’t find anywhere in the world.”

“I spoke to a number of case packing manufacturers and they all offered solutions but they were all just so big, just too big to suit our needs.”

The collaboration has resulted in a case packer and sealer that suits Black Hops’ “small but larger” canning line.

Focus on efficiency

McGovern explained that with its current setup, Black Hops’ canning line can do about a 24-pack carton a minute with three or four people.

“With the automated case packer and sealer, that allows us to maintain those three to four operators on the packaging line but increase our output,” he said. “Without that case packer, we would have five or six guys there, with potentially three or four of them just gluing boxes shut like mad all day long, every day.”

McGovern explained: “The new machine, will free staff up to engage in more rewarding work and help Black Hops to compete in the larger retail market, particularly in packed beer.

“The neat part is that the technology can be applied to other applications such as bottling,” said Windsor. “We have also supplied a Little Packer to Newstead Brewing Co and are in discussions with over 10 breweries Australia wide and anticipate the interest to increase as the word gets out about the piece of equipment and the cost savings it provides.”

If you are looking to replace manual packing processes within your operation then call the Fibre King team on 07 3293 8800 or email on sales@fibreking.com for more information. Or visit us at https://www.fibreking.com/brewery-packaging-machinery