£10 MILLION INVESTMENT GIVES BEATSON CLARK CUTTING EDGE
News release
8th March 2012
Glass packaging manufacturer Beatson Clark is staying ahead of the competition by investing £10 million in furnace improvements and new high-tech equipment at its plant in Rotherham.
The firm, which celebrated its 260th anniversary last year, made a successful repair to its amber furnace in December 2011 and is planning a complete rebuild of its white flint furnace in July 2012.
New automatic inspection equipment is also being installed at Beatson Clark which will further improve the quality of the products and improve traceability. The company has already installed new vision-based inspection equipment with sidewall, base and top stress detection on four lines, and installation on the other four lines will be complete by early next year.
Beatson Clark is also replacing M machines on all lines with the latest Servo-driven multi-inspection machine which inspects the neck of the bottle, wall thickness and ovality of the glass.
All this new equipment can read dot coding, which will enable additional automated inspection and improve traceability of the product. The company plans to add dot coding to all its products to take advantage of this facility.
Beatson Clark will also be upgrading its metal detectors across all lines later this year. As well as detecting metal in the product the new equipment will also isolate affected products and remove them from the waste products that go for recycling.
Beatson Clark Managing Director Tony McLoughlin said the £10m investment is an important part of the company’s long-term strategy for growth.
“We’re a long-established business but we never stand still,” he said. “We are always thinking about how we can improve our products and processes and constantly looking for new ways to provide an even better and more flexible service to our customers.
“The fact that we are making such a significant investment in our plant in South Yorkshire is great news for the region and an indication that we see growth in the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors over the next 12 to 18 months.”
As well as improving the production process, Beatson Clark is also investing in new design technology. The company has updated its CAD (Computer-Aided Design) system to the latest 3D visualisation software.
“Using this software during the new product development process, our design team we will be able to provide customers with real-time images of what the end product will actually look like,” said Mr McLoughlin.
“The animation of the 3D visualisation can be turned 360° on the screen, showing customers what the size, shape, colour and embossing details would actually look like, rather than using an outline drawing that takes time to amend and makes it difficult for customers to properly visualise the product.”
Notes to editors
Beatson Clark specialises in providing glass packaging solutions for niche brands in the food, drink and pharmaceutical markets worldwide. The key to its success has been flexibility, innovation and the high quality of its containers.
Beatson Clark’s customers are at the core of its business and the company is proud of the long-standing partnerships it has developed thanks to the outstanding level of service it offers.
Beatson Clark has a turnover of £44 million and a production capacity of approx 496 million units or 88,000 tonnes.
It has ISO 9001:2000, BRC/IOP Food Packaging Hygiene Standard and OHSAS 18001:1999 Occupational Health & Safety Standard and its manufacturing capability has an emphasis on flexibility to facilitate short tailored production runs. It has a UK distribution centre located in Rotherham.
Jez Ashberry
Shooting Star PR
01522 528540
jez@shootingstar-pr.co.uk
www.shootingstar-pr.co.uk
t: @jezashberry
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