Highly complex Varioline
Whereas for warehouse organisation und production planning, it is the brewery’s product-specific crates that pose one of the biggest challenges, for the packaging process itself it’s the second pack that proves an exacting requirement: the closed-basket sixpack. “This multipack accounts for around a third of our sales. But in regard to production, it is a highly elaborate type of packaging. This is because to prevent customers at the retailer taking out individual bottles from the sixpack, a lid is placed over each sixpack as a cover, which is then glued in place,” explains Jürgen Nordmann. That’s why it was important to Störtebeker to find a machine that not only works as the packer but also meets this additional stipulation – while likewise providing maximised flexibility into the bargain. “With a batch of 2,000 hectolitres of beer, we pack around three quarters of the bottles in 20-bottle crates and the remaining quarter in precisely those multipacks. Then three of the latter at a time are placed in a box. And here, it is vital that the change-over between the different types of pack is particularly fast and uncomplicated,” says the brewery’s boss.