As a multi-award winner butcher, Hebbie Fowlie, owner of Fowlie Butchers prides himself on the quality of his fresh meat … and thanks to two new WS wrapping systems from Avery Berkel, is assured of continued product excellence and customer service.
Established in 1955 in Strichen, Aberdeenshire, the family business has expanded considerably, now supplying numerous retail trade customers with fresh, pre-packaged produce, as well as to the public in its busy shop.
Previously, staff were wrapping and pricing the cuts of meat and pies for dispatch to retail traders by hand, but with a 35% increase in order volumes, it was becoming problematic to continue packing manually and keeps pace with demand.
Hebbie Fowlie decided to invest in a more efficient and cost-effective method that would automate many of the manual packing operations and release his staff for more profitable tasks, such as concentrating on product presentation, new recipes or serving customers at the counter. In addition, the system chosen had to meet the butchers’ exacting standards and produce packs with the same high-quality visual appeal.
The WS25 weigh-wrap-label system chosen features a simple touch screen that controls both the wrapping and weighing cycles and requires only one operator to complete the entire packing operation - a process that sees one pack completed every two seconds, a 100% improvement on the previous manual operation.
Each product on the system is given a unique product look up (PLU) reference. The operator simply keys in this number to recall all of the information necessary to wrap the pack perfectly.
Avery Berkel also created a dedicated pack run programme that allows the operator to set up a product order for a particular customer, comprising a variety of different meat types and cuts.
The operator simply selects the customer from a list already programmed in to the machine, chooses from a pre-defined selection of products and begins the packing operation. The touch screen indicates the product to be packed and the number of packs required until the order is complete. This is a much simpler process than previously, where the operator was working from hand-written paperwork and had to spend time double-checking that all packs had been packaged and included in the order.
Pack presentation was also a key deciding factor as it is important that each pack is wrapped consistently. The WS incorporates a four-way film stretch that uses the optimum amount of film for the tray size. This delivers excellent wrap quality and seals each pack effectively for maximum hygiene, whilst eliminating film waste.
In addition, the machine can print easily on to wide, large labels, to ensure that all essential information such as pack price, weight and traceability details is included, but also enabling additional data, such as nutritional details, cooking instructions and promotional logos to be shown. Using wider labels also requires fewer label changeovers, helping to reduce downtime at busy times.
Commenting on the new machines, Hebbie Fowlie added, “We are very pleased with the wrappers’ performance, which has speeded up our packing operation by 100% and is ensuring we maintain the consistent quality which are customers expect. Our operators have found the machines extremely easy-to-use and program too, which means less time has to be spent packing and more time can be spent serving our customers.”
For further information about Avery Berkel’s range of weigh-wrap-label machines, please contact Clive Perkins on +44 (0)121 5681705, email
CPerkins@averyberkel.com or visit the company’s website at
www.averyberkel.com
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