Cornerways Nursery, the award-winning horticulture business arm of British Sugar, has described the Eurokett Matrix labelling equipment purchased from Advanced Dynamics Ltd for its showpiece production site in Norfolk, as “perfect” for the job.
British Sugar’s huge nursery in King’s Lynn – the 18-hectare site is the largest single tomato glasshouse in the UK – has two of the machines labelling up to 60,000 packs a day, depending on the time of year, at its modern packaging facility, providing the company with huge productivity benefits, according to Commercial Manager, Henry Robertson.
Mr Robertson said: "The Eurokett Matrix is perfect and has impressed not only me but the entire packhouse team. The kit has delivered significant production savings and has also improved the presentation of the products by placing flash labels and pack labels in the same place every time.”
Advanced Dynamics is the sole UK distributor of the Matrix range, the successor to the highly accurate and flexible Eurokett Junior 115 label applicator. The Matrix boasts the latest in stepper motor drive technology for top accuracy, reliability and ease of control, making it ideal for labelling high volumes of packed produce such as tomatoes, potatoes and carrots.
The Eurokett Matrix label applicators can operate at speeds of up to 50m per minute, offering simple, standard speed flash labelling through to high speed placement with a maintained accuracy of +/- 0.5mm.
Purchasing the Eurokett Matrix equipment has enabled Cornerways, which supplies most of the major high-street supermarket chains with a wide range of own label tomato products, to free up staff for more productive duties, as Mr Robertson explains.
He said: “Applying labels by hand can be messy and is an under-rated skill so being able to utilise an employee elsewhere for more productive activities makes economic sense. The machines work seamlessly with our flow wrappers and our operators find the Eurokett Matrix easy to use, which is not always the case when it comes to label applicators.”
Bradford-based Advanced Dynamics’ managing director, Malcolm Little, said: “We are very excited about the Matrix label dispensers. The Matrix can be incorporated into the whole range of labelling systems, including top, base, side and wrap around, and is easily integrated into primary wrapping systems.”
Cornerways produces 140 million eco-friendly tomatoes each year and the Matrix labellers are now an integral part of the company’s on-site packaging system, which allows the fruit to be despatched for supermarket shelves direct from the nursery.
As for the service from Advanced Dynamics, Mr Robertson had nothing but praise. He said: “Cornerways is very demanding of its suppliers and we have never had any issues with the Matrix. We have already recommended Advanced Dynamics to several other companies in the food industry and will continue to do so.”
