td. approached Marel in 2013 when they were looking for a more efficient way to weigh and grade their broccoli. Automating the grading process seemed the best solution and it soon became clear that the Compact Grader from Marel would enable them not only to meet their customers’ different demands for grading specifications, but also to reduce labour costs.“We’d heard of other growers using this automatic grading system, so we started researching,” says Ben Thorold, Operations Manager at Peter Thorold Ltd. “We went to the Marel website to investigate and watch the videos to see which one could work best on broccoli. And then we asked Marel for a demo.”
The grader needed to be able to handle the 400-450 acres of broccoli that the company produces throughout the season, from June to November. Marel UK had a Compact Grader installed for a demonstration later in 2013, and that turned out to be the right solution. Soon after the demonstration machine was installed, Peter Thorold Ltd. decided to buy the Compact Grader.
Efficient Production
The installation has brought about quite a few changes in the production set-up at Peter Thorold Ltd. “Previously we had up to 15 workers weighing the broccoli manually on individual scales. Now we only need two persons to look after the weighing process,” Thorold explains.
“The Compact Grader weighs the broccoli very well – up to 60 heads per minute. It is easy to operate and calibrate and has had a great impact on our operation. Our efficiency has improved, and with fewer people to attend to the grading process, we’ve also reduced our labour costs.”
Looking to the Future
“We are very happy with the machine, so we are looking into if we can use it for other work as well, outside of the broccoli season,” Ben Thorold concludes.
