An investment in Domino’s A-series continuous inkjet printers has enabled the UK’s largest private brewery, Wells & Young’s, to boost productivity and cut costs, with the company set to almost fully recoup its investment after just a year.
The UK-based, 189m-turnover business, which was founded in 1876 and produces a range of cask beers and speciality lagers, including the Bombardier, McEwan’s, Estrella Damm and Kirin Ichiban brands, turned to Domino after deciding to replace its existing coding and marking machines from a different manufacturer, which it was using to code bottles, cans, trays and cardboard boxes.
The family company, which has installed five new A420i and two new A300+ Opaque continuous ink jet (CIJ) printers, runs a high-speed canning and a high-speed bottling line, which it uses to produce up to 30,000 bottles per hour and up to 51,000 cans per hour.
It also exports more than eight million pints of beer annually to 25 countries around the world, including the US, Canada, Italy and Australia.
The company’s decision to replace its ageing coding and marking equipment with some of the latest Domino innovations came after the cost of maintaining its existing machines escalated significantly over a 12-month period.
Wells & Young’s small pack continuous improvements leader Justin Adams explains: “Our previous coding and marking printers were early model machines, which we hadn’t upgraded. Due to the age of the machines, we had a lot of maintenance problems, downtime was high and we had to have a backup machine for each printer in case any of them developed a fault.”
These difficulties, along with the added expense of service agreements and parts, meant that the cost of operating and maintaining its existing coding and marking equipment rose by 20% in 2011.
After getting the green light to replace the outdated equipment, Justin set about obtaining quotes from different coding and marking solution providers and comparing the different packages.
“I had worked with Domino in previous roles,” he says, “so it was the first supplier I called to quote for the job, as I had always been impressed with the quality and reliability of its technology and the excellent customer care.
“When the proposals came back from the different suppliers, the Domino team stood out for having really listened to my criteria and for having tailored their recommended solution accordingly.”
Justin was instantly impressed with Domino UK’s approach to his requirements, and closer examination of the solutions offered by each potential supplier revealed a key difference that helped to swing the decision firmly in Domino’s favour.
Paul Johnson, Domino UK area sales manager, explains: “Domino’s A-Series i-Tech printers are available with our Safeguard five-year warranty. This warranty offers production convenience and uptime as the full cost of ownership for parts and labour are covered for the five-year period. The only additional cost for running the printers is the inks.”
“Our calculations revealed that, by choosing Domino, our annual running costs, including ink, would be 50% less than if we opted for one of the other suppliers,” adds Justin.
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