A refurbished, electronic, non-contact filling system from AVE UK has reportedly quadrupled capacity for Essex-based sports water manufacturer WOW HYDRATE.
Now able to produce 8,000 bottles per hour, AVE’s Unibloc rinser/filler/capper system has also allowed the company to re-shore production of its full range of sports drinks to the UK and helped reduce the production cost per bottle by 20%.
WOW HYDRATE produces low calorie, sugar-free nutritious sports waters with vitamins, electrolytes and proteins.
As demand for the product began to grow, founder and CEO Neil Young realised he needed to increase capacity from the 2,000 bottles per hour the company was producing.
“The sports drink market is a crowded one with some well-established key players, so when we first launched WOW HYDRATE we wanted to create something different to help the bottle stand out on the shelf,” Neil said. “We opted to produce a unique self-dispensing bottle comprising a novelty push cap with a dosing system. This meant the customer needed to add the powder to the drink themselves, before shaking and waking it into life.”
The product featured a 38mm porous sports cap with a powder compartment, which was made in Austria, filled in Italy, and then shipped to the UK.
“The unique self-dispensing cap was an expensive feature in itself but added to this was the cost of transporting the product across Europe and then into the UK,” Neil added. “There was also an associated high carbon footprint, which we were keen to reduce. Then, like so many companies that manufacture outside of the UK, the recent supply chain issues began to impact us, too.”
Neil decided to move production to an independent third-party bottler in Devon. They put Neil in contact with AVE UK’s sales director Steve Bradley for advice on an alternative method of production that would allow the company to replace the self-dosing cap with a standard 38mm flip sports cap and manufacture wholly in the UK.
“Previously, WOW HYDRATE sports waters were produced using a gravity filling system,” Steve said. “I recommended that Neil instead consider an electronic filling system (EFS), which uses electronic flow meters to fill to a volume rather than a level.
“Suitable for a range of bottle and cap sizes, including the 38mm flip sports cap that Neil was keen to switch to, the AVE Unibloc EFS rinser/filler/capper system employs a far more accurate method of dosing and results in a more consistent end product, as well as producing less wastage.”
As there are fewer moving parts in the Unibloc, AVE UK said there is a reduced risk of maintenance issues. The system is also non-contact, making it more hygienic than the previous gravity version.
Neil chose a refurbished Unibloc rather than a new machine. “The biggest deciding factor for us was the short lead time – just six weeks for a refurbished machine, compared to around five months for made-to-order,” he explained. “There were substantial cost savings, too. Plus, of course, it’s better for the environment to repurpose an existing system.”
Within just six weeks a Unibloc, which had previously been used to handle 500ml plastic screw cap bottles, had been delivered to AVE’s UK workshop, stripped down to the base, shot blasted, repainted, refurbished to meet the client’s specification with all worn parts replaced, and installed at the customer’s production site. By the end of that week, it was in full operation.
“The Unibloc was installed into an existing line at the third-party bottler’s site, so it was important that it ran successfully from day one,” Steve added. “We carried out a site survey prior to installation and our engineers were on hand during commissioning to ensure everything was working 100% as expected, just six weeks after ordering. We also delivered training to several in-house operatives to help with the smooth transition.”
AVE UK, which is part of the Della Toffola Group, revealed it has a network of local engineers to service the machine as required, while also offering remote access. Steve explained, “We can check the operational state of the system at any time and from anywhere, identify any issues before they start to affect production, and even remotely fix faults. This all helps to increase operational uptime and keep the line running as expected.”
