DS Smith has revealed details of its work with Delhaize, a multinational retail and wholesale holding company, to increase output on a wine packaging line by 27%.
At Delhaize’s winery in Belgium, both the packaging and the machinery used to process it were redesigned, increasing throughput by 400 packs per hour.
DS Smith explained that a key focus of the project was Ahold Delhaize’s bag-in-box wine range. The winery in Zellik produces products for both Delhaize in Belgium and Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, making production efficiency and reliability essential for a smooth supply chain across multiple retail markets. The Delhaize brand has reported growth in its bag-in-box wine sales.
As the packaging format becomes increasingly important within the wine portfolio, Delhaize wanted to create additional capacity and efficiency within the overall production process.
Rather than sourcing the cardboard packaging and machinery separately, the companies collaborated to design and build a dedicated forming machine that is engineered for Delhaize’s bag-in-box packaging format and production requirements. The machine aims to ensure that both the corrugated packaging and machine performance are engineered together rather than optimised separately, resulting in ‘optimum’ stability and efficiency across the manufacturing process, including improved pack quality and eliminating ‘nearly all interruptions’ on the production line.
As a result of the new approach, DS Smith said the quality of the packaging improved and the production speeds increased from 1,500 to 1,900 product packs per hour. The line also became more reliable, required fewer operators and made more efficient use of warehouse capacity.
Kim Radelet, sales marketing & innovation director central EMEA, at DS Smith, said, “This project demonstrates that the greatest opportunities for improvement often lie beyond the packaging itself. By looking at the entire system, from packaging design and materials to machinery performance, storage and operational efficiency, we helped Delhaize unlock 27% more capacity from its existing operation. That is where real value is created: not in optimising individual components, but in improving the performance of the entire value chain.”
