FDBusiness.com

Strawberry grower Busby Partners, part of the Farm Fresh PO (FFPO), has substantially increased throughput to meet its target of 90 packs per minute while reducing labour costs and cutting packaging waste following the installation of Proseal’s GT2 tray sealer for the top sealing of fruit punnets.

As part of the installation Proseal also designed a customised outfeed to the tray sealer to accommodate the dimensions of the Busby Partners pack house.

Busby Partners is one of the biggest single suppliers of English Class I strawberries to Tesco in the Midlands and surrounding areas. The company’s move to heat sealed packs from the traditional clip on lids meets the drive in the industry to reduce packaging weight without compromising packing speed or product quality.

By switching to the GT2, Busby Partners has reduced packaging waste by 25%, while using pre-printed film and printing any additional information online has eliminated the need for print and apply labels.

The move has reduced labour packing costs by 20% and increased throughput in the packing house, enabling the company to grow more fruit without expanding its workforce. The new pack style also means that once the lid is sealed the fruit is tamper proof.

As well as the many practical and efficiency benefits offered by the GT2, Busby Partners chose Proseal because of the company’s flexible approach to installation and its commitment to customer service.

As Phillip Busby of Busby Partners explains, “Proseal was the only manufacturer able to offer a demonstration which proved its machine would meet the required output of 90 packs per minute. The company installed a GT2 on one of the Farm Fresh sites to allow the packing team time to get
used to the machine, and invited other growers to come along and see the machine in full flow and at times exceeding the stated performance. Proseal then invited growers to a factory tour. This was a great way of seeing the GT range in manufacture enabling us to choose the best model for our
requirements.

“Proseal was also very flexible when it came to installation and manufactured a customised outfeed with a 90° angle specifically to meet the space available in our pack house, unlike other manufacturers who adopted the opposite approach of trying to make our facilities fit their machines.”

Busby Partners packs a number of different pack sizes for its various customers so the fast and easy tool changes of the GT2 are another key benefit. “Tool changes take under a minute and no spanners are required,” says Mr Busby. “Other machines took a few minutes and required spanners
and tool trollys.”

The GT2 is directly linked to Proseal via an internal modem, which enables machine performance to be monitored remotely with settings adjusted if necessary and any potential problems dealt with swiftly.

“This is the first time we have installed a heat sealer and we are delighted with
our choice,” concludes Phillip. “The GT2 offers enormous benefits to our operation and has performed exceptionally well from day one while Proseal’s support has made the move absolutely trouble-free.”

Farm Fresh PO is one of the UK’s leading soft fruit marketing companies. As part of its drive to increase the efficiency of production, FFPO has selected Proseal as its supplier of choice for heat sealing equipment for the top sealing of fruit punnets.