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Thatchers Cider: Filling capacity tripled

The English definition of cider is a fermented, carbonated apple juice with more than 1.2 and less than 8.4 % abv. Anything above this figure is designated as wine. In the last few years, the cider market has been growing at average rates of around seven per cent. Besides the really large market players, there are also a series of mid-tier companies flourishing, some of them with high double-figure growth rates.

One of these enterprises is the family firm of Thatchers, located in the heart of Somerset’s apple-growing country. Early in 2011, Thatchers took a major step forward, expanding its capacities with a complete 20,000-bph Krones line, which fills both glass bottles and PET containers with cider – and that with three different closers and a variety of labelling stations.

Cider had now become really popular, and consumers began to appreciate quality – thanks not least to the efforts of regional family firms like Thatchers Cider. The family firm dates back to 1904, and the reins nowadays are in the capable hands of the fourth generation, in the shape of Martin Thatcher as Managing Director.

The Chairman is his father, John Thatcher, a pomologist with a nationwide reputation, who still contributes his passion for apple breeding and cultivation, and for the cider production process. “Every good cider starts off in the orchard” is his unshakeable conviction. That’s why Thatchers attaches so much importance to cultivating its own orchards. It was only in 2010 that the company bought another 180 acres (about 70 hectares) with 70,000 trees five miles away from the plant, thus upsizing its total orchard area to 380 acres (about 150 hectares).

In 2009, Thatchers had already installed new fermentation tanks with further improved temperature monitoring, followed by a new kegging line in 2010, upsizing its capacity from 50 to 450 kegs an hour. After all, around 60 per cent of the output leaves the cider cellar in kegs, and is consumed in pubs on the premises.

The more-than-25-years-old mix-&-match bottling line, rated at 6,000 bottles an hour was no longer able to meet the ongoing demand. The logical conclusion to be drawn from the overwhelming order situation was to immediately upsize the capacity of the bottling operation. Thatchers accomplished this with a complete line from Krones rated at 20,000 bottles an hour, tripling its capacity at a stroke. “We definitely wanted a complete line from Krones”, explains Production Manager Gary Delafield. “You can have the best individual machines in the world – and we do – but when it doesn’t all fit together properly, then the line is never going to run one hundred per cent.”

Thatchers chose a Variojet rinser/Modulfill VPVI filler monobloc with electronic filling valves for accurate fill levels, and double pre-evacuation in order to avoid unwanted oxygen pick-up, plus a Monotec hygienic design variant without a front table. The monobloc is enclosed in glass guards. As a special feature, three closers are connected in series one behind the other, for use as required: applying crowns for 500-millilitre glass bottles, aluminium screw-caps (roll-on-pilfer-proof) for 750-millilitre glass bottles and a 28-millimetre plastic screw-cap for two-litre PET containers.

This is another salient feature of the line, that it handles both glass bottles and PET containers. Without any problems at all: “It takes us just 90 minutes to change over between the two types of container”, explains Gary Delafield. “The Krones Raptec quick-change parts, which don’t require any tools, were the determinant factor here. If I had to decide all over again, I would still choose this combination of glass and PET bottling.” The filler is cleaned in fully automatic mode by a VarioClean CIP system, including an exterior foam-cleaning function. (Source: Krones UK )