Spanish dairy farmers favour aseptic bottling in PET
In cooperation with Sidel, Spanish dairy company Andía Lácteos de Cantabria S.L. have modernised their plant in Renedo de Piélagos with the most modern, state-of-the-art aseptic PET bottling technology for ultra-high-temperature (UHT) milk for the Spanish dairy player.
Andía Lácteos de Cantabriaare a part of the Iparlat Group, which originally were created from the Spanish union of dairy farmer cooperatives. The company mainly package liquid dairy products sold under a well-known Spanish retailer brand. The same retailer gave the initial impulse to move from carton and HDPE bottles towards bottling milk in PET. On their Sidel Aseptic Combi Predis – now in operation – extended shelf life milk (ESL), UHT milk and milkshakes are bottled in three formats (0.25l, 1l and 1.5l), giving the dairy player the opportunity to broaden their spectrum of SKUs.
Sidel Aseptic Combi Predis with its dry preform and cap sterilisation technology was integrated into an existing bottling line for HDPE bottles. “The new low-speed Aseptic Combi Predis is working at full speed and it offers the best food safety conditions, perfectly matching with our extreme production quality requirements,” says Javier Villafranca, Industrial Director at Iparlat Group. The line is currently running at 9,000bph with 97% efficiency. With this new packaging line several million bottles were produced by Andía Lácteos in 2019. “We succeeded in increasing our portfolio by producing new UHT milk recipes we could not produce before, for instance, the lactose-free milk, for which the demand in the market is growing every day. With this state-of-the-art aseptic PET bottling line, we will be able to significantly strengthen our brand image in the Spanish market,” explains Javier Villafranca.
The milk PET bottles have proven to be successful. With sales soaring, Andía Lácteos de Cantabria have recently decided to invest in another Sidel Aseptic Combi Predis, combined with the conveying and accumulation solution Gebo AQFlex,to increase their production capacity even more.
