PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2014

BOTTLING / FILLING 17 PET planet insider Vol. 15 No. 09/14 www.petpla.net Kumla: the paradise of fruit and berries Beverages made from fruit, fruit syrups, blueberry creams, fruit purees, juices... any product the basic ingredient of which is a fruit or a berry comes from the Procordia plant in Kumla. This is where Ekströms, Felix, Bob, Fun Light-branded food & beverages and many others are packaged, the main ingredient of which is fruit. In particular, the “Fun Light” product line is characterised by the continu- ous launch on the market of new products with innovative tastes, which often are created by unusual combinations of different types of fruit. With an annual consumption of around 60 million units, “Fun Light” is now the leading brand in Sweden in the fruit juice-based beverage sector and in the bever- age field in general. www.smigroup.it G sensitive BEVERAGES A fruitful affair Procordia in Sweden has expanded its filling capacity by the Ecobloc from SMI. According to the Company, what goes into this are “products with a unique flavour“. Procordia, a lead- ing company in the production, marketing and sale of a wide variety of well-known food and drink brands, has encapsulated its vision in the slogan: “our love for food & beverage will conquer the hearts of people”. This Scandinavian company has production units based throughout Sweden, which every day produce foods & beverages with a distinctly national flavour. For example, in their facility in Kumla, a small town in southern Sweden known as “the para- dise of fruit and berries”, Procordia produces fruit juice based beverages. Here, the Swedish company recently installed a 14,400bph production line, implemented by SMI, which includes a Smiform Ecobloc 8-42-8 VMAG model integrated system for stretch- blow moulding, filling/capping. It is equipped with an air recovery system and does not need a rinser. The dry part is a Smiflexi SK 350 T model shrinkwrapper and bottle handling conveyor belts. The compact Ecobloc fills and caps two different types of 0,5l PET bottles, one 0,95l PET bottle and one 1l PET bottle at the maximum speed of 14,400bph; bottles are filled with numerous types of juice without pulp marketed under the Bob and Fun trademarks. The 0,95l bottles were redesigned by SMI who came up with a container with a higher top-load value, therefore more resistant. More specifically, the “restyling” primarily involved the “shoulder” of the bottle while the bottle’s body and bottom parts remained substantially the same. The secondary packaging consists of the tray + film in the 4x3 collation packed by a Smiflexi SK 350 T model shrinkwrapper, which groups the PET bottles arriving from the blow filling station in packs of twelve. The 0,5l bottles are packaged in trays with smooth edges while the larger 0,95l and 1l bottles are packaged in trays with edges of different heights.