Grupo Clesa of Madrid – part of the large Parmalat group that produce the successful yoghurt drink, Bio – have purchased a sleeving machine from UK-based Graham Labelling Systems to replace their conventional front and back labels with a full body decorative shrink sleeve.
Graham says the change to sleeving allows the use of up to 100% product surface area and 360? coverage of “high impact graphics and text for increased information, brand awareness and a superior look on the supermarket shelf”.
Germán Tormo-Garrido of Clesa-Parmalat says: “After careful research we decided to purchase a Graham VF650 sleeving machine from Grahams Barcelona-based Spanish agent, STE Packaging Engineering SL.
“We chose the VF650 based upon our criteria of quality, delivery, reference list, service in Spain and, not least, price.”
The system installation consists of the VF650 sleeve applicator, two Graham steam tunnels, detect/eject mechanism plus additional line control.
The bio yoghurt drink comes in 1-litre plastic bottles, 265mm high and 85.5mm diameter. The PET sleeve has a lay-flat size of 137mm with a cut length of 250mm. The sleeve applicator is part of a complete production line that includes a filler, capper, and craters. Dryers are also installed on the line to combat the condensation problems caused by the high humidity in Spain, to ensure that the bottles are absolutely dry prior to sleeving.
“After the commissioning, which was on time and without problems, the VF650 is working perfectly”, says Tormo-Garrido. “Currently, the production line is running continuously and produces at the rate of 12 000 bottles/hr. We are quite satisfied with the performance and service and we will certainly look to STE and Graham when we decide to install another sleeving applicator.”