Fowler Welch Invests In Repack Machinery At Heywood Depot

Fowler Welch has invested in a new repacking system at its Heywood, Lancashire (UK) Depot. The move will help one of the supply chain specialist’s largest customers, Tulip Ltd, to expand its ambient range offering and reduce its food miles.

The new system at Heywood – Fowler Welch’s Ambient National Distribution Centre – to repack products for Tulip offers the leading UK food producer a one stop solution, helping to reduce steps in the supply chain.

Tulip produces a range of fresh, cooked and canned meat products for the UK’s leading retailers, wholesalers and foodservice companies and products such as tinned hams and chicken breast can be broken down from packs of 12 to packs of six for simplified distribution. The flexible, heat-wrap machine and conveyor can handle various pack requirements to process a variety of different consignments – from tinned meat products to cans and bottles – quickly and efficiently.

Helen Broomhead, General Manager at the Fowler Welch Heywood depot, said: “Previously, Tulip was packing the product in Denmark, taking it to a supplier to repack in the UK, then picking it up to bring to its warehouse. By co-locating the repack and warehouse activity for Tulip at our Heywood depot, we are reducing the steps in the supply chain and helping our customer reduce food miles and cost.”

The new repacking system, can adapt to all configurations in terms of shapes and sizes of consignments and operates at ten packs per minute.

In addition, the Heywood team is also now carrying out labelling work for Tulip, on the consumer unit, using machinery that sleeve wraps products into packs of six.