ISHKA SPRING WATER - GRUPPO FINI SPA SC ALCONOR COMPANY

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or the past 35 years SMI has been one of the privileged interlocutors for many companies in the food and beverage sector, that want to invest in efficient, eco-sustainable and competitive bottling and packaging solutions, with which they can face and overcome the countless challenges of the market. Recently the entire sector, after two long years of uncertainty caused by the pandemic, has had to contend with another factor of great political and economic instability: the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is a difficult period worldwide, for all kinds of companies and sectors, struggling with...

IN BALLYNEETY, COUNTY LIMERICK, THE LUSCIOUS GREEN, ROLLING LANDSCAPE OF THE BEAUTIFUL IRISH COUNTRYSIDE IS THE BACKDROP TO ONE OF THE MOST MODERN BOTTLING PLANTS OF SPRING WATER IN EUROPE: ISHKA IRISH SPRING WATER. THE COMPANY, FOUNDED IN 1978 BY MICHAEL SUTTON SR. THANKS TO A BRILLIANT FAMILY IDEA, IS TODAY A MULTIMILLION-EURO COMPANY MANAGED BY MIKE AND DENIS SUTTON, SONS OF THE FOUNDER. EVERY HOUR THE PLANT, CONSISTING OF FOUR FULLY AUTOMATED LINES BUILT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH SMI, PRODUCES OVER 40,000 BOTTLES OF SPRING WATER, WITH THE UTMOST ATTENTION PAID TO THE CARE AND PRESERVATION OF THE...

SECTOR: MINERAL WATER ISHKA SPRING WATER Ballyneety, County Limerick, Ireland 3.600 bph bottling and packaging line for 5L bottles: • ECOBLOC® 3-9-3 HC ERGON • DV 500 divider & SK502T ERGON shrinkwrapper • APS 1550 ERGON palletizer • Conveyor belts and various sub-supplies 16,000 bph end of line for the packaging of 250 ml & 500 ml PET bottles: • CSK42 F ERGON & LSK30F shrinkwrappers • APS 1550 ERGON palletizer and conveyor belt

GROWING TOGETHER: he collaboration between ISHKA and SMI began about 15 years ago with the purchase of an SK300F shrinkwrapper, currently installed on production Line 1, dedicated to the packaging of 250ml, 500ml, 750ml, 1.5L and 2L bottles. In 2017, on the occasion of the opening of the SMI UK & Ireland branch based in Manchester (United Kingdom), the Sutton brothers once again turned to SMI for the expansion of their plants. During various meetings between Paul McGovern, Director of SMI UK & Ireland, and the management of ISHKA, all the technical and commercial requirements of the new investment...

ECO-SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS THAT LOOK TO THE FUTURE Plastic bottle caps represent 10% of plastic waste found on beaches and the European directive 2019/904 on single-use plastics, includes a provision to regulate their recycling along with the rest of the bottle; for this reason the caps of PET bottles must now remain attached to the containers (tethered cap). Driven by the goal of drastically reducing plastic pollution, and anticipating by three years the coming into force of the EU rules, ISHKA Irish Spring Water started to successfully introduce this type of cap in September 2021, becoming the...

FOR THE 5L PRODUCTION LINE SMI developed the image of the new bottle starting from ISHKA specifications and designed an extremely efficient production line for this particular 5 litre container, which has allowed ISHKA to increase plant capacity by over 50%. The expansion project of the Irish company, made it necessary to upgrade the existing line, this involved replacing the old linear blow moulder with a modern integrated SMI ECOBLOC® system, consisting of a 3-cavity rotary blow moulder, an electronic filler and a capper.

MAIN ADVANTAGES This system upgrade permitted the installation of a faster and more efficient stretch-blow moulding and filling system, while at the same time maintaining a compact footprint, thanks to the fact that no conveyor belts are necessary between the blow moulder and the filler. The new project also posed a challenge in secondary packaging, as ISHKA required shrink film pack formats in 2x1 and 3x1 and a large (4x5) tray format to make a half pallet pack. SMI was able to satisfy customer requests without any problems thanks to the versatility of the SK502T ERGON shrinkwrapper, a twin...

COMPLETE END OF LINE IN PET AT 16.000 BPH Bottles worked: 2 different types of 0.25L and 0.5L bottles in PET Formats worked: Packs in film only (both neutral and printed) in formats of 3x2 - 4x3 - 5x2 - 5x3 and 6x4 CSK 42F ERGON PACKAGING MACHINE - Production up to 42 packs / minute LSK 30 F ERGON PACKAGING MACHINE – PRODUCTION UP TO 30 packs / minute CONVEYOR BELTS APS 1550 ERGON PALLETIZER Formats worked: packs coming from the packaging machines Pallets created: europallet 800x1200 / half pallet / standard pallet n 2018, ISHKA expanded the production of small, format bottles in PET by installing...

the second packer the LSK30, from which the “ pack-in-pack ”is ready to be palletized and efficiently distributed to the network of supermarkets, hypermarkets and stores served by the Irish company. The SMI APS 1550 ERGON palletizing system offers a flexible quick-change solution to create a wide range of PET bottle packs in both 250ml and 500ml. The machine manages half pallets, euro-pallets and UK pallets and has an optional system that automatically loads the half pallets, on standard pallets for storage in the warehouse. The new APS 1550 ERGON palletizer is able to manage more than 20 pack...

A CHAT WITH THE CUSTOMER INTERVIEW WITH MIKE AND DENIS SUTTON Owners of Ishka Irish Spring Water the site safe, we started producing bottles in PET on site, a goal that our father had always dreamed of, however, he unfortunately passed away only a few months before the start of the new business. About 60% of the water bottled in our factory, is destined for various private labels distributed in the main Irish supermarkets, while the remaining 40% concerns bottles marketed under the ISHKA brand. Q: In general, what position does ISHKA water hold compared to the others available on the market?...