CASE HISTORY
Dungannon Meats Group
MEATING NEEDS
It’s 6am on a typically busy day at Dungannon Meats in Belfast. The morning shift will soon arrive and start processing the usual large volumes of first class, fresh, beef, pork and lamb retail packs and added value lines in a wide variety of weights and configurations.
By 7am the day’s orders may not have arrived from the big retailers but, thanks to years of experience, a management team that really knows the business and a huge inventory of the very latest and best technology, Production Director, Kenny Swann and his team can face the day with confidence, whatever size of order or configuration is thrown at them.
This successful family run business is owned and managed by brothers, Jack and Jim Dobson who, since 1976, have impressively transformed their small butcher’s shop into a major meat processing group with 8 sites based in Ireland, England and Wales. The group relies on a sound, tried and tested 3 way partnership between producer, processor and customer that works together to control quality all the way through from plough to plate.
Dungannon’s Green Pastures brand has, as a result, gained a well deserved and enviable reputation throughout the industry for its products which are in consistently high demand from many of the UK’s biggest and best retailers.
Green Pastures products come in all shapes and sizes of packs with typically 2-300 in any one day being processed, packed and labelled. Own brands are also produced so it takes quite an armoury of technology to handle such a varied output of weights and formats.
Weighing, pricing and labelling of all this is done by a formidable fleet of AEW Delford Systems weigh price labellers which was acquired earlier this year after extensive investigation and trialling of a number of makes. In all there are 13 lines at Dungannon comprising nine model 8060, five model 8100 and, at the Oriel Jones plant in Wales, a further three model 8060 machines. The machines work reliably, quickly and continuously across a range of tray seal, thermoformed, vacuum and special offer packs.
Yet further flexibility was gained by adding AEW Delford Systems C3 panel label applicators which are used to apply self adhesive, pre-printed labels onto either top and side, top, side and base or top and two sides of tray packs.
There is a communication network between all the lines and, to help optimise production still further, all the machines are connected to the main computer to provide a constant flow of instant production information and monitoring of productivity.
Kenny is very pleased with the system’s overall performance, “With the widely varying demands placed on us every day, we have to be extremely efficient and flexible to meet the needs of our customers. The Delfords are quick and reliable and, because of their considerable label capacity, they can run for long periods without attention. The clear and simple controls make life really easy for our operators – a major contributory factor to productivity.”
“And when we do need service we get it – promptly and efficiently – but then I always knew that was the case ‘cos I’ve been dealing with these guys for more than 25 years,” he concluded.
For more information please contact us
