Encirc has made a multi-million pound investment in blending equipment at its Elton, Cheshire site, doubling its capacity for soft beverage products.
The company has installed a second drinks blending stream, which will increase production capability and allow ingredients to be correctly mixed into syrups at high speeds ready for diluting and bottling.
This will further improve the quality of soft drinks, beer, wine, cider and other beverages containing ingredients with low solubility, such as pectin, which have traditionally been challenging to blend.
The new blending equipment has been fitted with a drum offload injection feed and homogeniser, as well as a five-stream blending skid and high shear batch mixer, while existing equipment has been upgraded to further increase capacity at the plant.
Two storage vessels have been transformed into additional batch mix vessels, and another two have been fitted with recirculation chilling technology to store fruit concentrates at sub-zero temperatures until they are ready to be bottled.
David Lynn, technical manager at Encirc Beverages, explained: “As a company, we’ve seen some impressive growth in demand for our manufacturing and filling services over the last 12 months, so it’s crucial that we do all we can to ensure we can satisfy our customers’ needs now and in the future.
“This investment is not just about meeting demand though. It’s vital to help us further improve the quality of the drinks we fill to ensure we continue to provide the best possible service both to our customers and to end-consumers.”
