Beck's, Corona, and Budweiser all come from Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s biggest brewing group, which produces around one-third of the world’s beer. The group’s portfolio encompasses 630 brands, made in 260 breweries. The Belgian conglomerate employs more than 170,000 people in 150 countries.
AB InBev operates seven breweries in South Africa, including the Pretoria South African Breweries (SAB) site with almost 900 employees. This plant mainly produces the South African beer brand Castle Lite and the Mexican beer Corona, together adding up to some 8.5 million hectolitres each year.
To boost production of Corona especially, AB InBev has added a non-returnable glass line from Krones. “We chose Krones because of the good relationship, compatibility with current equipment and reliability standards,” said packaging manager Theo Govender.
The new high speed line fills 100,000 glass bottles per hour, which is divided between two lines running in parallel, each with a capacity of 50,000 bottles per hour. The company says this line is one of the fastest in South Africa. This design offers AB InBev a high output and the flexibility to handle different beers in parallel – for example Corona and Castle Lite at the same time.
“To fit perfectly in SAB's hall concept this line is extremely compact, with shared operating areas. This allows operators to attend to multiple machines, thereby reducing the number of operators required,” explained Boris Tremmel, head of key account sales at Krones.
Flexible filling, labelling, and packaging
The Ergomodul modular labeller features interchangeable labelling stations, making it possible to switch over to the beer currently in production. Since Corona bottles feature applied ceramic labels, the labeller doesn’t come into play here. Corona bottles simply bypass it.
When it comes to packaging, SAB also has choices as the line runs two different packers: the Variopac Pro WT for wrap-around cartons and trays, and the Variopac Pro PFS for shrink packs. Both are tried and trusted packers for non-returnable containers. The Variopac Pro offers easy changeovers and expansion, so changes to packaging concepts can be accommodated at any time, says the company.
Another feature is the use of the multi-functional clamping starwheel MultiGuide Base, a first for AB InBev. Since the top and bottom clamps can be opened independently of each other, it is able to securely grip bottles with widely varying diameters.The big advantage, the company says, is that it does away with the need for manual intervention during format changeovers.
