All-inclusive package comprising intralogistics, automated warehouse and canning line

The fourth-generation family-run company can look back on its 120-year history and how it has grown into the UK’s biggest family-owned cider maker. In addition to its popular traditional products such as Thatchers Gold, Thatchers Haze and Thatchers Vintage, they also produce fruit ciders including Thatchers Cloudy Lemon, Thatchers Blood Orange and Thatchers Apple & Blackcurrant which are reinvigorating the cider market. Their products are a big hit and demand has continued to soar over the past few years, driving Thatchers to upsize its production capacities to keep up with consumer demand. The cider maker opted to partner with the Krones Group for this project.

The two companies have already been working together successfully for many years: Krones has supplied several individual machines, along with the bottle filling line that was completed in 2011. Krones quality, innovation and attention to detail were among the reasons why Thatchers has chosen Krones once more. 

“Thatchers is all about quality and sustainability. As a company with family at our core, we have been making premium cider for 120 years and over four generations. We are always thinking and planning years, even generations, ahead. This means that when we invest in developments, we only want to work with quality businesses that deliver consistently and build to last. We chose Krones as we felt they matched our values, with excellent attention to detail, they deliver excellence in their field,” explains Gary Delafield, Operations Director at Thatchers Cider.

Intralogistics solution from System Logistics

The greatest need for updating was in the area of intralogistics: “The project meant we could bring production and storage under one roof, linking a high-bay warehouse, affectionately known as The Hive, to our established production building, The Jubilee. Previously, full products had been warehoused across different areas of the farm along with offsite options, so the upgrade meant we could reduce vehicle movements and labour, making our operations quicker, more efficient and more sustainable. We took the decision to automate the warehouse not only to increase our storage capacity, which ensures our customers are always fully stocked, but also to increase our efficiency,” said Gary Delafield, and he adds: “The warehouse even works while we sleep, getting orders ready for our customers in advance of the next day’s deliveries. The new system is also able to better manage the wider range of products we now produce.” And so, in 2020, Thatchers went looking for a company to partner with for its new high-bay warehouse. And they found it in System Logistics.

The Krones subsidiary drew up a comprehensive logistics concept that covered interfacing with the existing production lines, as well as storage slots for finished ciders, raw materials, consumables and supplies, and finished pallets, including an order-picking area located in a higher level of the new high-bay warehouse. The Hive is also connected to the Jubilee building via a glass-fronted bridge that moves pallets between the buildings and spans a footpath.

Building work started in August 2022, and the 20-metre-high warehouse went into operation roughly 20 months later. “Good teamwork was the common thread running through this entire project phase. We always discussed any challenges we faced straight away and joined forces to meet and master them,” reports Ged Mack from the sales team at Krones UK. “What definitely deserves a special mention is the fact that everybody was ready and willing to communicate, getting the best out of the project.”

Automating the logistics processes

The system can carry out 705 pallet storage and retrieval operations per hour. This high-speed system has enabled Thatchers to keep up with its customers’ demands. To increase production efficiency, the company decided to also review the material flows in their existing lines and integrate them into their new logistics concept. For this purpose, Krones implemented its SitePilot Line Management System, which can be used to coordinate orders and materials. It comprises the following areas:

• Material requisition: Line Management automatically requests cans, kegs or material pallets when they are needed, removes them from the upstream buffer zone and feeds them directly into the lines on retrofitted conveyors. Since the buffer zone is located near the line, the materials required can be made available promptly.
• Return to the warehouse: If there is a surplus of materials, it is also possible to manually create orders in Line Management that trigger transport back to the warehouse storage.
• Put finished articles in storage: When a pallet has been fully loaded with finished ciders, Line Management will pass that information to the logistics system in order to get that pallet into the correct storage arears of the high-bay warehouse.

In the past, staff used to perform all these movements with fork-lift trucks. Today the operators have Krones’ digital solution quite literally at their fingertips, because all processes in Line Management can also be viewed and managed on a smartphone. The transfer between the warehouse systems is fully automated without the need for an operator in the area on a full-time basis.

New canning line including process technology

Thatchers placed its order for an additional canning line last year. An extension has been added to the existing Jubilee building to house the new canning line that would triple Thatcher’s canning capacity. The building also has an underground car park. 

Krones UK was obviously very pleased about that, as Ged Mack tells us: “We were of course delighted to have won the order for the canning line as well. As a one-stop shop, Krones covers the entire value chain. And it’s a great opportunity for us to demonstrate precisely that at Thatchers, by supplying the canning line, process technology, digital products and the intralogistics solution.”

The new Krones line is rated at 60,000 cans per hour. In addition to the canning and packaging machines, including a Modulfill VFS-C, a Variopac Pro TFS and a Pressant Universal 1A, Krones also supplied all of the process technology kit, starting with a Contiflow mixer for carbonation, a VarioFlash B flash pasteuriser and a UniPure product filtration system right through to a VarioClean CIP system. Thatchers requested that the line be as high tech and automated as possible.

The first cans of cider are scheduled to come off the line in summer 2025. Once up and running, the new line will be linked up to the Line Management System and integrated into Thatchers’ intralogistics concept. 

“This has been an incredibly complex project, with the new 20 metres-high building requiring us to consider fire systems, underground carparking, a vast amount of machinery and heavy load bearing floors to name but a few. Working with Krones has felt like a partnership. They have supported us every step of the way and become an extension to the Thatcher family” said Martin Thatcher, fourth-generation cider maker and company owner.