Dairy Crest upgrades Chard

A contract to install a range of production facilities at the Dairy Crest specialist product plant in Chard, Somerset, has been awarded to FMA Process Engineering.

It followed Dairy Crest's decision to transfer its 'added-value' sour cream, crème fraiche, and retail cream production lines from its site at Enfield in north London.

FMA's md Derek Olsen claims the contract underlines the company's claim to be a "true specialist" in the field of liquid process technology in the dairy sector "and will provide us with an opportunity to bring our expertise into the areas of raw product intake, mixing, blending, and powder addition; pasteurisation and culture incubation; finished product storage and conditioning"

Modern plant-wide automation, as well as manual and automated process control solutions, will be established at the site. In addition, management information systems will be installed, and 'future-proof' systems that can be developed further will aid product volume tracking, cleaning-in-place accountability, etc.

FMA was responsible for the implementation of many aspects of Dairy Crest's 'super dairy' at Severnside -- a contract worth about £11.5m -- and it is required to complete the current job so that the Chard plant can be brought into production this summer.

Contact: FMA Process Engineering,

Tel: 01543 255152