Ginger Nuts go with the flow

McVitie's has invested £7.2m in a new site in Carlisle which is being used for the production of its Ginger Nut and other biscuits. As part of this move the decision was taken -- initiated by packaging supplier Sigpack Systems -- to change from the traditional roll wrap to a flow wrap system.

"Flow wrapped products generally are easier to open than roll wraps," says Sigpack's Bernard Fenner. "They also save on material costs and provide an air-tight pack which offers longer shelf-life."

Since McVitie's makes ginger biscuits for other companies, as well as Ginger Nuts, the packaging system had to be flexible enough to cope with multiple changes to primary and secondary formats.

The biscuits are baked on the ground floor of the new building but packaged on the first floor. This meant that Sigpack had to construct a 300m-long conveyor with 20-biscuit columns travelling along it. The product stream then is divided and directed into two branches; then the biscuits are placed on edge as they enter vibrating buffering channels.

Groups of Ginger Nuts are fed on edge through the flow wrapping machine, which can seal up to 140 packs a minute. Check-weighers and metal detectors scrutinise the products and reject those that are not suitable. The wrapped products then are fed through to a feeding store and to one of two top-loading robots which packs them into cartons using 13 different secondary packaging formations.

The biscuits are flow wrapped in clear film and then picked up by a feeding wheel which places the given amount into a fin fold device. Following this process, packs are grouped and moved to the multipack machine and wrapped in branded film.

"Not only does the new system integrate well with the rest of the factory but we have the added benefit of a better quality pack," says Andrew Hawley, factory general manager for McVitie's.

Almost seven million biscuits are packed every day.

Contact: Sigpack Systems,

Tel: +41 52 674 74 19