Investment builds for the future at manufacturing firm

A contract manufacturer and packer is “building for the future” with a significant equipment purchase which will also reduce its employees’ risk of manual handling related injury.

Grotech Production, in Goole, which develops and produces specialist bespoke powder, granule and liquid formulations for the agrochemical and general chemical industries has spent more than £110,000 on a new palletiser.

Fully automated, the palletiser replaces an operation previously done by hand, picking up packed cartons and placing them precisely on a pallet ready for stretch wrapping and subsequent shipping.

Martin Usher, Grotech’s MD, explained the palletiser is the first significant step in a series of investments the company is looking to make in new equipment and ways of working.

He said: “We want to be able to run our filling lines faster and more productively but to do that we need to automate more to enable other areas of the production process to keep up.”

The new palletiser comes on top of a £20,000 investment made by Grotech last year in other areas of new equipment also designed to bring added operational efficiencies to the business. This included a vacuum sack lifter to enable the safe movement of heavy sacks of raw material and finished product which, like the new palletiser, has tremendous health and safety benefits.

Usher added: “The palletiser takes out of the business more of the back injury related risk associated with lifting boxes, sometimes as much as 25kg in weight, and loading them on to pallets. The pallets will be loaded in a neater, more consistent fashion and we will also be able to put more weight in the boxes if the customer requires it.

“Grotech is continuing to go from strength to strength and we are busier than ever. Our ongoing investment in new equipment and processes will help ensure we are well placed to meet the needs of our customers efficiently and cost effectively.”