Packhouse Automation project completed

With the help of funding from the European Agricultural fund for Rural Development Branston has completed a Potato Pack House Automation project at its site near Ilminster, Somerset.

The Project has invested in highly flexible collation, packing and robotic palletisation machinery to automate its potato packing lines. These state-of-the-art robotics and intelligent control systems will automatically pack the bags of potatoes into the different formats required to transport to customers, handling the potatoes more carefully to reduce damage and bruising. It will also optimise the palletisation of crates enabling them to safely be stacked higher thereby increasing lorry fill by 10% and reducing the carbon footprint of the transport to market.

Jonathan Taylor, general manager at the South West Site said, “ This is the start of a project to modernise the operation of our site which will improve efficiency and contribute to our sustainability goals by increasing lorry fills and therefore reducing the number of lorries required.”