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Port Lincoln Tuna Processors

Port Lincoln Tuna Processors co-manufactures a wide range of canned and pouched food products for some of Australia’s leading brands.

Sited in South Australia’s tuna capital of Port Lincoln, at the Eyre Peninsula’s southern tip, the company began as a tuna processor in 1976. Gradually it diversified into non-fish products, until, today it processes baby food, liquid sauces and gravies, plus flavour bases for many well-known Australian brands in a large variety of cans and flexible pouches. The company also processes southern blue-fin tuna for the fresh export market, along with tinned salmon for Tassal.

Tasmanian-based Tassal wanted to run a promotion on its 95-gram tins. Port Lincoln Tuna Processors operations manager Larry Vallance says they needed to quickly find a Label Applicator that could do this.

PORT LINCOLN TUNA PROCESSORS

INDUSTRY:FOOD & GROCERY
APPLICATION:PROMOTIONAL LABEL ON SMALL TINS
TECHNOLOGY:LABEL PRINT & APPLY MACHINES
PRODUCT: Novexx XLS X2
Label Printing Systems

BACKGROUND

Port Lincoln Tuna Processors co-manufactures a wide range of canned and pouched food products for some of Australia’s leading brands.

Sited in South Australia’s tuna capital of Port Lincoln, at the Eyre Peninsula’s southern tip, the company began as a tuna processor in 1976. Gradually, it diversified into non-fish products; today Port Lincoln Tuna processes baby food, liquid sauces and gravies, plus flavour bases for many well-known Australian brands in a large variety of cans and flexible pouches.

The company also processes southern bluefin tuna for the fresh export market, along with tinned salmon for Tassal.

SITUATION

Tasmanian-based Tassal wanted to run a promotion on its 95-gram tins of salmon.

Port Lincoln Tuna Processors couldn’t cover the existing wrap-around label with another label, leaving the top (the opposite end to the ring pull), as the place for a promotional sticker.

The co-manufacturer needed to quickly find a Label Applicator that could do this, since none of its existing equipment was suitable for the job.

BUSINESS NEEDS

Cost-effective solution

Port Lincoln Tuna Processors does not have a big call to apply promotional labels, so the solution needed to be cost effective.

It also needed to be operational in a short period of time to meet Tassal’s wider campaign promotion timelines.

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PROCESS NEEDS

The company was looking for consistent accuracy and efficiency in the new labelling equipment.

The equipment also needed to fit onto an existing line, without disrupting or changing the production process.

The labeller also had to cope with foodmanufacturing conditions.

Solution

Port Lincoln Tuna Processors approached Matthews Intelligent Identification for a solution.

After assessing the specifications, Matthews recommended an Novexx in-line Label Applicator.

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Outcome

Matthews installed the XLS 2x onto the production line after the wrap-around labeller. Port Lincoln Tuna Processors uses this to apply a single top-label, 60mm wide, to 95g metal tins. The labels are applied to the side facing upwards on the supermarket shelf, so are easily seen by consumers.

From the time the co-manufacturer approached Matthews, they “very quickly had the applicator up and running” to help Port Lincoln meet Tassal’s timelines.

The Avery meets Port Lincoln Tuna Processors’ objectives for consistent accuracy and efficiency: it automatically adjusts to the production line’s actual speed via “automatic product speed following” (APSF). The line running the promotional labels operates at around 375 tins a minute.

The ALS also meets Port Lincoln’s need for robustness and reliability, being suited to harsh operations that need precision and reliability.

“Now we have the applicator,” Larry says, “we can use the machine for all sorts of applications.”

— Larry Vallance, operations manager, Port Lincoln Tuna Processors

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