GIC & Greenvale Mark 25th Milestone At British Potato 2025
Packaging machinery manufacturer, GIC, will celebrate supplying its 25th vertical form fill and seal (VFFS) machine to the UK’s largest grower of fresh potatoes at this month’s British Potato Show.
Greenvale, which grows over 25,000 tonnes of potatoes each year, took delivery of a GIC8000 VFFS machine at its Floods Ferry site in October, where it will be used to pack fresh small potatoes at high speed in finished packs up to 1kg.
GIC, which will be on stand 230 on 19th and 20th November at the Yorkshire Event Centre, in Harrogate, first worked with Greenvale in June 2001, when the company decided to automate the packing of baby potatoes using a VFB2000 machine
The efficiency improvements that were achieved by using the GIC machinery inspired Greenvale to become the first potato supplier in the UK to automate the packing of maincrop potatoes.
The project, which saw the installation of two GIC VFB4000’s in the autumn of 2001, trebled Greenvale’s packing capabilities at its Floods Ferry site, increasing it from 15 to 45 packs per minute per machine for its 1.5kg, 2.5kg and 5kg packs.
As well as throughput, GIC’s machines enabled Greenvale to apply more detailed date coding to its packs, a previously slow, labour-intensive process.
The commissioning of Greenvale’s latest GIC machine – a GIC8000 – in October means that today the company solely uses GIC machines at its factories.
The new VFFS machine replaces an older obsolete bagger supplied by another company, which, given the significant increase in volume needed between now and Christmas, could not be relied upon.
“The GIC8000 is a high-speed constant motion servo machine that can produce finished pack widths up to 400mm at a rate of up to 110 packs per minute. Our latest version of the GIC8000 features a hinged maintenance panel, which provides easy access to the machine’s internal mechanism and drives for servicing, so it is ideally suited to Greeenvale’s requirements,” says Andy Beal, Managing Director at GIC. “We are very proud of our relationship with Greenvale, and we’re looking forward to celebrating the installation of the 25th machine to be supplied to them at British Potato. It seems very fitting indeed to be celebrating our 24-year relationship with Greenvale at one of the potato industry’s most important events.”
Adrian Dickson, Greenvale’s Engineering Manager, says that the working relationship has spanned over two decades for several reasons. “GIC machines are exceptionally well-made, reliable and easy to operate. Andy and his team back this up with fantastic customer service, which is essential to us.
“As we have recently been awarded several new contracts and will see our throughput double between now and Christmas, we needed to upgrade the line to ensure that we had the capacity and reliability needed to meet demand.”
Established in the 1970s, Greenvale supplies potatoes to the UK’s retail, foodservice, wholesale and processing sectors. The company employs a team of over 370 people at two strategically located sites, which operate 364 days a year. In addition to its own growing operation, Greenvale collaborates with over 200 UK potato growers as part of a unique vertically integrated end-to-end supply chain.
For further information about GIC and Greenvale, visit www.gic.uk.net and www.greenvale.co.uk.
