Famille Perrin is one of France’s largest and most respected wine producers. Their relationship with Sidel goes back 25 years, to when bottling speeds were 6,000 bottles per-hour. The company’s sales have grown rapidly over the past twenty years, due to the success of its wines internationally coupled with the boom in premium rosés. To keep up with continuous growth, Perrin increased its production shifts, but needed to invest in modernising its end-of-line operations with the aim of boosting capacity and productivity. In addition, it needed to gain the flexibility to handle a wide variety of bottles and formats, from half-bottles to magnums.
Perrin became the first Sidel customer to experience the Cermex FlexiPack, with their team collaborating with Sidel’s engineers to optimise its reliability and operation. Allowing fast and seamless changeovers in just a few minutes, the packer enables the easy creation of new formats directly from its user-friendly human-machine interface (HMI) which guides users step-by-step. The FlexiPack is preceded by a DiviArm solution which allows a smooth lane distribution of the bottles at the infeed, preventing any shocks which could damage the labels. For palletisation, Perrin chose a flexible robotised solution – a rarity in the wine sector. The PalVite 4000 is almost entirely controlled from the HMI, from format changeovers requiring only one manual adjustment of the case turner at the palletiser infeed, to the creation of new palletising patterns.
Sidel’s custom-made solution manages the diversity and specificity of Perrin’s formats. In an operation previously requiring up to five operators, the new automated end-of-line solution needs just two technicians, and enables outputs of 14,000 bottles per hour.
"For me, in addition to the quality of their advice, what is really essential is the support they provide before, during and after the sale. After-sales service definitely accounts for 50% of our choice, and that’s why Sidel is one of our partners."
Operations Director