Charbonneaux-Brabant leverages white vinegar craze with a complete PET line

The challenge

Charbonneaux-Brabant, a family-owned company since the founding of Charbonneaux in Reims in 1797, is a historical player in the production of natural vinegar and cleaning products. More recently, it has moved into the packaging and distribution of alcohol-free products, solvents and chemicals. Struggling to cope with the growing demand for white vinegar, and with production sites nearly saturated and facing a potential risk of production shortages, Charbonneaux-Brabant wanted to release the pressure on capacity that it was experiencing. At the same time it wanted to continue building its network in a market where distribution costs represent a significant constraint and producing locally is a key to success.

The solution

To meet the customer’s requirements, Sidel supplied a complete PET line, engaging its experience in the edible oil and water businesses, while at the same time applying its comprehensive know-how from the home care industry. The line, which is today running at 23,000 bottles per hour with 90% efficiency, features a Sidel Matrix Combi, reducing the footprint and the operational costs. Equipped with a vacuum system on top of the filler, it is capable of sucking in acid steam to avoid corrosion developing on the blowing part. Further answering Charbonneaux-Brabant’s needs for a highly flexible production, Sidel was able to supply a cold glue labeller to efficiently manage the large number of labels; an overwrapping solution including two machines working in parallel; a continuous packer for complete wrap-around blanks running at 37.5 case/min, and a shrink-wrapper, delivering the bottles in shrink-film packs. For the end-of-line, a layer-by-layer palletiser, equipped with a reliable and safe electronic spacing infeed system, has been installed to fully respect the pack integrity.

The outcome

The new complete PET line can welcome the capacity increase needed to handle the positive projections around white vinegar sales, thus enabling Charbonneaux to deliver on its ambitious plans. “Overall, we are very satisfied with the ease of operations, reliability and flexibility offered by the solution. We enjoyed very smooth pre-contracting, project management and aftersales steps, always dealing with one single interface per phase. This allowed us to focus more on the building construction, which was happening at the same time,” explained Loïc Dionis, Industrial Director at Charbonneaux-Brabant.

"“Overall, we are very satisfied with the ease of operations, reliability and flexibility offered by the solution. I felt really confident about Sidel’s capacity to meet our expectations and deadlines and I need to say that their on-site support during and after commissioning was absolutely great.”"

Loïc Dionis

Industrial Director at Charbonneaux-Brabant

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