Balter Brewing Co Achieves Massive Expansion With The Help Of Fibre King.
Australia’s favourite craft beer as voted by Gabs Hottest 100 beers for 2018 and 2017, Balter Brewing Co has undergone a massive revamp of its facility for one obvious reason - people can’t get enough of their tinnies. This young company has experienced great success and rapid growth since starting in March 2016 by Queensland surfers Joel Parkinson, Josh Kerr, Mick Fanning, Bede Durbidge, Ant Macdonald, Stirling Howland, Sean Ronan, Scott Hargrave and Aaron Waters To keep up with their thirsty patrons Balter’s Currumbin based facility has undergone massive construction to transform it from being an 1100sqm facility to around 3300sqm that included raising the roof from six metres to ten. The brewery transformation has created the space necessary for a fancy new canning line and four new 30,000-litre tanks. With the help of Fibre King’s packaging equipment and integration Balter’s canning line is running like a beer drinkers dream.
Balter Brewing were faced with not only completely revamping their premises, but also drastically increasing their production whilst maintaining the personal touch that goes into every carton. They had very specific requirements in the execution of this project. The equipment needed to be functional and reliable, as well as being aesthetically pleasing as their production facility is an extremely important part of the Balter brand. Fibre King Pty Ltd having worked in breweries including Stone and Wood was awarded the project and set to work designing a canning line that was compact and highly efficient. Fibre King worked closely with the Balter team to incorporate their output requirements and the final solution had to be delivered and installed whilst maintaining a level of production through the facility. Consideration was also given to utilising some existing equipment with the ability to replace and retrofit upgrades with minimal impact on throughput. The final piece of the puzzle, a new automatic can De-palletiser is being commissioned in the final week of January 2019, enabling production to be drastically increased.
Once the project is complete, Fibre King will have supplied, installed and commissioned the following equipment into Balter’s facility; Empty Can De-palletiser, Empty Can Conveyors, Full Can Conveyors, Case Packer, Case Conveyors, Case Palletiser. Fibre King were also tasked with integrating and assisting in the run-up of the following equipment; Can Rinser, Can Coder, Can Filler, Can inspection, Cluster Packer, Case coding.
“This has been an exciting project to be a part of” says James Windsor CEO of Fibre King. “Being a customer and novice surfer myself I have enjoyed working with the Balter Team to deliver a solution that meets their production needs. It has also been a great opportunity to showcase Fibre King’s range of equipment within their popular facility. If you’re at the Gold Coast, do yourself a favour and book in a Brewery tour to see this impressive facility”. He says.
“Since the launch of Balter 3 years ago we have been faced with a rapid growth and exceeding our expectations. Along with this comes challenges to keep up with our demand. With this in mind and from our learnings we set out to build for the future and not just for the coming years. We went form 1.5million litres to 2.75million litres in our first 2 years and this was an indication to us we needed to look towards a 20million litre facility and we commenced our relationship with Fibre King Pty Ltd. It has been nothing but a success and only recently completing the project we are now on our way and capable to put a handle on the growth at a turn of a dime thanks to the workmanship and support of the Fibre King team. We are so happy with all the projects and look forward to the ongoing relationship with Fibre King.” - Aaron Waters Operations Manager of Balter Brewing.