Saku Brewery Has Opened a New Packaging Line

19 Feb 2014 --- In Saku Brewery, a new line packaging beverages into light boxes began working in February which will raise productivity 33 times and replace the previously manually done work.

The modern packaging line manufactured in Germany packages into light and convenient cardboard boxes both bottles coming directly from the bottling line and also allows to repack the products in plastic boxes. The new line will do in 15 minutes what one packager working manually would do in one day.

"The beverage industry depends on seasonal fluctuations – in summer during the peak season the number of our employees went up by 100 people last year. This year, we will not have to look for such a large number of seasonal workers," said Margus Kastein, the Chairman of the Management Board of Saku. "We also regard it as very important that the work safety at packaging will increase. It was hard physical work and it is done by the machine now, whereas employees can be employed in other lines of work," he added.

The investment made to acquire the line was more than 1.8 million euros, and the pay-back period is nearly three years.

Two trained operators will start working on the new line and the work will be carried out in several shifts.

The best known products of Saku Brewery which will make it to shops in new light cardboard boxes are, for example, the premium-beer Saku Kuld and Somersby cider. This line also packages all of Saku's beverages in glass bottles going for export.

Within the past five years, Saku Brewery has invested 15 million euros in production and logistics. Most of it has gone to improve efficiency, working conditions, working safety and environmental protection. For example, in the past two years, the storm water system has been updated and an energy saving project is underway.