Licence to fill

29-Oct-2008 - Last updated on 16-Mar-2017 at 11:36 GMT

Tough times means more firms are outsourcing so there are more lines to load, says Will Martin

Will Martin, operations director, Framptons

I was always interested in science at school and ended up doing a chemistry degree at Bath University, which involved a year out in industry where I worked as an analytical chemist at a laboratory in Swindon. Unfortunately, I was bored to death - I just couldn't see myself doing that for the rest of my life. So I decided to go where everyone said all the glamour, excitement and money was: production. OK, so they lied, but that's what I ended up doing!

Bizarrely enough, when I went back to university and went on the Milk Round, I ended up joining a milk company [Express Dairies]! My first 'real' job was as a supervisor at Honiton Creamery - the guy that had been in the role before me was off with stress and exhaustion - so maybe that should have set the alarm bells ringing! It really was a 24/7 job. I remember one time they called me at home late at night and my landlord at the time took the call, told them to go away and put the phone down!

After that I had a series of production jobs in everything from yoghurts to party food before joining Framptons in November 1999 as factory manager. And I've been here ever since if you exclude 12 months out in New Zealand in 2001 where I managed to get a job as operations manager for the Kiwi Ice Cream Company in Auckland. It was fantastic: I'd get back from work and go surfing! However, Ian Harvey, who's the md here at Framptons, persuaded me to come back to the UK with the offer of a position as operations director within 12 months.

It's also made me the first non-Frampton to become a director of the company since 1898, so that's pretty good going.

Diversify or die

At the time I joined Framptons, it was making about 200-300t a week of pasteurised egg products for foodservice customers and manufacturers - everything from spray-dried egg powder to pasteurised liquid egg, scrambled egg and so on. Contract packing of other liquid products, which is 85% of our volumes today, is actually only something that's developed over the last 10 years. Today we're doing about 1.5M litres a week with the capacity to go up to about 2.5M.

Although the company had been thinking about diversification for some time, the trigger was a liquid egg custard we were supplying to Asda in gable-topped cartons.

At the time, Asda was buying in frozen pastry cases, pouring in our egg custard and baking them in its instore bakeries, which wasn't very efficient. Once Wal-Mart took over, this set up was scrapped and Asda started buying in frozen pre-filled tarts.

Luckily, we kept the supply deal and were able to supply the product in bulk packaging. But it did mean that we suddenly had a filling line sitting there doing nothing and had to rapidly explore contract packing opportunities!

The big break came with So Good, which approached us about contract packing soya milk, which is exceptionally microbiologically sensitive. We tried a lot of things, but ultimately we had to change our filling equipment to a Tetra Pak TR7 machine and make a number of modifications to our processes to make it work. But we were successful, and we are now So Good's sole European contract packer for chilled products.

Since then we've packed everything from goats' milk, smoothies and juice to 'bag-in-box' catering wine, which has meant buying in microbiological filtration equipment. When I joined we had two pasteurisers and one gable top filling line. Today we have five pasteurisers (one of which has a direct steam injection system that does UHT treatment), five fillers, two bag-in-box lines (one which is fully aseptic and one that's extended shelf-life) and a pouch filler. We can supply bulk recipe products in big bags as well. We also have a couple of ovens and make 300,000 omelettes a week, making us the biggest omelette manufacturer in the UK.

Times are really tough at the moment, but if anything, this has inspired more companies to look at outsourcing some or all of their manufacturing to businesses like us.

We've definitely seen a real increase in enquiries lately. For start-ups or brand-owners without any experience of food production or with low volumes, it obviously makes sense to approach a third party like us.

But there are also benefits for companies that already have manufacturing capabilities but want to launch something new and don't have the kit, or are at full capacity. Or maybe overseas companies that want to enter the UK market but don't have the volumes to set up a new factory from scratch.

It also takes some of the risk out of trying out new things. We had a company approach us that wanted to make a ready-to-drink fresh coffee in a gable-top carton for Marks & Spencer.

We were able to produce it for them on a small cost-efficient pilot plant we built ourselves that could do about 20t a week using a combination of existing tanks and new control equipment. It was eventually withdrawn, but thanks to us, the customer was able to exit at minimum cost.

I can't give you details, but one of our big customers had been looking with a competitor at a new process on a line for about six months - and eventually gave up.

We had a chat to them and came up with something that could do the job in a couple of weeks at minimal cost. If it works during the trial, then we can go away and spend the money on the proper kit to do it on an ongoing basis.

Although Framptons is still a relatively small, family-owned business - we turn over about £20M - we're not afraid to try new things. At the moment, we're working with a couple of key customers on two new filling lines - doing similar activities but not in formats we currently have. One will be a very small pilot line to give the customer market entry. The other is a big high-speed filling machine.

Capital investment

We've spent about £2.7M in the last three years on new equipment and infrastructure, and we've set ourselves ambitious environmental targets including eliminating our waste to landfill by 2010. We've also done a lot of work on water recovery and energy use, plus buying more efficient equipment.

We've just installed a drum defrosting line [for handling frozen juices] and we're spending about £2M on a new building on land recently acquired alongside the factory for further liquid filling lines next year.

A key factor in our success in my opinion has been that we are as self-sufficient as possible engineering-wise. Our filling room team leaders are actually our highest skilled engineers. They're not just responsible for engineering and plant maintenance but for operator training and quality and service standards as well, which stops the blame game between operators and engineers that you get in a lot of places.

This, linked to three years of lean manufacturing and continuous improvement team activity has shown some great results.

Typically we have seen line efficiencies routinely 15 - 20% above what we have been told to expect. We have also exceeded expectations on yields. We've actually had companies trying to sell us kit to improve yields that have come away and said we can't help you!

What I like about Framptons is how quickly we get things done compared to a larger business when you've got to go through all this rigmarole just to get anything approved.

Here, if a customer has a problem, he can call me and get it dealt with there and then. There's nothing worse than calling a company and having to talk to 10 different people who will give you 10 different answers to the same question. I try and be a one-stop shop!

INTERVIEW BY ELAINE WATSON

FACTORY FACTs

Location: Framptons, Charlton Road, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 5PD. Tel: 01749 341 000

Employees: 130 permanent staff

Output: 1.5M litres a week, with the potential to go up to 2.5M on current equipment

Turnover: c£20M

Products: Added value Lion Quality egg products (liquid egg, scrambled eggs etc), pre-cooked omelettes; contract packing of milks, soya, juices, smoothies and wine

Customers: Retail brand owners, food manufacturers and foodservice companies