When Cambridgeshire-based apple juice and cider producer Watergull Orchards wanted to upgrade their apple juice and cider making equipment to meet increasing demand, they turned to Core Equipment Ltd, the Northamptonshire based beverage equipment supplier, to help them.
Watergull supplies apple juice and cider under its own label to branches of Waitrose, Hilton Hotels and the National Trust. In addition, it supplies a wide cross section of retailers and outlets across East Anglia and the Home Counties including farm shops, delicatessens, grocers, pubs and restaurants. The company has built up a loyal following for its products, based upon a strong commitment to product quality, a wide product range and an enterprising distribution strategy.
At the beginning of 2011, Watergull's Managing Director, David Fisher, recognised that his existing production equipment would not be capable of coping with future demand. The business had simply expanded beyond the capability of the old equipment which was neither large enough nor efficient enough to cope with future business. David explains, "Our business has been growing year on year and we needed to significantly increase our production capacity. We also needed equipment that was flexible, enabling us to produce new product varieties from different fruit and vegetables".
After thoroughly researching the market, Watergull decided to purchase a Kreuzmayr KWE 3000 Washer/Elevator/Mill combined with a Kreuzmayr KEB 750 belt press. The KWE 3000 has a large fruit washing bath that benefits from an integral re-circulating water pump. The pump draws water from behind the elevator, sucking the fruit towards it. This ensures that the fruit is drawn gently onto the elevator and has the added advantage of cleaning the fruit with a tumbling action in the water stream. The fruit is further washed by a water spray bar fixed to the elevator. Watergull also decided to purchase the optional vegetable chute that enables the KWE 3000 to handle heavier-than-water vegetables such as beetroot.
The Kreuzmayr KEB 750 belt press provides Watergull with a significant step up in production capacity whilst at the same time reducing the amount of labour required. The KEB 750 can press up to 1.5 tonnes of apple pomace per hour with a 75% juice yield. This in part, is due to its 750mm wide belt which gives it a working width of 688mm. The belt speed is infinitely variable as is the mash thickness, so that the operator can set the optimum combination of the two, to produce the greatest yield for any given type of apple. The KEB 750 is also easy to use and clean with features such as a pneumatically powered protective cover activated at the flick of a switch and the Kreuzmayr “Easy-Clean” system that enables the mash deflectors to be individually removed by hand, so that there are no difficult to reach corners. Watergull also decided upon the powered belt brush option that provides an additional level of belt cleaning over and above the standard high pressure belt cleaner.
David was extremely happy with the delivery and installation of his new equipment. “Core Equipment managed the whole process very professionally” he says. Delivery came direct from the factory in Austria to reduce time and costs. "Because Kreuzmayr machines are built to such a high standard, we could be confident that everything would work as it should” explains Jonathan Chaplin, Managing Director of Core. “Our engineers were on site to ensure that the installation went without a hitch and because of the Kreuzmayr focus on quality, the installation was completed in less than 3 hours”.
