Food Industry Case Study: Kerry Group: Kerry Foods, Manchester Site.

Expel removed all the liquid water from the compressed air lines to 1 micron, this meant that the solenoid valves were no longer failing preventing downtime.

About the customer

Kerry Group is the world’s leading taste and nutrition company, bringing technology leadership and sustainable growth to the food and beverage industries.

Part of the world-leading Kerry Group, Kerry Foods focus on Grocery Meat, Grocery Dairy, Snacking (Meat & Dairy) and Meal Solutions. Their private-label products, household-favourite brands and ready meals can be found in pretty much every supermarket in the UK and Ireland, as well as a growing number of places in Europe. Kerry Foods brands include Denny, Richmond, Cheestrings, Dairygold and Fridge Raiders. They have a presence in the home baking and hot-food-to-go markets too – having welcomed Homepride, Rollover and Oakhouse Foods into their family.

All of this makes us Kerry Foods a leading supplier of chilled and frozen food products in the UK, Ireland, and selected international markets.

Project Background

At the Kerry Foods site in Hyde, Manchester, Engineering Manager Dean Grantham who oversees the production of popular food brands like Richmond Sausages were experiencing problems with water in all 5 of the compressed air lines in the fresh food areas. Dean explained how his team were complaining that the solenoid valves at the end of the packing lines were failing on a regular basis. This was causing production downtime, unnecessary maintenance and avoidable costs.

Why did Kerry Group choose Expel?

After agreeing to trial Expel, the engineering team soon discovered that they no longer had to endure the problem of failing solenoid valves and they quickly realised the money saving, productivity boosting and reduced maintenance qualities that Expel could provide for the whole site.

The engineering team decided to make an initial purchase of 5 Expel 30 units, to put an instant stop to the prevailing water issues. However, the site is in the process of upgrading the whole fresh food area and are wanting all compressed air lines to have the best possible protection against liquid water, oil emulsion fluids and solid particulates. It is likely that the Kerry site will need a further 13 Expel 30 filters.

Additionally, the site has recently installed new ‘meat free lines’ with dryers, but because the dryers are installed so far away from the point of use, they are wanting to install larger Expel units to remove any condensation further along the lines. We believe the Expel 120 units will be the perfect solution for Kerry Group, when they become commercially available.