From elderberry to apples: business success comes from continual investments

Over twenty years ago, Christof Schenk planted the first elderberry trees on his parents’ farm in Ufhofen, thus giving rise to the company Holderhof Produkte. Today the company employs around 100 people and produces syrups, beverages, and fruit juices at its three locations in Henau, Ufhofen, and Sulgen. It remains true to the founder’s initial vision of transforming its own high-quality, natural raw materials into special beverages without preservatives. Every year, the company markets more than 70 million bottles of over a hundred varieties of beverages and continues to launch innovative products.

SMI solutions for Holderhof Produkte

At the new fruit processing centre in Sulgen, fresh apple sauce is packaged in jars and glass bottles on a newly installed line that can fill up to 2000 jars per hour, depending on the size of the product. The increase in demand has led Holderhof to equip its production plant with extremely flexible and eco-friendly, high-tech secondary and tertiary packaging facilities which are able to quickly switch from one bottle format to another and from one type of packaging to another.

Thanks to the LWP 30 ERGON wrap-around case packer supplied by SMI, the 0.36 L / 0.72 L / 0.75 L and 1 L glass bottles are packed in wrap-around trays in a 2×3 format, the 0.25 L and 1 L glass bottles are packed in wrap-around cases in a 2×3 format and the 0.37 L jars are packed in wrap-around trays in a 3×4 format. Downstream of the packer, the APS 620 ERGON palletizer creates 800×1200 mm europallets.

LWP 30 ERGON case packer

> SMI case packer quickly adapts to the new package formats required by Holderhof Produkte and offers original and innovative packaging solutions, tailored to the logistical and marketing needs of the Swiss company. With just one machine, it is possible to create various pack configurations both in wrap-around boxes and in tray-only.

>  The wrap-around boxes made of corrugated cardboard are very resistant to shocks and are therefore, the ideal solution for preserving the integrity and quality of the products contained within them. The cardboard blank is folded and wrapped around the products simultaneously as they are grouped into the desired format, without stopping the machine, thus ensuring stability for the packages themselves.

> The wrap-around box is a great marketing tool because you can customize the graphics on the packages that grab shoppers’ attention at retail locations.

APS 620 ERGON Palletizer

> The palletizing system installed at the production facilities in Sulgen and Henau is a versatile solution that simplifies package handling, reduces changeover times, increases performance, and reduces the footprint within the production line.

> All activities related to installation, management, and maintenance of the system are easily and safely carried out by the operator.

> The product to be palletized arrives on an infeed conveyor and is ‘phased’ by a rubber conveyor; subsequently, it is brought to the picking position by means of a spacing conveyor, where the picking head picks up the single package or the set of grouped packages and deposits it onto the pallet on the ground. The cyclic repetition of this operation allows various layers of palletization to be formed.