70 | T T Richard Loader Plant upgrade improves capabilities South Pacific Meats - Malvern PRODUCTION Driven by a need to advance its processing capabilities, South Pacific Meats’ Malvern site has been undergoing a major plant upgrade since mid 2021, with the project due to reach its conclusion in April this year. Plant Manager Adam Grant says that when AFFCO took the Malvern plant over in 2010, it was processing 1000 lambs and 100 cattle a day. “We’re now processing 320 cattle and 2300 lambs on a single shift. By refining our processes and the introduction of some of our technology we significantly outgrew the site.” The plant upgrade has included doubling coolstorage capacity, adding a new beef chiller and bulk store and doubling the size of the boning room. Some new offices space amenities and consumable stores are also being built. A new load-out facility with two container docks and three truck docks has been added, enabling the Malvern plant to get significantly more product out to market. “We’ve just installed electric heat pumps to replace the coal boiler, and that’s now going through the commissioning stage. That will significantly reduce our environmental footprint, which is a step in the right direction. AFFCO as a whole is heading down that path.” Adam says a key benefit of the project is that it will deliver greater efficiencies, which will result in increased revenue for the benefit of the farmer/supplier network through the schedule. “There will also be a reduction on the reliance in third parties, for storage for example, and truck movements around the country will reduce, which will also reduce our environmental foot print. This plant has always been very short on space so by extending these areas it will give us greater flexibility to install more automation, resulting in further operational efficiencies.” While Malvern’s slaughter end of the process currently remains largely manual, automation has been introduced into a number of 03 684 9100 www.coolpak.co.nz “Coolpak Coolstores Ltd are a Proud Supplier to South Pacific Meats” Cold Chain Storage Solutions & Service, With You In Mind. T Tto page 72 the back-end processes, including automating the movement of cartons into blast freezers, sorting and palletising. “Effectively, that automates all the manual processes around picking up a 25kg box and putting it on a pallet. We’re also scoping out an ASRS (Automated Storage and Retrieval System), which will remove the use of forklifts for storage out of the process. I believe AFFCO is a leader in the meat industry when it comes to automation and technology, especially with what we’re doing here at Malvern. We’re now having a look at some automated boning room operations.”
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