Gropper making an aseptics statement

On a clear winter morning, Roland Scheuing and Günther Strutz get in a company car in Neutraubling and drive from Krones headquarters to the Swabian district of Dillingen on the Danube. They are going to visit Gropper, a large-scale dairy producing both private-label and its own brands, and a long-standing Krones customer. Scheuing and Strutz, both members in Krones’ sales and project management team, reach the plant in Bissingen after a bit more than two hours on the road. In today’s globalised world, that is not very far away at all, and that is one of the major reasons why the business relationship between the technology group and the dairy came into being in 2004: Short travel distances foster personal contacts and ensure never-failing reachability. 

Mutually supportive relationship and cutting-edge technology – a recipe for success

In late 2024, Gropper, a specialist for private-label brands, processed around 350 million litres of milk, 80 million of which came from organic farms. The dairy’s product portfolio includes not only milk, dairy drinks and coffee-based beverages but also juices and smoothies in a wide variety of flavours. Gropper currently operates 13 filling lines at its main facility in Bissingen, many of them featuring exclusively or mostly Krones technology. When it became clear some years ago that Line 1 needed to be replaced after about 15 years of reliable service, the team at Gropper started by holding a number of planning meetings and in the end opted for a PET-Asept D bottling line from Krones, in view of the wide range of products handled. To quote Roland Scheuing: “The partnership between Gropper and Krones is working well because we join forces to translate customised solutions into shopfloor reality. That’s how we integrated Krones machines into eleven of Gropper’s lines.” But soft skills are just one of the compelling advantages offered by this cooperative alliance: “Gropper must be able to rely on us and our technology in order to put its products on the market. We are fully aware of this responsibility, not least now that we’re planning a new line to be delivered very soon,” adds Roland Scheuing.

Speaking of the new line – The Gropper team had very specific expectations for it: Depending on product and container size, they wanted it to be able to fill up to 23,000 containers per hour, process mainly sensitive products in the cold chain, such as milk, dairy drinks and juices, and handle up to four varieties simultaneously. What sets this new line apart is its capability of filling containers ranging in size from 0.09 up to 1.0 litres whereas the smallest container size filled on all the other lines at Gropper is 0.2 litres. 

New Line 1 reaches Bissingen 

Now let’s pick up again where we left Roland Scheuing and Günther Strutz in the first paragraph: When they arrive on Gropper’s premises in Bissingen, they are met by Karl Klein, Gropper’s Managing Director for Production and Technology. The warm welcome reflects mutual appreciation or, as Karl Klein puts it: “The long years of cooperation with Krones have forged a relationship characterised by high reliability, mutual understanding and a shared interest in achieving continual improvement, backed by frank and honest communication. Together we analyse the experiences gained and use them to progress further optimisation.” 

The three of them then go into the production hall to watch the line in operation first-hand. Entering the hall brings back memories of the mammoth modification job: In late 2023, the old line was still running, and delivery of the new kit was imminent. To prepare for it, the existing machines had to be dismantled and removed from the hall as fast as possible to minimise downtimes. Krones’ project team handled the entire site organisation, including all job sections and peripherals involved. Günther Strutz explains: “While the old machines can in fact be dismantled within a few weeks, about two months must normally be planned for installing a line of this size.” 

This job presented quite a few challenges for the team, as the project manager recalls: “The most difficult point to manage when removing the blow-moulder, weighing as it did 25 tons, was a 90-degree bend on the way out. We moved the machine on armour-plated rollers with down-to-the-last-millimetre precision until it finally came to stand in parallel to the hall’s gate.” These armour-plated rollers have given reliable service in countless line relocation jobs and took every part of Line 1 out of the hall into a well-deserved retirement. When the hall was empty, the flooring was refurbished and some of the electrical connections were replaced. On 20 December 2023, the time had come: The first machines arrived at Gropper’s plant by heavy goods transport, were lifted off the articulated lorry by crane, put on the armour-plated rollers and slowly taken to their place in the hall. 

Schedule-compliant erection and commissioning 

The kit was brought into the hall part by part, as Günther Strutz explains: “We had to ingress the individual machine segments in exactly the sequence of their installation, that is to say in the order specified in the layout for the finished factory. In view of the valuable freight, maximised caution was imperative. We’d planned nine crane days, and despite some adverse weather conditions we were right on schedule.” The PET-Asept D system was brought in first, followed by the Variopac Pro in three parts, the twelve-ton blow-moulder, the seven-ton preform oven, a number of new mixing tanks, plus the associated peripherals. Immediately after all line components had been ingressed, the Krones fitters arranged them in the correct configuration on schedule, and followed that up with final and process-engineering tests. Commercial production, that is to say commissioning proper, started thereafter. During that phase, the Gropper team received on-the-job training.

Four-colour technology: flexible, efficient, smart 

But let’s fast forward to today. Line 1 has meanwhile been providing reliable service for over a year now. Line 4 is running just a few metres away, a four-colour filling system from Krones installed in 2007. Here, too, Gropper is planning to replace the existing line with another new four-colour aseptic line before this year is over. The new line would then operate in parallel to Line 1. Apart from a few details, both lines will be largely identical. For Gropper, a major player in its chosen sector offering an ever greater choice of drinks, four-colour technology is instrumental in substantially increasing both production capacities and flexibility. That is because it enables the company to fill four different sensitive products, such as various flavours for milk-based mixed drinks or types of juice or specialty coffee, at different flow rates in a single batch. The fact that a large-scale line like this is able to provide not only four-colour filling but also type-specific labelling and packaging into the bargain is attributable to Krones’ expertise in and continuous fine-tuning of highly intelligent machine systems. As Roland Scheuing puts it: “It’s the quintessence of engineering ingenuity. We have perfected the processes of four-colour filling, labelling and now even packaging in terms of both technology and energy efficiency. But as customers invariably have their own individual ideas, we matched the configurations of Lines 1 and 4 to meet Gropper’s specific needs.” 

But how does four-colour technology work in detail? The secret of four-colour filling is automated product distribution because it is absolutely vital to ensure that the PET bottles can be traced and correctly allocated along their entire path through the line. To start with, they are filled in the PET-Asept D system, for example with milk-based mixed drinks in the flavours chocolate, banana, vanilla and strawberry. The downstream closer fits the bottles with caps, which are coded. This code is then read by the Checkmat inspector and by the Sleevematic labeller where it serves to allocate the bottle to the correct one out of four labelling stations. Once the sleeves have been shrink-fitted onto the PET bottles, these are passed to the Variopac Pro that handles type-specific packaging of the four product variants. “There’s no doubt about it: Four-colour aseptic lines include highly specialised technology. We recommend any manufacturer considering investing in such equipment to first get comprehensive advice from Krones’ sales team. We make sure that the conditions on site are matched to suit such a line to optimum effect,” says Roland Scheuing. 

Gropper and Krones ready for more chapters in their success story  

Leaving the production hall, Karl Klein and his two visitors from Krones now go into the management’s offices in order to discuss further project details like delivery and erection of the new Line 4. “I really appreciate the Krones sales team’s invariable receptiveness to any suggestions and special wishes we may have even if that requires detours or a rethink. I’m convinced that Gropper’s success story is in part attributable to the quality of Krones’ machines and am sure Krones will continue to be an important partner for our company,” says Karl Klein in conclusion.