Serac eyeing value-added dairy demand for in-house blow-fill-cap tech

Serac expects to quickly penetrate the dairy industry with its new Combox H2F system by meeting demand from small to medium-sized value-added dairy product manufacturers for in-house blow-moulding, filling, capping technology.

The French packaging solutions firm unveiled its Combox line, which is designed for manufacturers with an output of around 12,000 bottles per hour, at drinktec 2013 in Munich last month.

Serac's business development director for dairy and aseptic, Roland Nicholas, and Aymeric Vague, the company's marketing manager for advanced packaging solutions, told DairyReporter.com that it developed the line with low-volume dairy product manufacturers in mind, because it enables them to blow mold bottles in-house.

"Customers start producing their own bottles when they reach roughly 10m bottles per year. Before that they actually have more interest in purchasing their bottles," said Vague.

"With the Combox system, these type of dairies can launch dairy products using their in-house blow moulding operation."

The system could also meet the needs of larger dairy processors that are looking to establish small operations in developing dairy markets, Vague added.

"Also, if you are taking about a larger dairy, big players in the industry, in some remote market when they want to start a small operation, the Combox system can be the right system," he said.