2 minute read - 9th November 2023
Over £10m to be invested in Northampton brewery upgrade
Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company (CMBC) is to invest more than £10m in upgrading equipment at its Northampton brewery, further increasing capacity for the production of its Snap Pack packaging and reducing its water usage.
The investments will see three significant upgrades, with all three set to go live in Q1 of 2024. A second-generation machine for packaging cans in Snap Pack is being installed, alongside a new laser can encoder and an improved can filler and seamer.
First launched in 2018, Snap Pack uses innovative glue dot technology to hold cans together, removing the need for plastic rings and making multipacks more sustainable. Snap Pack was co-developed by Carlsberg Group and KHS GmbH, an international manufacturer of filling and packaging equipment.
Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company is investing over £10m at its Northampton brewery to increase capacity and boost sustainability / Picture: CMBC
By the end of 2022, Snap Pack was used for 65% of the four- and six-can multipacks produced at the brewery. The new second-generation Snap Pack machine will allow double the number of Snap Pack multipacks to be produced, with the company aiming to fully transition by the end of 2024. By eliminating plastic rings from packaging, once fully rolled out across four- and six-can multipacks, it is estimated that Snap Pack will reduce CMBC’s plastic usage by up to 76%, compared to previous multipacks.
The replacement KHS can filler, which will be attached to a new seamer from Ferrum, and a Domino laser can coder are also being installed, bringing a number of improvements across efficiency and safety. Combined, these new machines alone will see an estimated reduction of around 10% in water usage, around 18 million litres every year – equivalent to more than seven Olympic-size swimming pools or almost 32 million pints.
CMBC has ambitious targets for making progress on a range of sustainability measures. These include halving its use of virgin fossil-based plastics by 2030 and achieving water usage efficiency of 2.0hl per hl of beer at every brewery by 2030. This investment will see CMBC make good progress against these targets, with further work set to take place across CMBC’s network in the coming years.
Paul Davies, CEO, Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company, said: “We take our responsibility as a brewer very seriously and ensuring we reduce our impact on the planet is a hugely important part of this. This major investment of more than £10m in Northampton demonstrates our clear commitments to eliminating packaging waste, reducing water waste, and improving efficiency at our breweries. By taking ambitious action now, we can deliver on our sustainability goals and enable even more of our innovative Snap Pack multipacks to make their way to consumers.”