The first company ever to be awarded the prestigious “Quality Mark” by the Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation, HWB has always endeavoured to differentiate itself from the competition by being innovative within the bottled water market. Since its inception in 1973, the company has also constantly sought the right opportunities to diversify into the marketing and distribution of beverages other than water and, consequently, now offers a comprehensive portfolio of drinks. As well as producing the market-leading, premium brand of bottled water in the region, Nova, which spearheads its water division, HWB also produces other highly reputable brands, as well as distributing Holsten, a malt drink and Power Horse, an energy drink, throughout the KSA. These brands strongly reinforce the company’s reputation for only supplying products of the highest quality.
The new HWB plant is located at Al-Wase’e, 110 kilometres east of Riyadh, a strategic location with easy access to both the eastern and central provinces, as well as neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Al Wase’e reserve is an area of outstanding beauty where the company’s wells tap the purest and richest water in the kingdom - a highly prized commodity thanks to the clean, unpolluted nature of the environment and the resulting quality of the water. At all stages of the bottling process, the highest standards of hygiene and quality controls are applied at the HWB factory, to guarantee a product quality which conforms to national and international standards. Nicola Barusi, Sales Manager for Sidel in Saudi Arabia, says: “We have worked with HWB for the past twenty years. The company originally purchased its first Sidel blow moulder in 1997 and currently has eighteen Sidel blowing machines up and running on its sites.”
Reassurance even for a satisfied customer
However, the long working relationship, the success and high efficiency (95-96%) of the first record-breaking water line, as well as the overall satisfaction of HWB with Sidel’s experienced Field Service Engineers, who have provided the customer with local support and fast reaction times for spare parts availability, was not enough. The company still had to convince its customer that it was the right partner to install two complete PET?production lines running at a significantly high speed - an unprecedented speed “fuelled” by the local positive market trajectory recorded by Nova water.
Discussions for the new project lasted around six months, which were spent with Sidel talking the customer through various options and explaining the technicalities involved. This close cooperation reassured HWB that the innovative yet reliable solution that Sidel was suggesting would mean the lines would be able to reach the speeds required. All of this was achieved without compromising on continuous production efficiency throughout the lifetime of the equipment, product integrity and hygiene. During the installation of the lines, communication between the companies was efficient and regular, with the HWB team receiving timely and expert advice from the proactive Sidel team.
Pushing performance boundaries
The two lines were designed comprising a total of four Sidel Matrix™ Combis, six Sidel F35 labellers, two wraparounds and two Sidel palletisers, with the design allowing the two lines to utilise the same end-of-line solution. This approach has allowed HWB to gain a significant reduction in total cost of ownership (TCO), further enhanced by a drastically reduced footprint. In fact, as well as achieving the record-breaking speeds requested, both lines also had to occupy a zone of the production floor formerly used by a single line. Sidel’s team came up with a solution that maximised the available space by including a mezzanine floor to house part of each line on the upper floor.
HWB Plant Manager, Harry Nowers, comments: “Success in water beverage production requires a focus on maximum output and efficiency, with a commitment to hygiene, food safety and cost optimisation. With everything centred on Sidel as a single supplier, we continue to leverage the company’s knowledge of the entire water bottling process, from minimising waste of resources, to ensuring the bottle is durable and attractive to consumers. Through this additional investment in our high speed lines and our extensive understanding and experience of the market, we are looking to develop a Centre of Excellence for bottled water in the KSA.”
The newly launched Sidel Matrix system is Sidel’s most powerful solution to date in terms of performance, flexibility, cost savings and sustainability, all of which are attained under the most stringent conditions of hygiene.
The four Sidel Matrix Combis – the core of the installation - deliver outstanding hygiene performance while simultaneously cutting costs to package still water and carbonated beverages. Compared to standalone equipment, the Sidel Matrix Combi reduces operating costs by up to 12% depending on the product being packaged, the package itself and production output. Furthermore, it uses up to 30% less floor space, compared with traditional standalone equipment.
Equipped with the Sidel Matrix Filler SF100 FM, it ensures high filling accuracy without product loss and its external tank that holds the beverage is easy to clean, saving time. A double-speed, filling valve is also available to reduce the headspace of the bottle in order to fill greater volumes. To ensure optimum hygiene, all parts of the SF100 FM that come into contact with the beverage are manufactured in stainless steel AISI 316L.
The two recently purchased PET complete lines – in use since June 2017 to produce the company’s Nova brand of water in 330ml format - bring the number of Sidel complete PET?production lines installed for the customer up to three
