Largest ‘smalls’ system in Europe
February 2006

The amalgamation of growers and marketing companies to form the new Jersey Royal (Potato Marketing) Company has consolidated the supply of premium produce to the consumer. Jersey Royal embarked on a strong marketing campaign to promote their unique product which is renowned for its distinct taste. The new company that was created made greater demands on the existing infrastructure and therefore as part of their redevelopment plans they invested in state of the art grading line to handle the increased volumes. According to Mike Renouard of Jersey Royal (Potato Marketing) Company, Herbert Engineering were appointed as the main supplier due to their innovative solutions, efficient project management, quality manufacturing facility and excellent pack-house experience. Rod Herbert, Managing Director of R J Herbert Engineering comments “It was essential to offer a solution that gave significant production improvements and timely payback.

One of the solutions was the unique Herbert designed automatic changing grading screens which save hours a week in labour and enables Jersey Royal to respond to market conditions quicker as well as the obvious health and safety benefits (system would take three men 20 minutes, now takes one man 2 minutes). The new line can also route selection of crop to one tonne bags, 16/25kilo bags or supermarket trays in seconds, all to different weighing machines.  Maintenance and throughput have been a hot topic on the design agenda too, some other key features include quick release roller inspection tables making cleaning and maintenance much easier and electronic variable speed conveyors and inspection rollers resulting in maximum throughput of the small crop”.

The installation and commissioning are now complete and customers have been receiving Jersey Royal Potatoes on the supermarket shelves for some time, all of which have been graded on Herbert machinery. Therefore the result of this capital investment has been improved quality of product and service for this valuable and unique brand of potatoes.

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